Isle of Man County Crown Green Bowling Association

The Club Team Championship was brought to a conclusion at Castletown Bowling club on Sunday afternoon with the semi-finals being played and the final being held immediately after. The format remained the same as last year with four doubles and six singles with 14 bowlers eligible to play. The four qualifiers for finals day were Marown, Port St Mary, Peel & South Ramsey.

Early on there was a good atmosphere around the green. In the first semi-final Marown were up against Port St Mary, with the Crosby outfit proving too strong for the Port team with a 66 chalk win (196-130). Port St Mary did manage to win two individual games with Rob Cooil winning his singles match 21-18 against Phil Kelly, whilst Jayne Kneen won 21-10 against Philippa Taylor. In the other semi-final South Ramsey turned Peel over by an even bigger margin winning by 78 chalks (210-132) to take their place in the final. To compound the loss Peel failed to win a single game, with Dougie Allan losing 20-21 to Fiona Kennish, with David Smith & Joyce Kelly losing to the same score in the doubles to Chas Grills & Ed Carlyle.

The final started immediately after the conclusion of the semi-final matches with Marown heavy favourites to retain the title they have won for the past two years. Marown didn’t disappoint putting in a good performance with Juan Killip storming to a 21-4 win over Alan Moore, whilst Colin Kelly beat James Teare 21-3, with Matthew Keggen getting over the line 21-17 against Sid Bolton. South Ramsey responded with two wins in the doubles with Jenny Moore & Steven Waters winning 21-7 against Walter McCarthy & John Gelling, whilst Glynn Hargraves & Austin Hart won 21-19 against Brian Kelly & Karl Parker. In the second half South Ramsey could only pick up one more win, again in the doubles with Stefan Kelly & Chas Grills winning 21-10 against Rosie Winckle & Paul Dunn. In the last game of doubles Philippa Taylor & Phil Kelly won 21-15 against Gill Dixon & Lyn Bolton, whilst the singles games resulted in comfortable wins for Paul Kelly, Dean Kipling & Neil Withers over Fiona Kennish, Ed Carlyle and Elaine Moore respectively. Marown won by a margin of 46 chalks (183-137) whilst also winning on games 7-3.

The presentation was made by Association Competition Secretary Matthew Keggen who thanked Castletown Bowling Club for being superb hosts for finals day, with the club having helpers on hand to measure throughout the day. Marown captain Paul Kelly congratulated his team for their performance, offered his commiserations to South Ramsey.