With South Ramsey A sitting out the Monday evening fixtures it was a good opportunity for the chasing teams to close the gap on the league leaders in the Ellan Vannin Fuel sponsored League Division One.

Marown had the pleasure of visiting Douglas A at the Villa. The home team performed magnificently to take a 7-3 win over the Crosby men,  with three of the home players holding their nerve gaining vital wins for their team in close games. Green keeper Ian Moore won 21-17, followed closely by Stuart Garrett who won 21-19. Andy Kennish also got over the line with a 21-18 victory over Mark Moorley, who was marginally in front lying two at a critical point in the game, with Kennish hitting a strike to turn the game in his favour. Neil Withers edged his game 21-18 over Keith Rise, with Mervin Sayle & Colin Kelly both winning 21-8.

Onchan A also had a tough fixture, away to Castletown A & this proved to be very much the case.  From the first four jacks Onchan stormed into a 3-1 lead, with Mike Thomas winning to single figures,  followed up by father and son Kevin & Matthew Quirk both winning comfortably. Castletown pulled a game back with Derek Lewney scraping home 21-20 over Jordan Cain, who had come back from 20-16 down to 20-20 playing a long length. Cain led a good lead to the side of the jack last end, before Lewney made sure he reached with his bowl to trail the block. This gave the home side a boost for the last four blocks, with Juan Kermode coming close, before losing out 18-21 to Adrian Skinner. Nathan Cooil took on Rob Monk in a great encounter to watch with both players trying different lengths, before Cooil settled on a shorter length to go 13-6 up. From there Monk pulled the score back to 15-16, before Cooil managed to see the game out to take a 21-16 victory. Peter Slinger took on George Peach , with Slinger getting into a great position to go 14-6 up. From there Peach dragged himself back into the game to get the score back to 18-18, before Slinger got back in to go 19-18 up. Peach then took the win by taking three singles to see the game out. Captain Ian Watson took on undefeated Rob Cowley, in doing so gave a captains innings to recover from 11-15 behind to take the win 21-16. Onchan managed to take the overall victory thanks to gaining the two bonus points for the aggregate.

Port Erin A had the short trip to take on Port St Mary A on a tricky green, with the visitors managing to take two points off the home team, thanks to David Cain & Dave McCabe winning to 18 & 19 respectively, despite having to give a game away.

Peel A were at home to South Ramsey B who will have been delighted to take two points off the home team thanks to George Brew & Tony Dugdale both winning 21-20. Peel will have been disappointed to lose out on a maximum by only two chalks.

North Ramsey A sent Douglas B back home with their tails between their legs by taking a 9-1 victory over the visitors, whilst Ballaugh A hosted Castletown B with the home side taking the victory 7-3.

Wednesday evening was played in fine weather once again, with South Ramsey A back in action having sat out the previous round of fixtures, with the trek down south of the Island to take on Port St Mary A, which hasn’t been a happy hunting ground for the Ramsey men over the past few years. The visitors put in an assured performance on a green which is in excellent condition to take a 7-3 victory over the home team with five good wins, the two aggregate points to seal a fine victory.

Marown got over the disappointment of Monday’s result to take what looked like a strong 9-1 away win over Castletown B, just missing out on the maximum by only three chalks, with Ron Williams the lone winner, however it could have been very different with two of the Marown men Phil Kelly and Paul Dunn holding their nerve to win 21-20 for the visitors.

North Ramsey A played their second home fixture of the week taking on Douglas A this time, in doing so securing a 6-4 win thanks to winning the aggregate by six chalks.

South Ramsey B made it a miserable journey home to Port Erin by winning 9-1 over their rivals, in doing putting a bit of breathing spacing between themselves and the bottom three teams.

Ballaugh A took four points off visitors Castletown A, who managed to reverse their result from Monday with a 6-4 victory. Ballaugh will have been pleased with their weeks work.

In division two this week Onchan B held on to top spot thanks to a 6-4 home win against Nobles B.
Looking at how the Nobles teams are performing I can’t help but feel that they have players in their B who should be in their A. Time will tell if this will ultimately cost them a place back in the top flight.
Marown B kept in touch at the top thanks to a 6-4 win over Port St Mary C, who will have been pleased to have taken four points off the home team.
Peel B closed the gap by a point thanks to a 7-3 away win at Finch Hill A, to now sit just three points off top spot.
At the other end of the table Douglas C are firmly rooted to the bottom of the table following a 3-7 loss at home to Port St Mary B, whilst the team closing to them, Onchan C continue to struggle with a 8-2 loss at Nobles A. The bottom two look likely to go down with Onchan C now 11 points from safety with nearly a third of the season played.

In division three Ballaugh C continued their rise to the top with a 10-0 victory over Finch Hill B, with a game in hand they can take over at the top.
Marown C and Peel C both won 6-4 thanks to home wins against Ballaugh B and South Ramsey D respectively, South Ramsey were only four chalks from a maximum with two of their players losing out 19-21 to the visiting Douglas D players. The newly formed Douglas D Team continue to impress me with their individual scores in their debut season.
Last and by no means least Peel D had a 7-3 home win over Castletown C.

Noble’s held their annual Men’s doubles competition on Sunday, with the pairing of Stuey Garrett and Ian Moore (Douglas) losing out 12-21 in the final to Jordan Cain and Kevin Quirk (Onchan).

Losing semi-finalists were Roy Murphy and Peter Karran 12-21, along with Derek Allen and Alec Taylor 15-21 to the eventual winners.

The presentation was made by club chairperson Clare Cooper, who thanked the sponsors Cu-Plas and all those who helped make a success of the competition.

The third round of fixtures were played on Easter Monday with Marown A having a free week, but perhaps being the biggest winners on the night without even playing.
Port Erin A travelled to Onchan for their second successive away fixture having lost 0-10 in their first game. They fared slightly better this time taking two points off the home team, who would have been looking to match Marown’s 10-0 home win the previous week. The winners for the visitors were David Cain & Seamus Whelan over Kevin Quirk & Mike Thomas.
South Ramsey A had a tough home fixture over Peel A who didn’t disappoint on my early season prediction that they had the players to take points off the top teams over the course of the season with Dave ‘Barney’ Kelly, Tom Kelly & captain Darren Young all picking up strong wins for the visitors to take three points back to Peel.  For the home team Stefan Kelly & John Kennish both won to single figures.
Castletown A made it three wins in a row with an 8-2 success over Douglas B with four of their players winning comfortably.
North Ramsey A hosted South Ramsey B with Gary Merrill, Geoff Porter & Adam Yates all winning to single figures on their way to a 7-3 victory over their local rivals.
Port St Mary A made the trip north to Ballaugh with the home side pleased to have taken four points off the visitors having won two games 21-19. After three games Trevor Quayle sits at the top of the individual merit standings having only conceded 13 points in total.
Douglas A took an 8-2 victory at home to Castletown B with two of the visiting players losing out 18-21.

In the second division Port Erin B were shock winners 7-3 over Marown B, who will be hoping to go up to the top tier following their heartbreak last season.
Noble’s A hosted Onchan B with the result ending in a ‘true draw’,  the games being 4-4 and the chalks also being tied on 142 to take home an aggregate point each.
Peel B used all their home green advantage to obtain an 8-2 win over Port St Mary B who had two players losing out 18-21.
Douglas C were well beaten 1-9 on their own green by visitors Noble’s B with Keith Fearnley being the lone winner for the home team and two more of their players just making double figures.
Onchan C made the journey north along the Coast road to play North Ramsey B at the Mooragh with the visitors taking three points off the home team and losing out on the aggregate by six chalks.

In the third division it was very much a case of advantage to the home teams with Ballaugh B having won 8-2 over visitors Douglas D who had two of their new players John Ferguson and Lee Butterworth managing to reach the magical 21 point mark, whilst Greg Brew had to suffer a 20-21 loss to miss out on his first individual win.
Peel C and Marown C carried on the run of home 8-2 wins over South Ramsey D and Peel D respectively.
South Ramsey C were somewhat fortunate to win 5-3 on games, but lost out on the aggregate due to two heavy defeats, with the visitors Ballaugh C disappointed not to have taken one or two more individual wins having lost two games to 20-21 and a further game 18-21.
Noble’s C and Castletown C had an unusual 6-3 score line in favour of the home team, due to both teams being in the unusual position of only being able to field seven players.