Familiar Name at the top after Games 6 and 7.
Game 6 of the 2017 Season saw a meeting of two of the leading teams with Onchan A hosting joint top team Peel Sunset A at Onchan Park in what promised to be a very keenly contested match. At the end of the afternoons bowls it was Onchan A who ran out 5-3 winners with some close games with Peter Wallis maintaining his early season form by beating Alec Taylor to 19 and for Peel Harry Kelly beat Colin Hinds to 19. Worthy of mention is the performance of Tony Carroon who beat local favourite Mike Thomas to 12.
Elsewhere Onchan’s B Team travelled to the Villa to play Douglas B and they former made it a good day for Onchan as they came away with a 6-2 win with Tony Creer and Bob Banning being the two winners for the home side.
Douglas A travelled to Peel to play Peel Sunset C and the ‘Westerners’ gave the men from the ‘Capital’ a good test with the Douglas side eventually winning 5-3.
Ballaugh B hosted Port St Mary B with the latter getting a 5-3 away win in a match that featured an epic struggle between Bobby Clayton and Steve Franks with Steve eventually winning 21-20.
The A Team of Ballaugh travelled to the south to play Castletown A with the Castletown side taking a 6-2 win in a match that saw a close battle in which Ron Williams beat Peter Graham to 20.
Castletown B travelled to Nobles Park to play Nobles B with the team from the south winning 5-3 while Nobles A took the journey to the Mooragh Park to play North Ramsey B and it was Nobles A who came away with a 5-3 victory.
Marown welcomed South Ramsey to Crosby and played out a 4-4 draw with a close game between Keith Watterson and Chris Walsh saw Chris running out with a 21-20 win.
In the remaining two games we saw Peel Sunset B losing at home to North Ramsey A and Port St Mary A beating Finch Hill 6-2 at Port St Mary.
As we came to Game 7 there was only one team left unbeaten in the League, this being Castletown B who hosted Douglas A on a very tricky Castletown Bowling Green. After the first four games the match looked to be all over for Castletown with the Douglas side leading 4-0 but then acting Captain for Castletown for the day Juan Kermode started a comeback with a 21-9 win over Pat O’Donohue and Dave Hollingworth and Alan Phair winning this could well have finished with the Southerners remaining unbeaten. Jimmy Sansom however showed he is made of ‘stern stuff’ and remained focused to see off a spirited challenge from Dave Ali so Douglas A came away with a 5-3 win feeling very relieved with the result.
Also travelling to the South of the Island was ‘high flying’ Peel Sunset A who played Port St Mary B with the boys from the South putting on a great display to beat the Peel side 5-3. There were some good wins here for some of the Islands ‘senior bowlers’ with Archie Callister beating Harry Kelly 21-12 and Ashley Qualtrough beating Jeff Oates to 13.
Ballaugh B fought out a 4-4 draw with Nobles B while Ballaugh A travelled to Nobles Park A and had a similar 4-4 result.
Castletown A took a 7-1 victory from Douglas B at the Villa with Arthur Ashcroft being the Douglas sides only winner defeating Derek Lewney 21-17.
Onchan A hosted Peel Sunset C and achieved an 8-0 victory with Peter Dawson being the closest for Peel C going down 21-20 to Brain Woodall. Onchan B went south to play Port Erin and lost 5-3 which was quite an achievement for the Port Erin side as they were a player short.
Port St Mary A did well to get a 5-3 win from a good Peel B side who play so well on their home green.
Finch Hill hosted North Ramsey A and the lads from Ramsey managed to get a 4-4 draw while back at the Mooragh Park North Ramsey B lost 5-3 to a strong Marown team.
So after seven games have been played with see the familiar sight of Castletown A at the top of the League equal on 12 points with Onchan A and Port St Mary A just one point behind. With only two points covering the top two places we have Nobles A, Marown and Port St Mary B all close behind on ten points.