Storm halts fixtures
Just like a number of other events, storm Ciara put paid to any action over the weekend in the Manx Petroleum sponsored Outdoor Winter Bowling League forcing the club into their first postponements of the campaign.
Saturday’s games have been re-scheduled to a date of the end of the list and will now be played on March 7; whilst Sunday’s programme has been moved just one week to February 16.
This means that a number of teams have had their season extended a little and this includes table toppers Guns for Hire who have had to wait an extra week for their showdown with second-placed Seven-Up.
In last week’s report I took a look at the leading nine players in the individual merit battle for the Derek Killey memorial trophy and with the Isle of Man bowls website now back online I can confirm that was list was correct.
At present 115 different members have competed for one team or another and sitting in tenth position in the standings is Dave Kelly (G4H) with a perfect 18 wins from 18 played, however as he has missed two games, his average from those played by his team shows him on 18.9.
Bowl Rollers occupy the next two spots, with Jamie Joughin and Lil Smith locked on the same total, with Jamie ahead because his against is lower; these two are being chased very closely for their team merit by Sylvia Kennaugh who is only one chalk behind in 14th overall.
Another player who has missed games, sits amongst the Rollers trio and that is former double merit winner Kevin Quirk (Seven-Up) who triumphed in 2003 and 2010; completing the top 15 is Bernard Thackrah (Erin Porters), whose team have six fixtures left to play.
There could be another sting in the tail of this battle with the rumour of players being missing this weekend, then as I pen this there could possibly be storm Dennis to contend with…
Entries are still open for the club championship, which will take place on Saturday, March 14 and following this on Sunday, March 22 the best versus rest event will take place along with the prize presentations.
Prior to that, on Wednesday, February 19 a charity round robin will take place, all proceeds from the afternoon will go to Cancer Research UK, Relay for Life IoM, Team Elf. This will start at 1pm and there will be cakes on sale, along with a raffle.
An entry of 34 enjoyed the midweek session held last Wednesday, with the winners in the triples section being Maureen Hamilton, Doug Allan and Mark Kelly, in second were Rosie Winckle, Tricia Bull and Caroline Corlett, with third spot going to Bernard Thackrah, Peter Kelly and Andy Sykes.
Doubles was the order of the day in the other group and sneaking home by just one chalk were Philippa Taylor and Bernie McPhee, ahead of Gill Jopson and Sue Gawne; with third position being taken by Steve Parker and Marg Tasker.