Marown B Damage South Ramsey A Title Hopes
Week Two of the Canada Life International season had Division One league leaders Peel A taking on their B Team with the lower ranked team putting in a good performance winning three games. Winning for the B team were Gordon Corrin who pulled off a stunning 21-4 win over Tommy McMeiken who is notoriously hard to beat on Peel, with David Proctor no slouch himself with a 21-6 win over Gary Smith. Robert Middleton got the third win with a close 21-18 victory over Alec Taylor. For the A team winning to single figures were Ste Kelly against Michael Kavanagh, George Gadsby beat Brian Lindsay 21-8, while new signing Dean Kinley continued his fine start to life at his new club with a 21-13 win over David Smith. The result ensured Peel A remained top.
Marown A had their second visit of the season to Onchan Park, this time taking on their B Team and coming away with a 2-8 victory to jump up a place in the table to second. Winners for the home team were Mike Kelly who beat Harry Barton 21-16, while Frank Watson had a comfortable 21-13 win over new signing Sam Clague. For the Crosby men Colin Kelly was the best winner with a 21-7 win over Mike Alexander, with the rest of the Marown wins being to double figures with Mark Kelly coming closest to picking up another point for the home team losing 17-21 to Paul Kelly.
The match of the night ended up with a strong Marown B doing plenty of damage to South Ramsey A title aspirations as they secured a 5-5 draw at Crosby with the home team winning five games, however the visitors secured the crucial two-point aggregate by six chalks (135-141). For the home team Glenn Boland beat Peter Collister 21-15, a result matched by Marown captain Darren Kerruish who held off Steven Waters. Brian Kelly managed to secure a 21-17 win over new signing Jordan Cain, while Karl Parker fought back from a 13-17 deficit to run out with a 21-17 victory over James Teare, John Gelling claimed win number five of the night with a rare league defeat for David Bradford as the former performed brilliantly to win 21-14 with Bradford trying everything, however Gelling had an answer to anything that was thrown at him. The result was well deserved by the Marown men and they could realistically be pushing for fourth place in the table at the end of the season with the squad they have.
Onchan A picked up their second win of the season coming away from the Crofts with a 3-7 win over Castletown A. The visitors only dropped 10 chalks from their three losses, with Derek Lewney beating Will Penhallurick 21-18, Aaron Richardson claimed an impressive win to the same score as he beat Peter Slinger, while Peter Oates beat Mike Thomas 21-17. For the visitors Phil Kerruish beat Town captain Ian Watson 21-8, Kevin Quirk had a tough time with Ron Williams before winning 21-19, while Neil Dunwell edged it 21-20 against Nathan Cooil.
Douglas A were in better spirits following their first win of the season at home to Port Erin as they won 8-2. Kevin Firth was the best winner for the home team with a 21-10 win over Derek Allen. For the visitors Ed Benson had a stunning 21-7 win over Shaun Seal, with Harry Minor beating Willie Cowley 21-10. The visitors are still searching for their first win of the season.
Another team still awaiting their first win of the season are North Ramsey A who came away from their visit to take on Port St Mary A who are sharing the green at Breagle Glen with Port Erin whilst they search for their new forever home following the sad loss of the green in Port St Mary after 100 years. The ‘home’ team took a 7-3 win on the night with Trevor Quayle leading the way for Port with a 21-9 win over Andrew Honour, with Robbie Cooil having to battle for his 21-18 win over Adrian Skinner who looks to have settled at North Ramsey after a stint with Onchan. For the visitors Gary Merrill was ruthless with his 21-3 win over Rod Swift, Allan Callow left Paul Skelly still searching for his first win of the season with a 21-17 victory and Steve Walmsley kept up his 100% record with a 21-13 over Jordan Drewett. Just nine chalks separated the teams in a well contested match (138-127).
In Division Two Finch Hill A slumped from top of the table to fourth following their 3-7 home loss to Castletown A with the latter leapfrogging them into third place. The Town men were good value for the victory with Willie Corkill securing a win to single figures over Mark Taylor to help his team to secure the aggregate by 24 chalks.
South Ramsey B went top thanks to their 8-2 home win over Peel C with father & son, Tony & Ben Dugdale both winning to single figures with Tony winning 21-1, son Ben winning 21-7. Winning for the visitors were Harry Kelly who secured a 21-19 victory over Chas Grills, with Jimmy Corlett the other winner for Peel with a 21-5 win over Austin Hart.
Sitting in second place on 21 points are Ballaugh A who maxed out 10-0 at home to Douglas B who scored 100 chalks on the night. For the home team Richard Hainge and Philip Quayle both won to single figures against Bob Callow and Steve Gregg respectively, with Nigel Tebay in only his second season of league bowls, having been promoted from the C Team over winter just getting over the line with a 21-20 win over Geoff Mayles, with the latter being the highest points scorer for the Villa men.
Marown C currently sit in joint fourth with Finch Hill A after a solid 3-7 away win over Onchan C with Jamie Joughin and Walter McCarthy both winning to single figures for the visitors with Jamie Clague hitting back for Onchan with a 21-7 win over Steve Cain.
In Division Three North Ramsey B came away from their visit to Douglas to take on Finch Hill B with a 4-6 victory, after securing the aggregate by 10 chalks (133-143) with the result good enough for them to stay joint top on 18 points.
Peel D, are joint top following their 8-2 home win over Port Erin B with Philip ‘Pip’ Pemberton enjoying his second full season upon his return to bowls, Pip will be looking to go two places better in the individual merit after finishing third overall last season, he won 21-9 against Ben Mowle, whilst Owen Crompton beat John Ryder 21-20. Another new bowler to the game Kevin Murray suffered a 15-21 defeat to Mark Stockham.
Noble’s B are performing well with Junior bowler Alex Hampson leading the way for the home team with a 21-5 win over James Teare, whilst William Cowley was on the wrong side of a 21-20 as he lost to Ciaran Broad, who was playing in only his third league game and held onto his 100% record. Grahem Moore having returned to Noble’s after a spell with Douglas, defeated another young player Clark Kelly 21-11.
Four junior bowlers participated in the fixture between Castletown C and South Ramsey D at the Crofts on Tuesday night with young Freddie Palmer performing well in his defeat to a new bowler Julian Rothera, while Sam Quayle recorded a good 21-14 win against Steve Kelly, with Junior Keggen turning out for his first league game playing a fellow youngster Ryan Hargraves with the latter winning 21-8.
The third division has a good mix of new bowlers, juniors and experienced players as they look to learn and improve their game.