The Copyshop Indoor Bowls League took a break last week as the first of the season’s Championships was played, this being the Triples Competition. In the first round, we saw the trio of Paula and Stuart Garrett and Jimmy Sansom beat Marcia Pearson, Muriel Cain and Paula Firth 10-6 while Win and John Kewley and Brian Lindsay had a walkover as their opponents had to withdraw from the competition. In the remaining two matches of the evening Colin Brown, Alan Franklin and Rob Matthews lost 6-12 to Shirley and Gordon Corrin and Joyce Ogden and Chas Grills, Stefan Kelly and Alan Moore beat Shaun Seal, Phil Kerruish and Ian Moore 16-2.
On Tuesday we saw Paula and Stuart Garrett and Jimmy Sansom beat Win and John Kewley and Brian Lindsay 14-3 while Chas Grills, Stefan Kelly and Alan Moore beat Shirley and Gordon Corrin and Joyce Ogden 19-4. In the remaining games we saw the very experienced trio of Bernice and Clive McGreal and Janice Pilling beat Tony Epifani, Paul Dougherty and Peter Hughes 13-1 while Dee Lewis, Libby Andrade and Mike Moyer pushed David Quirk, Wayne Roberts and Trevor Quayle all the way before eventually losing 12-13.
This brought us to the semi-finals on Wednesday where the Chas Grills, Stefan Kelly and Alan Moore team, who had played well throughout the week, continued to play well, but on the night they eventually went down 7-10 to Paula and Stuart Garrett and Jimmy Sansom. The other semi-final was not quite so close as Bernice and Clive McGreal and Janice Pilling beat David Quirk, Wayne Roberts and Trevor Quayle 13-4.
The Final was played on Thursday evening and Paula and Stuart Garrett started well and built up a 5-0 lead but the very experienced trio of Bernice and Clive McGreal and Janice Pilling fought back to eventually run out with a 12-6 win to become Isle of Man Indoor Bowls Triples Champions. The Final was a great game to watch and kept the spectators on the edge of their seats right up until the end. The Trophy was then presented to the winners by Win Kewley the President of the Isle of Man Indoor Bowling Association.