Isle of Man County Crown Green Bowling Association

The 2025-night league season ended this week across all four divisions this week in the Canada Life International sponsored bowling leagues.

In Division One South Ramsey A officially wrapped up the title in style, finishing the season strongly with a 9-1 win over North Ramsey A at Mooragh Park, with five single figure wins and keeping the home team down to just 77 chalks, picking up title number seven to regain the trophy they last won in 2023, in doing so preventing Marown A from successfully defending the title. The last time the Crosby men managed to do this was in 2002, when they won six league titles in a row. The Ramsey men picked up 48 points from a possible 50 in their last five games to seal the title.

Marown A finished the season on a high with a 9-1 win over their lower ranked B Team, with Kevin Kelly sparing the B sides blushes albeit with a 21-20 win over Paul Kelly. The Crosby men will undoubtedly regroup over the winter, knowing their 8-2 defeat away to Douglas A ultimately cost them with four 21-20 defeats that evening, making it even more difficult to take.

Onchan A ended the season in third place once again, as they finished the season on 100 points, 10 points fewer than 2024, as they drew 5-5 away to South Ramsey B in a true draw 4-4 on games and tied on chalks (137-137), with the South men consigned to second division bowls in 2026.

Peel A finished in fourth place, matching their 2024 league finish, however they were 17 points worse off than 2024, with their struggles with the green in the first half of the season playing a part in their results. With an improving green, this saw an improvement in their home form, as they finished the season with a 7-3 defeat away to Breagle Glen A, who strengthened just before the halfway point of the season with two players helping their cause, they managed to get safe to ensure they will compete in Division One next season.

Castletown A were guaranteed to finish on more points than 2024 whatever the result on Monday night, as they were already one point better off than last season going into their final fixture. A good 8-2 home win over Douglas A saw the Town men finish nine points better off, while the Villa finished just one point worse off.

The race for the Division One individual merit was a shootout between Bob Clark, John Kennish, and Colin Kelly. Clark had led the way for most of the season, however a stirring performance from Allan Callow saw Clark suffer his second defeat of the season, just losing out 19-21. This allowed Kennish to hit top spot with 16 wins from 16 games played, despite missing two games, with no chalks dropped. Kelly finished in second place with 16 wins from 18 games, dropping just three chalks all season, losing games to 19 and 20. Clark finished in third place, with just five chalks dropped.

In Division Two there was no change at the top with Marown C winning the league to lift the Rayner Cup as they made an immediate return to Division One, with a solid 2-8 away win over Onchan C to end the season on 126 points.

The Division Two individual merit also had some last day drama, with changes at the top with Alex Yates leading the way going into the final round of fixtures, he came up an in-form Mike Caley, who ended Yates’ merit hopes with a 21-16 win. This gifted Marown C captain Walter McCarthy the merit as he ended the season with a 21-15 win over Mike Kelly, to make it 15 wins from 17 games played, whilst Yates finished in second spot with 14 wins from 17 games.

Ballaugh A were the ‘nearly’ men once again, as they missed out on promotion by six points, however they ended the season with a 7-3 home win over Finch Hill A, who finished in mid-table. The Ballaugh men can console themselves that they are moving in the right direction improving on last season’s third place finish with 14 points more.

Noble’s A finished the season in third place, 25 points better off than 2024, as they continue to improve, despite their 2-8 home defeat on number one green to their B team, who use number two green for their home fixtures. The B team ended the season just four points back on the A team, they were rumoured to have been heavily using number one green in preparation for the last game of the season. Watch this space in 2026, as the B Team will be looking to overtake the A and be rebranded for a fourth time, having been labelled as the D team in 2023, C in 2024, and B this season. Or could there be a mixture of the A & B team over the winter to give Noble’s a real shot at promotion, only time will tell.

Safe in the knowledge that both teams would not be relegated Douglas B beat Castletown B 9-1 at the Villa. The Town men had recovered from a slow start to the season to finish in seventh place, while the Villa men finished next to bottom spot, safe by 13 points.

Peel B finished 36 points worse off than 2024, being closer to relegation than promotion this time round, however they finished the season strongly with a 9-1 home win over Breagle Glen B, whose fate was already sealed prior to this fixture. Dougie Allan had a 21-0 win over Mark Pendlebury, while Ed Benson prevented the whitewash with a 21-20 win over Jeff Wilson.