The first official men’s singles competition of the season was held on Sunday, with a healthy entry of 39 taking part in the Ken Williamson Cup, with entries higher than when the competition is traditionally held in June.
Losing out at the quarter-final stage were Nathan Cooil (Castletown) 19-21 to home greener Matthew Quirk and Dave McCabe (Douglas) 15-21 to Bob Clark (South Ramsey).
In the other half of the draw, another home greener Mike Kelly got the better of clubmate Will Penhallurick, while an all-Marown contest was won by Jamie Joughin as he beat Sam Clague 21-17.
The home green hopes were ended at the semi-final stage as Joughin breezed through to the final by beating Kelly 21-14, while Bob Clark recovered from a slow start to see off Quirk 21-18, as the South Ramsey man crucially kept his opponent down to a single two while scoring five doubles himself.
The final saw Clark start as favourite as he looked to retain the trophy, while Joughin was appearing in his first final of a men’s singles open competition.
The Marown man took two of the first three ends to lead 8-4, with Clark soon getting into his stride as he scored five doubles. He then kept Joughin to only three more singles as the South Ramsey man ran out a clear 21-11 winner to lift the trophy for a third time.
The presentation was made by Kevin Quirk with thanks given to Dave Tait for running the competition and to the women for putting on refreshments. Ken Williamson’s niece Diane Crossley was then introduced to present the prizes.
GLYNN HARGRAVES