Angels snatch 4th spot
Louie’s Angels enjoyed the extra weekend of the Manx Petroleum sponsored Outdoor Winter Bowling League after they clawed back a 48 point deficit to clinch fourth spot in the final table by a single point.
Two of their squad also took the top two honours in the individual standings after Matthew Keggen won the Derek Killey memorial trophy, whilst Marg Tasker won the Geoff Osborn memorial trophy awarded to the best woman.
They finished one and two in the overall list, both winning the awards for a second time and with Mark Kelly (Seven-Up) completing his games some weeks back he had to wait to see what his final position would be, just missing out on top spot by four points.
Fourth position was taken by Jenny Moore (Outsiders) and making up the top six were Mike Thomas (Parkers) and Steve Parker (Mooragh Lakers); the top junior was Shannon McMullan who also played for Lakers.
Saturday’s fixtures were re-scheduled when storm Ciara hit the Island back in early February and things didn’t quite go to plan this time either after an accident on the mountain road delayed some players, resulting in a change to the order of play.
So first up it was Govags who were trying for a top six finish and Cannons who were battling near the foot of the table, the score went in favour of the westerners, but only by a margin of five from a three-all draw on games.
After the arrival of the missing players, Outsiders joined in the action and wasted no time in racking up the campaign’s 21stmaximum at the expense of Cannons, who in turn set a target of just over 240 points for their stablemates to catch up the following day.
Govags had reduced the margin to Parkers down to 96 after the first fixture, but fell one short of that target when Outsiders completed their season in great style with a result of 123-95 and secured third position along the way, leaving Govags down in seventh.
Results for Saturday, March 7: Govags 107 (3), Castletown Cannons 102 (3); Castletown Cannons 60 (0), Outsiders 126 (6); Outsiders 123 (5), Govags 95 (1).
Storm Dennis was to blame for Sunday’s re-arranged games and Louie’s Angels certainly enjoyed the slightly better weather this time around as they romped to the season’s 22nd maximum score against Mooragh Lakers who were unfortunately a player short.
Angels began the afternoon aiming to hold onto fifth spot and securing those two merit titles, but after beating Lakers by an impressive margin of 45 points were in sight of snatching fourth from their opponents.
Erin Porters and Castletown Corkers were also competing with the result going pretty much to form and with a total of 89 the Castletown outfit were confirmed as the basement side.
Lakers only dropped six points in the games played, but added to the 15 for the walkover left a glimmer of hope for Angels; Corkers meanwhile put up a great fight only to lose out on their second victory by just four chalks.
Angels meanwhile lost nine points in the opening games against Porters, followed by another eight in the final three, to leave them with a score of 109; they then had an anxious few minutes before they found out that Lakers had totalled 105, therefore the sides swapped places in the table.
Results for Sunday, March 8: Mooragh Lakers 81 (0), Louie’s Angels 126 (6); Erin Porters 111 (4), Castletown Corkers 89 (2); Louie’s Angels 109 (4), Erin Porters 90 (2); Castletown Corkers 102 (2), Mooragh Lakers 105 (4).
The seven teams in action still had more than one player in with a chance of winning their merit, with the triumphant ones being Matthew Keggen, Jenny Moore, Steve Parker, Dougie Allan (Govags), Bernard Thackrah (Porters), George Peach (Cannons) and Dave Faragher (Corkers).
The club championship will be held on Saturday with a 12 noon start and with an entry of almost 40 it will be a busy afternoon to complete the games.
Sunday, March 22 will be the prize presentations and annual Best versus Rest when the league champions Guns for Hire along with some support players will take on the remaining 11 team merit winners or representatives.
This will be a top-up fundraiser for the Relay for Life charity round robin which was rained off a few weeks ago, so there will be a raffle, along with some cakes for sale, also the chance to watch the final bowls of the winter season.
Two groups of doubles made up from an entry of 22 contested the latest midweek round robin; with the winners being Steve Parker and Bryan Corner in one gang; whilst Bernie McPhee and Peter Corlett won the other.