Isle of Man County Crown Green Bowling Association

This week seen the start of the Rayner Shield competition with 9 preliminary round matches taking place to decided who progressed to the next round.

On Monday evening South Ramsey B started their campaign with a 7-1 home win over Douglas B, who gave a good account of themselves with Rob Matthews losing out 17-21 to Edward Carlyle, whilst Andy Foster, Bob Callow and Pat O’Donohue each scored 18 chalks before losing out. South Ramsey’s reward is a tough home fixture against league champions Marown A in the following round.

Marown A hosted Ballaugh A at Crosby, the visitors would have been competing in Division One this season, having been promoted as runners up in division two last season. The Ballaugh men performed admirably with Steve Grant beating Dean Kipling 21-11, whilst John Maddrell romped home with a 21-8 victory over Matthew Keggen. Paul Kelly didn’t have it all his own way either, with a 21-19 win over John Keenan, whilst Richard Hainge rose to the challenge against Colin Kelly before losing out 17-21, a score matched by Paul Cubbon against Neil Withers. Ballaugh can take confidence from this match, will look to take it into the league next season with their new look team.

In the closest match of the week Finch Hill B hosted Ballaugh B in a high scoring match it was the Finch men who after drawing 4-4 on games progressed to the next round taking the win on chalks (152-143).

Onchan A made light work of Peel B with an 8-0 home victory, their new signing Reginald Temporaza won 21-6 against Michael Kavanagh. Coming closest for Peel were Gordon Corrin who lost 19-21 to Kevin Quirk, whilst Harry Kelly lost out 18-21 to Frank Watson.

Completing Monday’s matches Marown B performed admirably to take a deserved 5-3 win on the night, whilst also winning by 6 chalks.

On Tuesday evening South Ramsey A won 6-2 at home to Onchan B, despite missing three of their regular league players on the night. Instead of taking the easy decision of turning to the tried and trusted the A Team gave opportunities to players with one eye on the future, bringing in Steven Waters, Austin Hart and Ryan Hargraves. After the first half of the match it was finely balanced with David Bradford winning 21-7 against Brian Woodall, this was immediately cancelled out by Mike Kelly who defeated Ryan Hargraves to the same score. Allan Kennaugh won 21-18 against Austin Hart, whilst Steven Waters had to dig deep to see off Colin Spence 21-19. In the second half of the match Alan Moore, Glynn Hargraves & James Teare all won to single figures, whilst Stefan Kelly recovered from a dreadful start (0-9) to win 21-16 against Mike Alexander.

Port St Mary A got their revenge on Marown C who defeated them in last year’s Rayner Plate final, with the home winners for the Crosby men Darren Kerruish, Kevin Kelly and Jamie Joughin seeing off Rob Cooil, Paul Russell and Will Cain respectively. The visitors had four winners to single figures with Wayne Roberts, Trevor Quayle, Paul Skelly and Dan McCabe showing no mercy to their opponents.

Castletown A made no mistake with a 7-1 home win over Port Erin A, with the town men having a good mixture of youth and experience in their top team. The sole winner for the Breagle Glen men was Bernie Durcan.

The final match of the week was between South Ramsey C and Peel Sunset A, with the Peel men enjoying their visit to play on a green in fantastic condition with an 8-0 win, with nobody enjoying it more than visiting captain Dave ‘Barney’ Kelly who had a runaway 21-3 victory, backed up by three of his teammates Tom Kelly, Alec Taylor and Tommy McMeiken also winning to single figures.

The first round of the Rayner Shield commences next week, along with the Mixed Team competition group stages.