Defeat for merit title holder
Things went from a weekend of no surprises to one with plenty as the Manx Petroleum sponsored Outdoor Winter League Bowling Club breezed through another two days which saw the season’s first draw, winning margins ranged from one to 19 and five of the eight fixtures finished three-all on games.
Add to this a loss for last year’s merit winner, along with first defeats for others and you can imagine how difficult conditions were, particularly on Sunday in the strong wind; so just five players remain unbeaten, having competed in all their team’s games.
Saturday’s gang included sides in the bottom half of the table, two of them, Roller Bowlers and Parkers went home with 219 points apiece; not far behind were Bits n Bobs who lost by just one in their first outing and then by three. A first win may not be far away. Erin Porters, however, were the session’s lowest scorers with a tally of 206.
This was the once a year set of fixtures in which teams play the same opponents twice and could also see players drawn for two games against the same person. This was indeed the case in five of the pairings with three of them doing the double and the other two gaining revenge for losses in the first outings.
Results for Saturday, 25 October: Bits n Bobs 109 (2) Kim Hargraves, Roller Bowlers 110 (4) Sefton Dent; Parkers 112 (4) Paul Bailey, Erin Porters 107 (2) Mavis Franks; Roller Bowlers 109 (3) Shirley Whelan and Lil Smith, Bits n Bobs 106 (3) Edwina Reid; Porters 99 (3) Caroline Whitehead, Parkers 107 (3) Bernie McPhee.
The second day’s participants had strong winds to contend with and this certainly played its part. The afternoon began with two of the title contenders, Seven-Up and Bowling for Soup, battling out a fairly high scoring draw, on games as well as points.
Also in action were Mooragh Lakers and Govags, another fixture which ended level on games, but Lakers triumphed with a 10-point margin over the westerners.
Early leaders Seven-Up then notched up the highest total of the weekend, just two short of a maximum against bottom side Govags, who I am sure would have been happy scoring over 100 themselves.
The final encounter probably threw up the biggest surprise as Mooragh Lakers recorded a win over Bowling for Soup, these two remain in fourth and fifth places in the table, separated by an average of just 1.7 points.
Results for Sunday, 26 October: Mooragh Lakers 110 (3) Jenny Moore, Govags 100 (3) Allan Cromwell; Seven-Up 113 (3) Alec Taylor, Bowling for Soup 113 (3) Nigel Thomas; Bowling for Soup 104 (3) Mike Alexander and Ben Dugdale, Lakers 109 (3) Steve Parker; Govags 105 (1) Peter Kelly, Seven-Up 124 (5) Kevin Quirk.
Unfortunately the midweek session did not go ahead due to the wet conditions, but hopefully with no league fixtures planned a round robin will be held this Saturday, 1pm prompt start.