Isle of Man County Crown Green Bowling Association

South Ramsey hosted the Manx Masters on Sunday, one of the highlights of the Manx bowls calendar with four separate competitions taking place throughout the day. Rain featured for the latter stages of the Junior competitions, with the rain being dodged for the majority of the morning.

JP Corry Junior Manx Masters

The Junior Manx Masters was played as a straight knockout 21up off a handicap of +6 for the older and more experienced players with an entry of nine players braving the early morning start, with the lower numbers allow a lower handicap to be played for the competition.

The title was won for the first time by Katie Jacobs (Douglas) with a superb display against Bailey McMullan, as Katie kept a level head throughout despite trailing in her early round games, being in a tough battle throughout the final.

The Villa Junior made the stronger start in the final, taking a 13-7 lead, then led 15-10, only for Bailey to fight back to level the game at 15-15. Katie got back in to score a double, with the Mooragh Park Junior responding with a single. Thee following end proved to be pivotal with Bailey counting for two, only for Katie to get a slice of fortune to flick off Bailey’s second closest bowl and win the end, which she capitalised on to score a two on the following end to lead 20-16.

Bailey hit back again with a two, was counting for two on the following end which would have put the score at 20-20,however a great last bowl from Katie sealed a 21-18 win.

Losing out at the semi-final stage Jacobs trailed Alex Hampson (Noble’s) 14-17, however a strong finish got Katie over the line 21-18. The other semi-final saw a good battle throughout between McMullan and Sam Quayle (Castletown), however it was the Mooragh Park Junior who edged home 21-18. With all three scores in the semi-final and final finishing to 18 it proved how little there was between all four semi-finalists.

At the quarter final stage Jacobs had her closest match of the morning, as she edge home 21-20 against Sam Colquitt (Noble’s), with the latter having led 16-9, four successive doubles saw the Douglas player edge ahead, as she went on to win. Hampson took a resounding 21-11 win over the current holder Lacey McMullan (Mooragh Park), while Bailey won 21-9 against Lillie Barrett (Marown). The biggest win of the round was secured by Quayle who beat Luis Richardson 21-7 to progress to the next round.

JP Corry Young Manx Masters

The Young Manx Masters for Primary School children was contested by eight players, twice the entry of 2024, with five boys and three girls featuring. This competition was played in a round robin format playing five ends with the last end played as a ‘power’ end with points scored counting double.

After a good morning of bowls, which included plenty of smiles from all the younger bowlers it was Cole Smart who went in to the final round of fixtures with a three point lead after six rounds of games over Bertie Moss. As luck would have it both juniors played each other in the final round of fixtures, as Cole won 8-2 in the deciding match to seal the victory in the group by 11 chalks (53), whilst Bertie can be proud of his efforts scoring a very respectable 42 chalks to finish as runner up.

The standard of play in both events was excellent and some of the bowls played would not have been out of place in the senior events due to take place in the afternoon. JP Corry Isle of Man supported the event once again, all competitors who took part received a prize.

Thanks were given to everyone who had helped throughout the morning, including those who had helped with the preparation in the lead up the event.