Port St Mary Show Why They Are Champions
Following a busy week of bowls for the June Festival the night league returned. The superb weather the island has been treated to over the last couple of weeks has made most of the greens fast and very tricky.
Kicking things off is the top 3 clash of Port St Mary vs Nobles. Second place South Ramsey sat out from this round of matches but were keeping a close eye on the match to see who would be top going into the final matches of the first half of the season. The Port St Mary green was running very fast with the home ladies using their home advantage to great effect to inflict Nobles biggest defeat since 2011.
Ann Maddrell and Trish Bull got Port St Mary off to a flying start both winning 21-2. Katy Williams and Val Macfarlane followed this up winning 21-12 and 21-16 respectively. Alison Keggen got Nobles on the board with a 21-11 victory. In the second half Port St Mary dominated winning all four games with Jayne Kneen 21-4, Chris Price 21-11, Margaret Tasker 21-12 and Kellie Maddrell-Reeve 21-14. The final match score was 179-94 (8-1).
Onchan welcomed Douglas with the match decided by 7 chalks. Onchan won five of the nine available games with Marilyn Ellison top scoring for the home side 21-6. The away side dug in and despite only winning four games Muriel Cain, Wendy Cowin and Paula Garrett all won to single figures to give the away side the chalks victory 136-143 (5-4).
Marown faced Purt Le Moirrey and it was the away side who mastered the very fast green the best taking an overall win by 45 chalks. Chris Holland and Roma Ware won to single figures for the away team with wins also from Sandra Lowe, Win Collister, Brenda Hawkard and Rita Callister. For the home side Rosie Winckle, Elaine Dewhirst and Lil Smith. Final match score 128-173 (3-6).
Peel entertained Ballaugh at Sunset City with the home-side just doing enough to take the victory. The match was tight on games with Peel winning five of the nine matches including single figure wins for Lynda Wilson and Sue Jones. Peel had the edge on the chalks to take the match 168-145 (5-4).
In the final match Castletown A faced their B team for the first time this year with the league newcomers suffering a whitewash defeat 189-85 (9-0).
With one game to go before the half way point Port St Mary hold a 20 chalk advantage over South Ramsey with Castletown only three points further back following their last four games in which they have averaged over 185. Nobles slip to fourth 104 points behind the leaders with clear daylight to fifth placed Peel Sunset. The title race will continue to be lively and I expect these top four teams to shuffle a little more before the end of the season.