Season opens with format change
Just hours after the final trophy was decided in one section of Isle of Man bowls, the Manx Petroleum sponsored Outdoor Winter League Bowling Club rolled into action with a slightly changed format.
With the winter campaign being as popular as ever it was decided at the annual general meeting to increase the number of players in a team to seven, with games to be played as five singles and one doubles.
Seems like a good time to try something new in this column also, so we will introduce a match of the weekend scorecard and feature the results from that particular fixture, beginning with the match between Unstopabowls and Outsiders.
The action began on Saturday with last season’s second and third placed sides setting the early pace, they dropped just 12 points between them and recorded a maximum apiece in the process.
Seven-Up notched up theirs against Erin Porters, whilst Mooragh Lakers left opponents Bits n Bobs trailing on a total of just 71; both victors having earlier recorded good scores in their openers.
Results for Saturday, October 1: Mooragh Lakers 121 (5), Erin Porters 88 (1); Seven-Up 119 (5), Bits n Bobs 80 (1); Erin Porters 90 (0), Seven-Up 126 (6); Bits n Bobs 71 (0), Mooragh Lakers 126 (6).
With the extra player being introduced into each team, there were new faces in action on both days, even current champions Unstopabowls made a few changes.
However, the revised format might not be to their liking, after they lost both doubles on their way to an overall points total of 229.
First up they beat Bowl Rollers, before they took on Outsiders, who had earlier triumphed against Castletown Cannons.
In their second outing Bowl Rollers recorded the highest tally of the session with 120 points from their clash with the Cannons.
Unstopabowls and Outsiders, are two teams fancied to battle for honours and they competed in the closest outcome of the weekend, which went in favour of the champions by a margin of 13 points.
Match details being as follows: (Outsiders first) Tony Dugdale 21 Steve Waters 13, Mike Alexander 15 Kim Hargraves 21, Sid Bolton 20 Glynn Hargraves 21, Frank Watson 13 Stefan Kelly 21, George Brew 9 Alan Moore 21, Ben Dugdale and Lyn Bolton 21 Elaine Moore and Glenn Boland 15. Result: Outsiders 99 (2),Unstopabowls 112 (4).
Remaining results for Sunday, October 2: Castletown Cannons 89 (2), Outsiders 112 (4); Unstopabowls 117 (4), Bowl Rollers 94 (2); Bowl Rollers 120 (5), Castletown Cannons 95 (1).