Isle of Man County Crown Green Bowling Association 2026 summer season officially got underway at the weekend.

A new pairing had their names engraved on the Newsbeat Trophy on Sunday when the Onchan duo of Matthew Quirk and Jordan Cain outplayed the Marown pair of Neil Withers and Karl Parker, winning 21-15 in the final at Finch Hill.

On a mainly dry but bitterly cold spring afternoon, 22 pairs competed for the early season men's pairs event.

At the quarter-final stage, Withers and Parker had a narrow victory over their clubmates Glenn Boland and Peter Jones 21-19, while Quirk and Cain had a comfortable win over 21-11 over the South Ramsey pairing of Eddie Carlyle and James Teare.

The other games saw the Peel pairing of Matthew Venables and Stuart Morrison defeat Castletown's Kieron Krypner and Nathan Hamilton 21-12, while Marown's Colin and Kevin Kelly defeated the holders from South Ramsey, John Kennish and David Bradford, 21-15.

In the semi-finals, Withers and Parker took care of Venables and Morrison 21-14 and Quirk and Cain saw off the Kelly duo by a margin of 21-13.

The presentation was made by association competition secretary Lil Smith on behalf of Newsbeat and Jordan Cain thanked the sponsors for their continued support.

Many thanks were also expressed to the Finch Hill women for their catering, plus the members for their assistance with stewarding.

BRIAN MURPHY

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