Four teams crossed the finishing line over a very dramatic weekend in the Manx Petroleum sponsored Outdoor Winter Bowling League, as first the title destination swung one way, then it swung back, but now with a familiar third party in the reckoning.

Things began on Saturday in arctic-like conditions with current champions Unstopabowls down in third spot and having an outside chance of retaining their title to make it eight wins in the past nine years.

They sat out the opener, in which Parkers notched up their first maximum of the campaign against a Castletown Cannons side whose cause was not helped by being a player down.

Cannons did fare better in the next encounter when they took a game off the champions, who themselves only dropped two points.

This ahead of a clash in which the victors Unstopabowls inflicted the heaviest defeat of the season on Parkers and in turn kept up their own little run of being the only team to have scored over 100 points in each of their fixtures.

So with a total of 120 to add to the earlier 124, Unstopabowls took their points tally overall to 2092 with two fixtures in hand on the leading pair.

This left 273 to make up, so they needed the leaders to drop at least 21 chalks the following day to give them a mathematical chance of achieving a great comeback.

Results for Saturday, February 11: Parkers 126 (6), Castletown Cannons 72 (0); Castletown Cannons 80 (1), Unstopabowls 124 (5); Unstopabowls 120 (5), Parkers 85 (1).

In a nutshell on Sunday afternoon, Mooragh Lakers who were top and second-placed Seven-Up, struggled against Outsiders, who unfortunately for them also had a player missing, so things could have been even worse for them both.

Lakers lost for only the second time and with their lowest total, as the fourth placed outfit were well up for spoiling the party when they battled out a 92-99 scoreline.

Also in action were Seven-Up and they started with a fairly comfortable victory over Bowl Rollers, which in turn swung a 16-point deficit into an advantage of 12, both contenders with one fixture left to play as they then swapped opponents.

Looking at Outsiders versus Seven-up clash first, it couldn’t have ended much closer, when Seven-Up made that extra player count and took the spoils by a margin of just two, even though their challengers won 4-2 on games.

Match details (Outsiders first): Tony Dugdale 21, Kevin Quirk 16; Lyn Bolton 21, Peter Hughes 16; Sid Bolton 13, Alison Keggen 21; Frank Watson 21, Derek Clarke 13; Dido Kelly 21, Nigel Thomas 18; Steve Cook 6, Jordan Cain and Paula Firth 21. Outsiders 103 (4), Seven-Up 105 (2).

As you can see the card showed a score of 103 to 105, so this left Seven-Up with an advantage of 117 over Lakers who were still on the green competing against the Rollers.

They had won the first four games, were ahead in another, but trailing well behind in the sixth on a score that left them in second place.

However they took a fifth win and showed their battling qualities in the remaining game, that ended in 19-21 defeat; which in turn gave them enough points to go back to top of the table by a gap of just seven.

All this let Unstopabowls back into the reckoning, but could drop no more than 14 points themselves over their remaining four fixtures, so it is possible we will have to wait until the last day of the season to find out who will be champions.

Remaining results for Sunday, February 12: Mooragh Lakers 92 (3), Outsiders 99 (3); Seven-Up 120 (4), Bowl Rollers 86 (2); Bowl Rollers 93 (1), Mooragh Lakers 124 (5).

Some consolation for the Seven-Up captain, Jordan Cain, was that he has won the Derek Killey merit award ahead of ladies winner Jenny Moore (Mooragh Lakers) who retains the Geoff Osborn memorial trophy.

Both have finished on the same points total, a target, which could be equalled by Glynn Hargraves from Unstopabowls also, but Jordan has the lowest points against total.

The top two sides recorded a maximum apiece as they continue their quest to become champions of the Manx Petroleum sponsored Outdoor Winter Bowls League for the first time and they now head into their final weekend with a points gap between them of just 16.

The weather was on the side of the organisers once again as they managed to avoid the heavy rain, with battles for league places, beginning on Saturday with fifth and sixth on the agenda.

Parkers began the three-team session trailing Louie’s Angels by two points, but started the task to overhaul their rivals with a good total of 123 against Govags.

Next up the two challengers went head-to-head in a fixture which ended three-all on games, but with a five point advantage win for Parkers; a result that left their opponents needing a maximum score to draw level and therefore retain fifth spot.

Govags however had other ideas and battled their way to a good victory and in the process relegated Angels down to sixth and with a gap of 16 points to make up if they are to overtake Parkers.

Match details, with Angels first: Matthew Keggen 21, Peter Kelly 12; Thomas Keggen 10, Lynda Wilson 21; Ken Karran 21, Bob Berry 17; Tricia Bull 21, Doug Allan 18; Rebecca Teare 20, Mark Kelly 21; Debbie Leece and Rita Callister 15, Vicky Lloyd-West and Julie Reilly 21. Louie’s Angels 108 (3), Govags 110 (3).

Remaining results for Saturday, February 4: Govags 96 (1), Parkers 123 (5); Parkers 110 (3), Louie’s Angels 105 (3).

Another bout of heavy rain and cold conditions overnight made things underfoot a little soft on Sunday, but this didn’t deter second-placed Seven-Up who began with the season’s 12^th maximum, against a Bits n Bobs outfit who scored a total of 69.

Leaders Mooragh Lakers meanwhile fought a tough fixture against Erin Porters, one in which they dropped 12 points, so their advantage at the top was down to only eight.

The contenders then swapped opponents, but unfortunately for Bits n Bobs things didn’t go much better when they suffered another whitewash, as their opponents Lakers pushed to gain back some of that advantage.

More bad news for Bits n Bobs as a consequence of the two heavy defeats, they slipped down a position and are now precariously close to bottom side Castletown Corkers.

Lakers meanwhile had completed their outing and watched as Seven-Up, with three victories on the card, tried to keep that deficit as low as possible.

However, a loss to 16 took the points difference back up to 13, before the final two games came off with wins for Porters to 20 and 19; this meant another three chalks in favour of Lakers. Well done to Erin Porters for putting up a good fight against both sides.

I think these four results all-but take current champions Unstopabowls out of contention for the title, but bearing in mind Seven-Up and Lakers were separated by just one point in the final standings in 2016, this outcome is just too close to call.

Also taking into the mix that teams can call upon players from other teams, providing they haven’t played six games or more for any one of them – watch this space.

Results for Sunday, February 5: Erin Porters 88 (2), Mooragh Lakers 114 (4); Bits n Bobs 69 (0), Seven-Up 126 (6); Seven-Up 118 (3), Erin Porters 94 (3); Mooragh Lakers 126 (6), Bits n Bobs 64 (0).

Interestingly in the individual merit battle, the top two, Jordan Cain and Jenny Moore, played the same opponents, both winning two, with 20 against.

The midweek round robin had a gang of 31 from which Alan Phair and Bernie McPhee won the doubles ahead of Derek Clarke and David Galbraith.

Whilst in the other group, played as triples, success went to Vicky Lloyd-West, Erwin Gelling and John Lightfoot; second meanwhile was decided after a roll-up, with Derek Allen, Julie Reilly and Steve Parker snatching the spoils.

The leading three teams were in action on the one day of league fixtures over the weekend in the Manx Petroleum sponsored Outdoor Winter Bowling League and it was second placed Seven-Up who left Nobles Park the happiest.

They reduced the gap to leaders Mooragh Lakers down to just 20, with the margin being as high as 43 prior to Christmas and both with four fixtures left to play the title could be decided by mid February, the date they are due to complete their programme.

The afternoon began with Lakers dropping a crucial eight chalks in their encounter with next to bottom side Castletown Cannons, who themselves racked up a great total of 104, which included two losses on 20.

Also on the green was the first of two big clashes, with Seven-Up (second) taking on third placed Unstopabowls, a team who have been hovering close behind the top two and with a few new faces in their line-up have done well to remain in contention.

They both threw all they had into this, and things couldn’t have ended much closer as Unstopabowls won 4-2 on games, but lost out in the all-important points battle by just two.

Match details, Seven-Up first: Jordan Cain 21, Steve Waters 10; Alison Keggen 19, Alan Moore 21; Kevin Quirk 20, Glynn Hargraves 21; Nigel Thomas 21, Stefan Kelly 15; Steve Crampton 12, David Kelly 21; Paula Firth and Derek Clarke 18, Glenn Boland and Kim Hargraves 21. Seven-Up 111 (2), Unstopabowls 109 (4).

After the first set of fixtures the Lakers had increased their points margin by seven, but they had to swap opponents for the second batch, in which Seven-Up took full advantage and dropped just one chalk against Cannons.

Lakers meantime had to take on eight-time champions Unstopabowls to maintain their margin, but as expected it was the closest contest of the session, decided by one point and three-all on games.

A fairly low scoring result, which went in favour of Lakers, but maybe more so to Seven-Up, because as mentioned that leading margin has reduced dramatically and can easily be overturned in one afternoon.

Remaining results for Sunday, January 29: Mooragh Lakers 118 (5), Castletown Cannons 104 (1); Castletown Cannons 86 (1), Seven-Up 125 (5); Unstopabowls 106 (3) Mooragh Lakers 107 (3).

The leading three players in the battle for the individual merit took part in this session, all winning their two games, so no change with Jordan Cain (Seven-Up) ahead of Jenny Moore (Lakers) on a better against total, and with two games more to play than those two is Glynn Hargraves (Unstopabowls), also having dropped just three chalks.

Either side of the league fixtures, two round robins took place, and in the midweek gathering an entry of 36 was split into triples with the winners being Janet Monk, Graham Ogden, and Derek Clarke, ahead of Vicky Lloyd-West, Bernard Thackrah and Doug Allan.

Also victorious were Mike Skelly, Jacqui Elliott and Erwin Gelling, who just pipped Terry Bates, Ken Karran and Bob Coker.

Saturday had a smaller group of 23 and winning the triples were Lil Smith, James Teare and Tricia Bull, with second going to Ken Karran, David Kelly and Mark Kelly; whilst in the other gang, which was played as doubles, the victors were Alan Moore and Stefan Kelly, beating Steve Crampton and Derek Clarke into second spot.

The latest weekend of action in the Manx Petroleum sponsored Outdoor Winter Bowling League had teams from the bottom half of the table compete over two days that saw seventh placed Erin Porters come away with the largest points total.

First up they took on their southern rivals Castletown Cannons and dropped just seven chalks in a comfortable victory, they then went straight back on to the green and defeated Bits n Bobs to take their points total to 236.

The fact that Bits n Bobs were a player short for the session didn’t help their cause and they also lost out to a Cannons outfit who recorded their highest score to date, an achievement that will help them in their battle to finish above stablemates Corkers who were due to play 24 hours later.

Results for Saturday, January 21: Castletown Cannons 93 (1), Erin Porters 119 (5); Erin Porters 117 (5), Bits n Bobs 84 (1); Bits n Bobs 101 (3), Castletown Cannons 113 (3).

The cold wind of the previous day had died down on Sunday as Bowl Rollers kicked-off the session with a close six chalk victory over Govags, in a set of fixtures that took the list past the 100 mark.

Match details with Govags first: Bob Berry 21, Shirley Whelan 19; Pat Robertson 9, Gordon Corrin 21; Jeff Wilson 19, Lil Smith 21; Peter Kelly 21, Terry Bates 13; Doug Allan 21, Sylvia Kennaugh 10; Mark Kelly and Linda Wilson 8, Rosie Winckle and Shirley Corrin 21. Govags 99 (3), Bowl Rollers 105 (3).

The westerners next convincingly beat bottom team Castletown Corkers by a margin of 43 points, before Rollers re-joined the action and recorded a second victory by defeating Corkers, who fared much better of the points front and are now 25 behind the Cannons.

Remaining results for Sunday, January 22: Castletown Corkers 76 (1), Govags 119 (5); Bowl Rollers 115 (4), Castletown Corkers 103 (2).

A group of 46 attended the latest midweek round robin, which meant a very busy afternoon out on the green, with eight jacks being used.

What a battle it turned out to be in the red triples with three gangs finishing on the same total and after a roll-up the trio of Graham Ogden, Carol Kaye and Mark Kelly were the winners.

Second spot went to Mike Skelly, Jeff Wilson and Doug Allan, and just missing out in third were Bernard Thackrah, Alan Phair and Dave Faragher.

Also played as triples was the yellow group from which Derek Allen, Shirley Whelan and Derek Clarke emerged as victors, ahead of Bernie McPhee, Joy Stephens and Tricia Bull.

The third winners were Peter Karran and Mike Ware, with second place in the doubles going to Janet Monk and Vicky Lloyd-West.

It is game on after the latest weekend in the Manx Petroleum sponsored Outdoor Winter Bowling League after the top team, Mooragh Lakers had a poor session and the leader in the individual merit was beaten.

There is now a gang of three at the head of the table, each having dropped three points apiece, as they battle for the Derek Killey memorial trophy, and they are Jordan Cain (Seven-Up), Jenny Moore (Lakers) and Glynn Hargraves (Unstopabowls) who has played two games less.

All have the credentials to go on and win the main award, with Glynn having done so on three previous occasions, Jordan once in 2014 and Jenny being a double winner of the ladies merit.

Three other players are averaging above 20 and they are Alan Moore (Unstopabowls), Brian Kelly (Lakers) and Tony Dugdale (Outsiders); meanwhile in second place for the ladies individual title and with it the Geoff Osborn memorial trophy, is Lyn Bolton (Outsiders).

We will look at things in reverse order this week with the four sides competing on Sunday all being from the top six and the biggest benefactors from the group were Parkers who recorded 13 points more than they did in the equivalent sets of games, also bearing in mind they were up against the leading two.

First up they challenged Mooragh Lakers and took them to a share of the games and lost by a much closer margin of just 11, next opponents were second placed Seven-Up, and once again brought the first half deficit down, this time from 28 to 13.

Compare this to Louie’s Angels who are in danger of slipping down another position in the table, they only totalled 181 for the afternoon and now have a slender gap of just two points between themselves and Parkers, both sides with four fixtures left to play.

Seven-Up meanwhile are 31 points behind Lakers, but as these two battle it out, not far behind are Unstopabowls, the eight times winners. Looking at the averages for the three teams, Lakers are on 118.8, Seven-Up 116.8 and Unstopabowls 116.6 – making this a three-way battle for the crown.

Results for Sunday, January 15: Mooragh Lakers 114 (3), Parkers 103 (3); Seven-Up 119 (5), Louie’s Angels 84 (1); Parkers 101 (2), Seven-Up 114 (4); Louie’s Angels 97 (2), Mooragh Lakers 107 (4).

Twenty-four hours earlier things went pretty much to the formbook with two teams getting revenge for first-half defeats. Outsiders got the better of Erin Porters with a good score of 122, whilst the losers then recovered to squeeze home by a margin of just three against Bowl Rollers.

Match details with Porters first: Dave McCabe 14, Shirley Corrin 21; Jacqui Elliott 17, Sylvia Kennaugh 21; Carole Kaye 14, Rosie Winckle 21; Bernard Thackrah 21, Shirley Whelan 11; Ken Clarke 21, Terry Bates 17; Derek Allen/Chris Dent 21, Lil Smith/Gordon Corrin 14. Erin Porters 108 (3), Bowl Rollers 105 (3).

Rollers had earlier eased to victory against Bits n Bobs with a total just four short of a maximum, and finally Outsiders completed a bad afternoon for the Bits outfit, who remain just above the bottom two in the table.

Remaining results for Saturday, January 14: Outsiders 122 (4), Erin Porters 100 (2); Bowl Rollers 122 (5), Bits n Bobs 83 (1); Bits n Bobs 96 (2) Outsiders 117 (4).

An entry of 23 braved the cold conditions to take part in the midweek round robin with the winners of each group being July Reilly and Shirley Whelan in the doubles, along with the trio of Steve Parker, Carole Kaye and Mark Kelly.

Things swung back into action after the festive break over the weekend in the Manx Petroleum sponsored Outdoor Winter Bowling League and all eight outcomes had the same winners as the last time they met.

All the fixtures were repeats from earlier in the campaign and whilst Outsiders did best positional wise by moving up one place, it was Castletown Corkers who showed the biggest improvement by notching up 56 points more this time.

First up Outsiders took on Parkers who were just behind in the standings and having beat them with a 20-point advantage in their previous clash, they will have hoped for some of the same, but Parkers pushed them all way and lost out by just two chalks.

The next clash saw a 37-point margin victory for Louie’s Angels back in November, however Bowl Rollers reduced that deficit down to only nine this time around.

Rollers then reduced another margin of defeat when they played Parkers, but couldn’t prevent the victors from improving their average to consolidate fifth spot and move within touching distance of Louie’s Angels.

Outsiders completed a successful afternoon for themselves and just missed out on their first maximum, however they did enough to swap places in the table with their opponents Louie’s Angels and now have a five point margin over them.

Results for Saturday, January 7: Parkers 112 (3), Outsiders 114 (3); Louie’s Angels 109 (4), Bowl Rollers 100 (2); Rollers 97 (2), Parkers 114 (4); Outsiders 124 (5), Louie’s Angels 89 (1).

Sunday saw Govags record their best total to date, as they dropped just four chalks in defeating Castletown Cannons; this while bottom side Castletown Corkers fared much better this time out against Unstopabowls.

The southerners struggled to a score of 65 when they met previously, whereas their opponents hit a maximum, but this time they improved that total to 99 and pegged the third placed outfit down to 111.

Next up it was the Castletown derby, and although they lost, Corkers did better in this fixture also, reducing a 26-point deficit against Cannons down to three on this occasion, and in doing so took their average above the 90-point mark.

The two earlier victors then went head-to-head and things finished pretty much the same as the last time they met, which was not good news for Govags after they lost 5-1 on games to Unstopabowls.

Results for Sunday, January 8: Govags 122 (5), Castletown Cannons 97 (1); Castletown Corkers 99 (2), Unstopabowls 111 (4); Castletown Cannons 111 (4), Castletown Corkers 108 (2); Unstopabowls 122 (5), Govags 88 (1).

The first round robin of the new year attracted an entry of 33, which was split into two sets of triples and the winners were Steve Parker, Shirley Fargher and Trish Bull; along with Ken Karran, George Peach and Carol Kaye.

Just missing out and finishing in second were Vicky Lloyd-West, Voirrey Curphey and Lil Smith; and Roy Murphy, Bernie McPhee and Dougie Allan.