The Ladies and Men’s Championship started on Monday 14th January at the NSC and ran through until Friday 18th January when it was played down to the last two of both Ladies and Men with the Final taking place on Saturday 2nd February when they will be held alongside the Triples and Pairs Finals.
The opening round of the Men’s saw a couple of shocks as newcomer Brian Lindsay beat the experienced Jimmy Sansom on a sudden death one end play off after being level at the end of the match. The other shock of the night was James Teare beating the experienced Tony Epifani.
The week progressed with some great bowls and Thursday night was Quarter Final night and in the Ladies we saw Paula Garrett beat newcomer Ina Scott and another newcomer to the indoor sport Dee Lewis beat the experienced Bernice McGreal. Win Collister beat Win Kewley and defending Champion Muriel Cain got through without playing as her opponent unavoidably had to withdraw from the competition.
In the Men’s Quarter Finals we saw Shaun Seal beat Phil Smith and Clive McGreal again playing great bowls beat his son Mark. Dave McCabe beat David Quirk and Peter Wilcox lost to Ben Dugdale.
The Semi Finals were played on Friday with one of our most senior players Win Collister playing reigning Champion Muriel Cain and it was the ageless Win who played some great bowls to beat Muriel. Dee Lewis took on Paula Garrett and despite a valiant effort from Dee it was Paula who took the win.
The Men’s Semi Finals saw a close encounter between Ben Dugdale and the very experienced Clive McGreal and in the first set Clive was three down at the start of the last end but managed to score three and draw the game. Clive then went on to win the second game and qualify for the Final. The other ‘Semi’ saw an excellent match between Dave McCabe and Shaun Seal which ended with Dave winning by edging a dramatic sudden death one end playoff.
This then means that on Saturday 2nd February that the Isle of Man Indoor Bowling Association Singles Finals will be, in the Ladies Win Collister v Paula Garrett and the Men’s Clive McGreal v Dave McCabe.