South Ramsey A have done it! They have won their first ever Ellan Vannin Fuels League Division One title.

It is nothing more than they deserve after a season which they dominated for the most part, although they didn’t sign off their campaign the way they would have hoped narrowly going down 6-4 away at Port St Mary A.

Port’s impressive victory was enough to ensure they secured fourth spot and hold off a fast finishing Douglas A side who turned on the style down the road as they beat Port Erin A 9-1 to finish two points adrift in fifth.

Four points for South away from home were enough to clinch victory finishing six points ahead of Marown A who ended their challenge with an 8-2 win over Douglas B to take second place.

It is hard to explain to people from outside the local bowling fraternity how impressive this win is as the sport has been so ruthlessly dominated by Onchan A and Marown A in recent memory and for anyone to break this stranglehold is a monumental achievement.

The last time neither of the old firm won the title was in 1996 when Casteltown A took top spot, and for the past fourteen years Onchan and Marown have occupied both first and second places.

South have been simply superb this season and they add this league title to the Rayner shield that they won a few weeks ago. Club stalwart John Kennish finished the season unbeaten to take the Division One Merit ensuring his side completed a clean sweep of all the major honours. Congratulations to both John and South Ramsey on the clubs finest ever season, and with the players in their ranks it would be hard to be against them doing the same next term.

Although Onchan A had to relinquish their title they finished the season in fine form beating South Ramsey B 10-0. They have been magnificent champions and will be remembered as such and if they can start their next title challenge the way they ended this one they things could be very different.

North Ramsey A defeated Nobles A 7-3 to finish in sixth spot and relegate their opponents along with Finch Hill A who had no game this week.

Ballaugh A completed an Houdini like escape as they picked up a surprise 7-3 victory over Castletown A to finish just one point above the relegation zone and ensure they kept their seat at the top table for 2017.

Overall this has been a memorable season with some brilliant bowls played, some unbelievable shock results but I have to say in the end the best team won and South Ramsey A deserve all the accolades and plaudits afforded them.

I think next year could be an even more thrilling season and I approach the winter break with bated breath in anticipation of what the 2017 season could have in store for us.

I would like to end by thanking Ellan Vannin Fuels for their sponsorship of the leagues and for forming a partnership that is helping the bowls association develop the sport on the Island.

Castletown won the Ismay Cup for a fifth time beating seven times winners Peel Sunset A 6-3 in a closely fought contest.

South Ramsey A successfully defended their Rayner Shield title with a 5-3 win over Douglas A at Castletown.

South Ramsey were always favourites to win but the draw gave the team from the Villa Marina an outside chance of causing an upset.

Douglas had to win big in the first half and realistically needed to win three of the first four games to stand a chance of overall victory.

South started strongest and at one stage it looked as if they may win all four games on the green however Douglas dug deep and the tide swung with Douglas looking like they may register their own clean sweep.

Bob Clark picked up the first win for Douglas beating David Bradford 21-17 after a really high quality entertaining match. South captain Alan Moore levelled things for his side with a superb 21-17 win over Island Captain Dave Barney Kelly. Paul Kelly put Douglas back in front as he defeated Chas Grills 21-14. Things ended all level after four games thanks to a magnificent performance from Gary Conwell who turned back the clock to put in a performance of old as he saw off the challenge of Ian Moore 21-17.

As expected South were too strong for Douglas in the second half and it wasn’t long before they had two more wins in the bag with Glynn Hargraves and John Kennish turning on the style to pick up 21-5 wins over Mark Kneen and Stuart Garret respectively. Despite battling hard Stevie Kelly was unable to hold off Peter Collister who sealed the win for his side with a 21-15 win. Keith Rise battled hard though and restored some pride for his side fighting back to beat Dave Dido Kelly 21-19.

South Ramsey well deserved their win and if they continue to put in performances like this they will almost certainly win their first ever division one title this year.

The Rayner Plate, once again kindly sponsored by Ron Williams, reached its conclusion tonight as the battle of the Southern Ports saw Port St Mary A beat Port Erin.

It was a historical night as Port St Mary A won their first piece of team silverware and they did it with a resounding 65 chalk win 172-107 (8-0).

Port Erin started the match with a twelve point advantage which was instantly reversed when Michael Collister beat Harry Minor 21-5. Next off, Juan Hargraves beat Bernie Durcan 21-15 closely followed by Trevor Quayle 21-13 against David Cain and Chris Oates winning 21-11 against Dave McCabe.

With Port St Mary leading 88-60 after the first four games Port Erin were hoping their back four could mount a comeback. It was not to be however as Robbie Cooil ran out 21-11 winner over Steve Durcan and with Port St Mary leading in the other games on the green it put the match out of reach. The remaining games saw Paul Skelly beat Seamus Whelan 21-10, Ewan Cooil won 21-10 against Stuart Gale and finally Wayne Roberts beat Peter Addison 21-16.

At the conclusion the trophy was presented by sponsor Ron Williams who thanked Peel Sunset Bowling Club for hosting the event and to Arnie Withers who refereed the match.

The IOM Merit due to be held this weekend at Peel has been moved to South Ramsey.

This is due to parking problems caused by the Peel Carnival

The mists were rolling in and foghorns were sounding as South Ramsey and Castletown met at Onchan to contest the final of the Jean Kelly Memorial team handicap competition The teams, who had finished second and third in the league last year, were off the same handicap and a close match was anticipated. The first three matches to finish were strongly in Castletown’s favour giving them an early lead of 68-32, including handicaps. South Ramsey replied with wins in the next two games, making the score at the end of the first block of five games 93-74 to Castletown. South Ramsey were not giving up, and the next game off reduced their deficit to ten points. They also won the next two games and with just one game left on the green, between Jill Quayle and Kath Kinley, they had taken a lead of 4 points, 137-133. Despite a valiant effort by Jill, Kath came through 21-12 to give Castletown the trophy for the fifth time with the final score 154-149.Congratulations go to the ladies of both teams for providing a game to match the occasion.

Association president, Rosie Winckle, thanked all those who had come to support the teams, the two teams for providing such a good match, Onchan for the use of their green and facilities. Most of all she thanked Moore Kelly for his continued support, and his friends and family for providing the wonderful buffet enjoyed by all. Moore reminded us that this was the eighteenth year the cup had been played, and in that time it had been shared around the island with nine different clubs winning. Castletown had won four times before making this their fifth victory. He then introduced his daughter-in-law, Carol Kelly, to present the two teams with their prizes.