Peel B Crowned Division Two Champions
Peel B sealed their promotion to division one for the 2020 season in style with a 9-1 away win over Finch Hill A on Monday evening with the Finch men finishing in fourth place – the same position as Peel B finished in 2018. It has been a fine season for the Peel men who will next season compete in the same league as their A Team. It has been a remarkable turnaround in fortunes for the club from 2015 when their A team were relegated from the top tier. Since then Peel have seen the return of several players along with recruiting players from other clubs and have also had a number of new bowlers take up the game to go from strength to strength.
Ballaugh A finished in second spot and should the league structure remain the same in division one next season, they will make a return to the top tier having been relegated in 2017. The Ballaugh team will need to be at their best next season as they readjust to the top league, however they have a mixture of youth with Patrick Grant, new players in Richard Hainge and Paul Cubbon, along with their ‘old guard’ who need no introduction.
At the other end of the table North Ramsey B finished rock bottom, whilst Ballaugh B made an immediate return to division three having been promoted last season.
The team that came up with Ballaugh were league winners Marown C who finished in a very respectable sixth position with captain Stephen Rundle having also led his team to the Rayner Plate pulling off the shock of the season to put in a superb performance to see off first division team Port St Mary A. After a seasons experience in division two the Crosby men should be looking to challenge the top four next season if they carry on improving as they have each season since the club introduced an extra team. Marown are also looking to introduce a fourth men’s night league team next season, with the club working hard to fund their new clubhouse, whilst their junior set up is second to none not just on the Island but in the UK with a number of visiting bowlers expressing their admiration for the work put in to introduce the next generation of players to the game.
In division three South Ramsey C won the league by a huge 28 points, however there is a good argument that four or five of the C team players should be playing for their B team next season to give their B Team the best chance possible of making an immediate return to division one. South Ramsey C finished their season with an 8-2 home win over Finch Hill B, who finish in second place after finishing second from bottom only two seasons ago to complete a remarkable turnaround.
In division one all matters were settled at the top of the table with Marown A having sealed the league the week before, they ended their season with an 8-2 home victory over Noble’s A, who avoided a whitewash to help their cause to stay up. The two Noble’s winners were Glenn Boland who beat Dean Kipling 21-8, whilst Dave Pease won 21-19 against Matthew Keggen.
Second placed South Ramsey A suffered a mini disaster with a 5-5 draw away to Castletown B after having to give a walkover to the town men which ultimately cost them the aggregate. David Bradford capped off a fine season in the league with 19 wins from 20 games played, with his only loss coming against Andy Kennish 20-21 away to Peel as far back as May, after Bradford led 20-15 and was lying game Kennish played superbly to see the game out. Bradford has had only 170 chalks scored against him throughout the season to average 8.5 chalks scored against per game, bettered only by John Kennish in 2015 who averaged 7.7 chalks against per game.
Onchan A will be glad to see the back of 2019 having suffered a disastrous end to the season losing their last three games, this time losing 2-8 at home to Port St Mary A. This didn’t stop a left handed Jordan Cain from seeing off Glenn Hargraves 21-9, whilst Kevin Quirk returned to see off Rob Cooil 21-7. For Port St Mary Dave McCabe won 21-12 against Peter Slinger, Wayne Roberts beat Matthew Quirk 21-16, Trevor Quayle beat Rob Monk 21-11, whilst Paul Skelly beat Steve Parker to the same score. Tim Williams won 21-13 against Mark Kelly and Dan McCabe edged his game 21-20 against Frank Watson.
At the bottom of the table Castletown B were too far behind the teams above them to have any chance of staying up, whilst Noble’s A taking two points off the champions Marown meant South Ramsey B would have to win 10-0 in their last match of the season. South Ramsey B postponed their match with Castletown A due to a flooded green on Monday night, with the fixture rearranged for Wednesday evening they knew only a whitewash would do, however Castletown A put paid to any faint hope of that with three wins coming from David Quayle, Dean Kinley and Sam Clague. South Ramsey claimed a 7-3 home win however it wasn’t enough, they will be playing their bowls in division two next season.