Weather plays its part

Two contrasting days of weather were evident last weekend as the Manx Petroleum sponsored Outdoor Winter League Bowling Club passed through the halfway point on a wet Saturday afternoon, ahead of a dry sunny session the next day.

Four teams in the bottom half of the table were the first day’s participants and it was Parkers and Erin Porters who came away with two wins apiece.

They both triumphed in their openers after drawing on games, Parkers beating Bits n Bobs and Porters getting the better of Roller Bowlers with a six point margin.

Then as the rain fell and the light faded, they both recorded scores just short of maximums – Parkers missing out by three against Roller Bowlers and Porters were just two away, beating Bits n Bobs, a result that saw them swapping places in the table with Roller Bowlers.

The last game of the afternoon went the full distance and it was pretty dark when the session finished after 4 o’clock; all teams heading for home content in the fact that they had improved their averages.

Results for Saturday, December 6: Parkers 119 (3) Terry Moore, Bits n Bobs 97 (3) Geoff Mayles; Erin Porters 111 (3) Derek Cadamy, Roller Bowlers 105 (3) Sefton Dent; Roller Bowlers 100 (1) Sefton Dent, Parkers 123 (5) Paul Bailey; Bits n Bobs 96 (1) Pauline Worrall, Erin Porters 124 (5) Bernard Thackrah.

Members playing on Sunday had to contend with a very strong cold wind in the first three-team session of the campaign and on this occasion it involved sides currently in the leading six.

Opening the programme were first versus fifth, and leaders Rule Breakers came out on top in a good encounter against Bowling for Soup.

Sixth placed Castletown Corkers then joined in the action, but now warmed up the Soup were a little too hot for their opponents and notched up the season’s eighth maximum win.

Things didn’t get any easier for Corkers as they were then thrust up against Rule Breakers however the two sides fought out a close battle which ended with a four point margin in favour of Breakers.

Results for Sunday, December 7: Rule Breakers 114 (3) Glynn Hargraves, Bowling for Soup 102 (3) Nigel Thomas; Bowling for Soup 126 (6) Mike Alexander, Castletown Corkers 100 (0) Dave Hollingworth and Derek Lewney; Castletown Corkers 104 (3) Lyn Bolton, Rule Breakers 108 (3) Dido Kelly.

A smaller than usual gang took part in the midweek round robin and from a group of doubles Allan Cromwell and Peter Karran emerged as winners ahead of Peter Curtis and Erwin Gelling.

The remainder played triples, the victorious threesome being Bernard Thackrah, Trish Bull and Pauline Worrall, with second place going to Doug Allan, Ken Karran and Derek Clarke.

If the weather is favourable this weekend it will be the final two sets of fixtures before the festive break and the last opportunity to take part in the Christmas tombola, which will be drawn on Sunday, December 21.