Cannons fire up

There were no major surprises in the final results over the latest weekend of play in the Manx Petroleum sponsored Outdoor Winter Bowling League with the top five sides in the table opening the gap over their rivals.

The biggest benefactors on the average points front were Castletown Cannons, they may well have lost their first fixture, but will have been pleased to take one game from opponents Seven-Up.

They followed this with a comprehensive victory over stablemates Castletown Corkers and the 115 chalks scored saw them climb above their rivals and also pushed non-playing Bowl Rollers into the bottom two.

Parkers were the fourth team competing and they began with a fives games to one success against Corkers, but then came unstuck against Seven-Up who are pushing hard to remain in contention with the four teams above them.

Results for Saturday, October 20: Castletown Cannons 82 (1), Seven-Up 122 (5); Parkers 113 (5), Castletown Corkers 90 (1); Seven-Up 123 (5), Parkers 82 (1); Castletown Corkers 84 (2), Castletown Cannons 115 (4).

Sunday’s participants were all occupying positions in the top seven in the table, two of them still unbeaten heading into this third weekend.

Opening the session were Erin Porters and Govags and they fought out a contest that was decided by the close margin of just four points in favour of the Porters.

Undefeated Louie’s Angels and A-Team then went head to head in a fixture that was probably the best so far this season, with the lowest losing players reaching 17.

The A-Team came out of top by just five points in a 120 to 115 result, but I’m sure the victors will have been more than happy to take their second victory against top-flight opposition having beaten Seven-Up the previous weekend.

Following this the two victors faced up to one another, with Porters Wayne Roberts preventing a maximum and putting last week’s newspaper headline on hold for a little while longer!

The final encounter saw Angels get back to winning ways with victory over Govags and this time it was Bryan Corner who prevented a whitewash, inflicting defeat on another of the former league merit winners.

Results for Sunday, October 21: Erin Porters 112 (4), Govags 108 (2); Louie’s Angels 115 (2), A-Team 120 (4); A-Team 118 (5), Erin Porters 98 (1); Govags 104 (1), Louie’s Angels 121 (5).

Having been in action just the one weekend, Outsiders lead the way on an average of 126, followed by Angels on 123; Mooragh Lakers 119.5; A-Team 117.8 and Seven-Up on 116. I think the battle for league honours come next March will be between this five, with the remainder battling for sixth place downwards.

Last week’s round robin session had the biggest entry to date, with 52 players being split into two groups of triples and one doubles.

Topping the yellow jack gang were Ray Watterson, Brian Lindsay and Tricia Bull, with second being taken by Ken Karran, Sue Gawne and Andy Sykes.

The other triples group had a close outcome with Derek Allen, Bernard Galka and Trevor Barker taking the honours, just one point ahead of Cliff Clague, Sefton Dent and Joy Stephens.

Finally in the doubles, Margaret Tasker and Mark Kelly teamed up to win ahead of Lil Smith and Derek Clarke.