Jean Kelly Memorial Preliminary Round

The weather was not kind for the preliminary round of the Jean Kelly Memorial team handicap knock-out competition played on Wednesday 19 April.

Nobles and Castletown were both in devastating form, and won all nine games with six of them to single figures. At Nobles Marilyn Ellison put up the greatest resistance, reaching 16 against Lin Ruscoe, and at Castletown Jan Osborne reached 16 against Heike Perry while Pat Kelly almost denied the hosts a full house as she just lost out 20-21 to Anne Oates.

Mooragh Park showed that as a team things are looking up – they had a good win at Ballaugh, and would have been victorious even without their handicap. Although it was close on games, the visitors having the advantage 5-4, the fact that all their players reached double figures gave them a big points advantage.

The final preliminary round match, between two teams who will be fighting over the summer for the league title, looked tasty on paper and did not disappoint in fact as they produced a nail-biting encounter. Port St Mary won 6-3 on games with three wins to single figures, with the three winners for South Ramsey being Lyn Bolton, Elaine Moore and Jenny Moore who also won to single figures. Despite Jenny’s result and their 10 point handicap the visitors fell just 6 points short.

Going through to the next round will be Nobles, who play Mooragh Park, Port St Mary who play Castletown. Having had byes in the preliminary round Peel Sunset will now play host to Marown, while Purt le Moirrey visit Port Erin.

PRELIMINARY ROUND: BALLAUGH 162, MOORAGH PARK 218; CASTLETOWN 194, DOUGLAS 133: NOBLE’S 204, ONCHAN 119: PORT ST MARY 147, SOUTH RAMSEY 141