Marown Lead The Way
Division One of the Ellan Vannin Fuels league is starting to take shape and Marown A and South Ramsey A are making the early running to give themselves some breathing space at the top.
Marown lead the way, six points ahead of South having played a game more, but will be disappointed to have only won 8-2 at home against Noble A last week. They sit out on Monday and will be expecting South to pass them the only question to be answered is by how much, before they travel to Douglas B on Friday evening?
South won 9-1 away at Ballaugh A last week and with a home fixture against Finch Hill A would expect to hit the top on Monday night. They have a tough midweek home fixture against Port St Mary A so it will be interesting to see how the land lies going into next week.
Onchan A are eight points off the top on the same number of games as Marown after negotiating too extremely tricky fixtures last week. They defeated Douglas A 6-4 at the park on Monday after drawing on games before travelling to Port St Mary A where they lost 5-3 on games but took the aggregate points to secure a 5-5 overall draw.
The champions, Onchan, are not down and out but they need to start winning big if they want to start closing on their rivals and they need to start doing it now as they cant afford the gap to widen if they are to fulfil their title ambitions.
Port St Mary A are now in fourth after their strong showing against the champions backed up a battling 7-3 away win against Douglas B at the Villa Marina on Monday.
Douglas B have started well and are still one point ahead of their A team, having played a game more, and they will be hoping this is still the case after they face off in the Douglas derby this week.
High flying South Ramsey B suffered a rare home defeat in the local derby against North Ramsey A after the match tied on games with North doing enough to snatch the aggregate points and overall win.
Port Erin A beat Finch Hill A 6-4 away from home in the final fixture of the division after tying on games but winning on points.
This defeat leaves Finch third from bottom after a promising start and in an early battle with Ballaugh A and basement team Nobles A to remain in the top flight next season.
Peel A are back at the summit of Division 2 after a solid 8-2 win over Marown B followed up by a 9-1 win in the rearranged fixture against the Sunset City C team.
Onchan B remain in second place after winning 7-3 away at Nobles B, however they now find themselves six points adrift of the Govags and will need to start closing the gap soon if they want their hands on the silverware come the end of the season.
Castletown B kept their own bid for the title on track with their own 7-3 victory over Onchan C.
Port St Mary B are now in fourth place and closing in on the teams above them after a brilliant 10-0 maximum over Ballaugh B.
Douglas C find themselves back on top of Division Three after a strong 8-2 win away at Ballaugh C. They are on the same points as Port Erin B, who won 6-4 at home against Nobles C, with a game in hand.