MAGNIFICENT MANXMEN TAKE FESTIVAL HONOURS

RAMSEY’S VIV GRILLS COMES CLOSE IN LADIES EVENT

Marown’s Colin Kelly and Onchan’s John Kennish took top honours in the two men’s competitions of last week’s Isle of Man June Bowling Festival with many top UK players assembled in the field of 280.

The climax of the week was the final of the main Tournament that saw Kelly come up against the likeable Welshman Peter Jones (Deganwy) and after steady starts from both players the Manxman crept away from 12-across to gain a 17-13 lead. Having already lost three previous Festival finals, once when 19-12 ahead, the nerves visibly hit Kelly but just as the Welshman looked as if he could pile on extra pressure to come back to 17-19 he inexplicably played a very heavy second bowl on the 18th end to roll the jack away from his own lead bowl and onto Kelly’s two back woods.  For a brief moment everyone, most of all the two players, looked stunned but as the local cheers sunk in to Kelly’s bemused mind so too did the reality of his 21-15 win and the fact that the major spoils were finally his - the £3000 winner’s cheque plus the magnificent trophy and also the George Craine Cup for being the best local player.

“Phew!” uttered Kelly afterwards “and, yes, I was starting to tighten up as thoughts of past defeats kept flashing into my head.”

The last 8 results were Paul Bailey 16, Peter Jones 21; David Jackson 8, John Briggs 21; Colin Kelly 21, Andrew Spragg 14; Robbie Fitzpatrick 21, James Wilcox 19.

In the semi final Jones beat Briggs 21-14 while Kelly once again played on his own nerves to edge home 21-20 against Fitzpatrick.

There were similar close encounters in the last 8 stages of the ladies Main event, which had 111 entries, with the closest of all being North Ramsey’s Viv Grills edging out the hot tournament favourite Debbie Farmer to 20. At this same stage the Wirral’s Pat Crowther had seen off the challenge of Grills’ team-mate, Lilian Slinger, to 11 while two wins of 21-17 by Alice Pooley over Carole Bleakley and by Alexis Lunn over Maureen Lyons gave us the semi final line-up. Lunn then repeated her earlier 21-17 win against Crowther while Pooley had to withstand a mighty comeback from Grills before she achieved her final place after a 21-19 win.

One consolation for the Ramsey lady was that she won the VisitIsleofman.com trophy for being the best Manx lady.

The first three ends of the final were innocuous enough but then Alexis stunned Alice        

with a run of six winning ends, including 4 doubles, to put her 17-8 up and though the Crossgates player battled hard it was the smiling Yorkshire girl from the Morton House club who was in no mood to relinquish her lead and she came home victorious by 21-12 to win the £1000 top prize.

Thursday evening had seen the finals of the Tourism Championships, ranked 2nd in status to the main events, and in the ladies’ competition two wins to 14 by last year’s main event winner, Pat McGuirk over Suzy Ladbrooke and by Maureen Lyons over Pat Crowther saw the two friends meet in the final. This turned out to be another close affair that could have gone either way but it was McGuirk who eventually triumphed 21-19.

Lin Ruscoe had been the last Manx competitor, going out in the last 8, but by the men’s semi final stage there was considerable local interest with John Kennish in a field that also included the might of Martin Gilpin, Andrew Farmer and Matthew Gilmore. The standard of play in these late stages was without equal and while Gilpin was seeing off Farmer by 21-10 most eyes were on the other compulsive game which Kennish won to 17 against Gilmore who did little or nothing wrong throughout.

The final was also of the highest quality but there was no stopping a magnificent Kennish performance as he repeated last year’s win by triumphing by 21-17. Though most players would not complain he later confided that it was something of a bitter-sweet moment as he said “I think that’s seven Tourism events I’ve won now … all I want is the main one!”     

Throughout the week there was a myriad of other events that kept every player occupied and in the men’s Consolation final Steven Hargreaves beat Eric Breeze by 21-17 with Joan Jolly winning the ladies final by 21-14 over Lisa Rice.

Two local ladies, Val Macfarlane and Rita Callister, lost with their partners at the last 4 stage of the Mixed Doubles event that was won by Brian Young and Alice Pooley by 9-7 over John Hamer and Anne Goddard.

In the two ‘Flyer’ competitions there was no stopping Callum Wraight from Castlefields who won them both! He was firstly victorious in the ‘VisitIsleofMan.com flyer’ when he triumphed by 11-7 over Malcolm Fowler and then in the ‘Last chance flyer’ his powerful finish gave him a 21-13 victory over Gerald Merry.

The new Festival Director, Andy Hawkard, who ran his first event after the sad death of Derek Killey last November, was quick to give praise to everyone who had helped him through the week including his office staff, the various greenkeepers of the six greens that had been used and also the many referees, measurers etc without whom the event could not take place.

“Yes, there were several challenges through the week”, said Andy afterwards, “including the Wednesday evening downpour that forced the cancellation of two doubles events.”

Andy also praised the Department of Tourism for their assistance and sponsorship of the week’s events and he was delighted that Mr Geoff Corkish, MHK, was able to attend on Friday afternoon for the official presentations. Mr Corkish was also full of praise for the smooth running of the event and finished his brief speech by hoping that he would see everyone back for the forthcoming September Festival.

Isle of Wight Inter-Island Bowls Tournament 2009

The Isle of Wight have launched thier website as preperations continue for the Inter-Island Bowls Tournament in 2009. Building on the success of the inaugral event in Guernsey in 2007, the tournament has already expanded to include an additional 3 islands, Menorca, Cyprus and the surprise omission from the tournament last year Jersey. The Isle of Man will be again be sending a full squad.

The website can be found at http://iwcountypress.wordpress.com/