Isle of Man County Crown Green Bowling Association

A healthy entry of 26 junior bowlers from all over the Island entered the Junior Manx Championship at Noble’s Bowling Club on Sunday. There was a good crowd in attendance on a hot day, with the winner of the competition having to win five games to claim the title. With several of the older Junior Bowlers now ineligible to enter, it was guaranteed to be a new winner this year.

This year, going against recent years it was more boys than girls through to the latter stages, as six boys made it through to the quarter finals and two girls, with some great bowls played by all the Junior bowlers.

Losing out at the quarter final stage were Katie Jacobs (Douglas), who just lost 18-21 to Alex Colquitt (Noble’s), home greener Alex Hampson was beaten 17-21 by Clark Kelly (Douglas), Grace Gawne (Noble’s) ended the hopes of Dylan Marsh (Castletown) 21-11, whilst Castletown’s Sam Quayle came through 21-14 against Sam Colquitt (Noble’s).

In the semi-finals Grace kept up her good form as she ended the challenge of Sam, who had performed well all day, displaying great composure only to lose out 14-21. The other semi-final was between Alex and Clark, with the latter at one point looking favourite to progress to the final leading 15-10 only for Alex to work his way back into the game, and to see the game out with a 21-19 win to book his place in the final.

In the final Grace who suffered heartache last year in the final looked nailed on to win only to eventually lose out 21-18 she took the early initiative, taking the lead 4-0 after just three ends, only for Alex to settle into the game well to lead 5-4.

Grace responded to win seven of the next 10 ends scoring five doubles’, conceding just three singles to build up a commanding 16-8 lead – coincidentally the same score she led last year. Despite losing three consecutive singles Grace rallied once more to close the game out in style with a single, a two, then two further singles, beating a good first bowl from Alex on the final end to claim her first Junior title with a 21-11 victory.

The presentation was made by Association Press Officer Glynn Hargraves, who thanked Noble’s Bowling Club for hosting, Wayne Roberts for running the competition. Glynn went on to say how good the standard of bowls was along with how well all the Juniors had behaved. Grace was then presented with the Shield.

Both Grace and Alex will represent the Isle of Man at the UK Junior Individual Merit on Saturday 19^th August at Essington Bowling Club in Staffordshire.