LBIOM

Following on from some fine performances at the recent European Championships the National Triples and Fours events were held over the weekend for both the men and ladies at the lawn bowls club in Onchan. Competing in the latter stages of the Triples’ competitions for both the men’s and ladies’ events these were determined on a round robin basis with 4 teams contesting each event. Amidst some variable weather conditions, the standard of bowling produced some remarkable shots and close matches in what proved to be a very competitive championships.

In the Ladies Triples event the Championship was determined by the very last bowl of the final match when the winners Karen Slack, Joanne Kelly and Janice Pilling secured a thrilling 5-4 victory in their encounter over Marcia Pearson, Glynis Drinkwater and Bernice McGreal to remain undefeated on the day and claim the National Triples Championship.

In the Men’s Triples Event there were some stand out individual performances by a few of the players involved, notably Dave Ball and Gary Lenton. However, victory on the day went to the undefeated trio of Eric Maddocks, Dave Ball and Clive McGreal having won all 3 of their matches and who were worthy winners of the event.

With a welcome change in weather conditions for the Sunday matches the final of the Ladies Fours Championship was contested between the experienced rink of Anne Watterson, Karen Slack, Barbara Reed and skip Pam Makin against some relative newcomers to the sport including Marcia Pearson, Glynis Drinkwater, Pat Lenton and skip Dee Lewis. Despite their lack of experience in this format Pat and Glynis showed their flair with some fine displays alongside the consistency of the lead play by Marcia and expert direction of skip Dee playing a number of conversion shots when required. Overall they managed to edge a keenly contested match 14-9 over their gallant opponents who played their part in an entertaining final.

The Men’s Fours Championship was a 3 way battle fought amongst very evenly balanced teams playing each other on a round robin basis. From the outset it was evident that only the highest standard of performance would be good enough as each end was keenly contested with shot exchanged with virtually every bowl. With some impressive individual performances by Mike Moyer and Alan College conjuring up an array of shots it was again another competition that went right down to the wire and dependent upon the last bowl of the final match. In the final match with the rink skipped by Eric Maddocks tied at 8 shots apiece on the final end against opposing rink with skip Gary Lenton it was the slimmest of margins and a single shot secured by Lenton that earned his team the win 9-8. This left the competition with each team having a record 1 win and 1 defeat. The result was then determined on shots difference and by a margin of just 2 shots the winning team of David Quirk, Alan College, John Piekalns and skip Clive McGreal were crowned National Fours Champions for 2022.