No surprises over final weekend
There were no surprises over the delayed final weekend of fixtures in the Manx Petroleum sponsored Outdoor Winter Bowling League and with the title already decided, the positions behind also remained unchanged.
First into the action were third placed Outsiders and they stormed to the 27th maximum win of the season at the expense of southern outfit Castletown Cannons.
They had begun the day 30 points ahead of Seven-Up, who had to match their rivals in the next encounter to keep alive any slender hope of catching them in the table.
Cannons were not giving up without a fight however and managed to take two games and 13 chalks off Seven-Up, which left Outsiders almost home and dry.
Well not exactly, as the persistent rain was making the playing surface extremely wet, as the two of them went head to head in a fixture that saw Outsiders hold off their rivals and maintain third spot.
Seven-Up in turn finished fourth, 22 points clear off Louie’s Angels, whilst waiting to compete the following day were outgoing champions Mooragh Lakers. They needed to score 180 points to finish as runners-up.
Results for Saturday, March 10: Outsiders 126 (6), Castletown Cannons 79 (0); Castletown Cannons 88 (2), Seven-Up 113 (4); Seven-Up 101 (2), Outsiders 109 (4).
There were some big questions to be answered going into Sunday, one of which, could Bits n Bobs break their losing sequence as they were sitting on played 20, lost 20, but sadly they showed up short of a player to make their task even more difficult.
Also who was finally going to win the women’s merit trophy, with the leading two – Janet Monk and Jenny Moore – going into the afternoon separated by just one point.
Lakers against Govags was first on the schedule with the westerners putting up a good fight to reach the 100 point mark and their two highest losers being the pair that played Monk and Moore – so the battle still went on.
Bits n Bobs then joined the action, but could not prevent another loss, as opponents Govags went close to their first maximum of the campaign.
The final fixture of the 2017-18 season, still had some important issues to settle, when Lakers went up against Bits n Bobs, sadly however the basement side could not manage that elusive victory.
Even though the losers took one game, it did not change the outcome of the women’s merit, after both contenders won to leave Janet as the overall winner just ahead of Jenny, who held this title for the previous three years.
Incidentally Lakers completed their campaign as runners-up and some 60 chalks ahead of Outsiders, also with an average of 171.4, which was better than last year’s winning tally.
This just went to show what a great season, champions Jacks Off have had, setting records along the way.
Results for Sunday, March 11: Mooragh Lakers 118 (5), Govags 100 (1); Govags 122 (5), Bits n Bobs 62 (1); Bits n Bobs 77 (1), Mooragh Lakers 121 (5).
A relatively small group of 28 attended the midweek round robin and the afternoon had two groups of doubles compete for honours.
The black jacks saw four pairs finish with only two points between them; Allan Kennaugh and Maureen Payne winning, ahead of Derek Cadamy and Derek Allen.
Whilst in the other gang there were three points dividing the top three, which had Alan Phair and Janet Monk at the top, with Steve Parker and Rita Callister in second.
This Saturday will see the club championship taking place, with the prize presentations and best versus the rest challenge the following Sunday, March 25.