Sunday saw a quality field of 29 pairs of all ages entered for the R.H. Green Trophy at Finch Hill and they were blessed with a sunny albeit windy day and a very good green.

A number of Island players were entered including last year’s winning pairing of Paul Dunn and Neil Withers who dominated their first round opponents Karl Parker and Dan Smith. John Kennish who has previously won the competition on more than one occasion has been coaching Zain Abideen from Finch Hill at both bowls and snooker recently and paired with him for this competition they would eventually have a run all the way to the quarter finals.  

Paul Skelly and Dan McCabe had a good 21-10 win over Kevin Firth and Dave Pease as did Harry Barton and Steve Gregg as they cruised to a 21-8 win over Mark Kneen and Ian Moore. Glynn Hargraves and Jordan Cain looked to be heading for an easy win after winning eight of the first nine ends but it took another seven ends before they got over the line with a 21-15 win over Tony Hart and Lee Dawson. The home grudge match of John Harris and Frank Christian against Paddy Murphy and Dave McCabe proved to be a “no match” as Murphy and McCabe whitewashed their opponents and would eventually make it all the way to the quarter finals. Andy Kennish and Frank Watson were made to work hard as they overcame Jimmy Sansom and Paul Cowley but better things were to come for the winning pair. Steven Waters and Stefan Kelly completed the first round with a 21-14 win against Cliff Clague and Alan Phair.

Paul Dunn and Neil Withers got the second round underway and with some steady scoring overcame Jordan Cain and Glynn Hargraves 21-16. Paul Skelly and Dan McCabe ran out 21-17 winners over Peter Greenlees and Brian Lindsay. One of the closest matches of the day saw Eddie Carlyle and James Teare just edge out Dave Naughton and Steve Hampson 21-20. After a slow start John Kennish and Zain Abideen came back to win against Nathan Hamilton and Tom Kelly while Austin Hart and Alan Moore had a much easier match against George Brew and Brian Corner. Home team of Paddy Murphy and Dave McCabe continued their good form with a 21-14 win over Steve Rundle and Walter McCarthy. Andy Kennish and Frank Watson eased past Harry Barton and Steve Gregg 21-13 while home favourites Peter Hughes and Toni Epifani had no answer to the relentless scoring of Steven Waters and Stefan Kelly going down 21-11.

Amazingly, there were no really close matches in the quarter finals as Paul Dunn and Neil Withers beat Austin Hart and Alan Moore 21-14 and Steven Waters and Stefan Kelly got the better of John Kennish and Zain Abideen with a 21-11 win to complete the top half of the draw. The Finch Hill pairing of Paddy Murphy and Dave McCabe could not match the steady scoring of Paul Skelly and Dan McCabe as the latter won 21-14. The last quarter final saw Andy Kennish and Frank Watson come from 6-9 down to win 21-9 in just 6 ends, including a four pointer.

The semi-finals started with Paul Dunn and Neil Withers taking on Steven Waters and Stefan Kelly and this proved to be one of the closest matches of the day. Dunn and Withers went into a 12-6 lead but Waters and Kelly came back to win the next five ends and with the help of two four pointers  were leading 19-12 but the opposition fought back to level at 20-20 only to see Waters and Kelly edge the match with a single point on the final end. Andy Kennish and Frank Watson had a slightly easier match, thanks to a couple of four pointers, as they ran out winners 21-15 against Paul Skelly and Dan McCabe.

The final was the second longest match of the day running to 20 ends and kept everyone enthralled to the very end. Steven Waters and Stefan Kelly just edged the first 10 ends to lead 13-11 and after 14 ends were leading 19-13 but Andy Kennish and Frank Watson fought back and with the help of a four pointer levelled the match at 20-20 after 19 ends. The last few ends produced some of the best bowls of the day particularly over the longer lengths being played and the match could have gone either way but in that final end it was Steven Waters and Stefan Kelly who got the final single point they needed to take the win 21-20.

The prize presentation was made by Ken Kinrade, Competition Secretary for Finch Hill with the losing semi-finalists receiving £20 Newsbeat vouchers, the Runners Up receiving £50 Newsbeat vouchers and the winners £100 Newsbeat vouchers and the R.H. Green Cup.

Special thanks go to our generous sponsors Newsbeat, to our wonderful ladies for keeping everyone fed and watered throughout the afternoon and to all those stewards, measurers and markers who helped make this a very successful competition.

Peel Sunset Bowling club hosted the second men’s singles open competition of the 2020 season, attracting a good entry of 67 men for the ever popular Peel Town Cup. The condition of the green appears to heading in the right direction, with the surface being a lot smoother than last year.

With handicaps ranging from +3 to +9 it certainly made for an interesting day with some shock results. Continuing the trend of the previous week, a number of favourites lost out in the early rounds.

Losing out at the quarter-final stage were Glynn Hargraves (South Ramsey), who was comfortably beaten 13-21 by home greener Dougie Allan, Mick Kavanagh (Peel) had his run ended by Neil Withers (Marown) 16-21, whilst Karl Parker (Marown) reached 17 before losing out to Tom Kelly (Peel). South Ramsey’s Stefan Kelly also battled well before losing out 17-21 to club mate Lee Dawson, who knows the Peel green well having played for Peel back in the 90’s.

In the semi-finals Withers ended the run of Dawson with a comfortable 21-15 win to take his place in the final whilst Tom Kelly got over the line 21-17 against club mate Dougie Allan.

The final was both players sixth game of the day, with Withers (+3) making his second final appearance in a week, however it was home greener Kelly (+4) who started well, taking five of the first seven ends to take a 10-5 lead, Withers responded to turn the game around at 14-12 over the next nine ends. Kelly dug deep to take control taking three doubles and three singles over the next nine ends, whilst keeping Withers down to three singles, Kelly ran out with a deserved 21-17 victory to claim his first Peel Town Cup and second open win in the space of a year.

At the conclusion of play the presentation was made by competition secretary Dave ‘Barney’ Kelly, who thanked the sponsors IOM Seafoods for their support, the greenkeeper for the improvement in the green, everyone who had entered and the club members for assisting throughout the day. With over £500 paid out in prize money the winner was presented with the trophy and £180 first prize.

Marown favourite Colin Kelly put the icing on the cake of a great season on Saturday winning the Champion of Champions at the Waterloo Hotel in Blackpool to write his name into Manx and UK bowls history.

This season Kelly has won five singles titles, the Manx Championship, Association Cup, Manx Masters, Peel Town Cup and the opening competition of the season the Marown Floodlit, not forgetting winning the individual merit in division one.

Kelly was representing the Isle of Man and qualified for the Champion of Champions courtesy of his Manx Championship win in May when he defeated Onchan man Jordan Cain in the final 21-11. He was in the mix with 15 other County Merit winners, whilst the rest of the field was made up by those who had won some of the games biggest competitions that are played throughout the season or through winning the Junior or Senior BCGBA merit.

At the start of play in a field of 32 players Kelly was priced at 40-1 by the bookies and was by no means the favourite with some of the games biggest names taking part in Callum Wraight, Graeme Wilson, Ryan Prosser and John Bailey to name a few.

In the first round Colin was drawn against Lancashire merit winner Damian Morrison and managed to build up a comfortable lead early on playing a fairly long straight peg around the crown. Kelly led 13-3 and managed to maintain his lead after Morrison started to work his way back into the game before Kelly finished the game off to win 21-13.

In the second round Kelly faced the Greater Manchester Merit winner Jack Hargreaves, who had disposed of Craig Gant, a player well known on the Island. Kelly went for a longer length mark in this game, with Hargreaves preferring to play the edges and short round pegs and playing them really well. Kelly led well on the longer marks in difficult conditions. Kelly battled well to take a hard earned 21-17 victory.

In the quarter finals Kelly was up against South Yorkshire merit winner James Higgins with Kelly trailing 6-13, Higgins was leading well over 35 yards playing sweeping round pegs across the crown. Once again this forced Kelly to go for a longer length and in doing so not giving his opponent much room with Higgins generally short or pushing too far through as the heavy rain started in the latter stages. Higgins had previously put out the 2018 winner John Bailey with a convincing win, however Kelly claimed a 21-19 win to progress.

With Kelly having reached the semi-finals he had now matched the best performance by a Manxman achieved by John Kennish in 2015. This time he was up against the Shropshire Merit winner Spencer Clarke, who was in truth the best player on the green up until this point having taken three good scalps to reach the semi-finals including a 21-6 win over 2019 BCGBA Senior merit winner Ryan Prosser. With conditions worsening the green started to puddle and ‘cobbing’ was required to be able to reach, which is an art in itself in being able to control your bowls. Kelly took full advantage of the conditions to take a 21-11 win with the result more comfortable than expected.

Having reached the final Kelly was not letting a once in a lifetime opportunity pass him by and was simply brilliant. Kelly was up against Scott Simpson (Wrockwardine Wood winner) who had earlier in the day disposed of one of the games greatest ever players in Graeme Wilson, therefore Kelly knew he what he was up against and recognised that Simpson had no trouble reaching the longer marks, the game plan changed to shorter marks over the crown which he executed brilliantly to take a 8-3 lead, building on this further still to lead 16-7. Kelly then conceded his only double of the game before responding with two quick fire doubles to lead 20-9 with his ability to make two making a big difference having scored seven doubles throughout the game. Simpson then scored a single, only to throw the jack off when heading into the corner. Kelly set the mark and made his first bowl count forcing Simpson to reach with his second bowl, however he missed resulting in Kelly taking a superb 21-10 victory to claim a first ever win for a Manxman in the games biggest competition.

This is a popular win amongst the bowling community with Colin putting the time in for a number of years now to give something back to the game having become involved in the Manx Youth Games as a coach in 2013, whilst also coaching Juniors on a weekly basis at his club. In addition to this Colin also helps with the maintenance of the Marown bowling green and you couldn’t meet a nicer guy, who has now fulfilled a lifelong dream of winning a top UK competition. All that is left to say is what a bowler, what a season, what a man!

The Isle of Man Ladies Crown Green Bowling Association ran a Tombola over the summer season, raising funds to help assist with travel and accommodation for IOM Ladies players attending qualifying competitions in England.  

The Association agreed to donate one third of the amount raised towards Huntington’s Disease (IOM), a support group and charity that was started in 2017 by Helen Martin, a crown green bowler who has been bowling for 38 years on the Island. This charity is very close to her heart, as her husband has Huntington’s, he also used to play crown green bowls. 

All the clubs on the Island were given Tombola tickets to sell plus more were sold during the IOM September Bowls Festival. The amount raised was a massive £2,037.95, with £700 being donated to HDAIOM. 

The Ladies Association would like to thank all those who sold tickets, along with the companies, individuals and clubs who donated raffle prizes and to everyone who bought tickets to support them. Helen Martin, Chairman of Huntington’s Disease (IOM) stated “Thank you to the Ladies Association for choosing our Charity, this amount will help us to meet our objectives of raising awareness, continue to provide a support group for patients, carers and professionals resident on the Island, along with providing financial assistance to patients and carers to enable them to attend seminars, workshops and other educational events organised by the HDA UK and finally to promote research into finding a cure”.