The Canada Life International Rayner Shield final was held at Douglas Bowling Club on Friday evening, between South Ramsey A and Marown A.

In a match billed as ’Thriller at the Villa’, with the island’s current top two sides going head-to-head, it certainly lived up to its name.

The green was in superb condition, considering the weather we had experienced on the run-up to the final, and South Ramsey stormed into an early lead with a 21-6 win for John Kennish.

Marown hit straight back when Colin Kelly scored a resounding 21-5 win. David Bradford went 14-5 up against Ian Kissack, who managed to pull the score back to 14-10 before Bradford sealed it 21-10.

When Glynn Hargraves won the next game 21-6 to give the Ramsey men a 3-1 lead at the halfway point, with a 25 advantage on chalks, it looked like the shield would be heading north for a third consecutive year.

But Marown had other ideas and hit back in the second half, aware that unless they had a couple of big wins they would need to win the match 5-3 on games as the chalks heavily favoured South Ramsey.

Phil ’Rambo’ Kelly pulled out a superb bowl when 7-13 down, with Alan Moore lying two. From there, Kelly came back from 12-17 and 14-19 down to see the game out 21-19 to give the Crosby men some hope.

As the tension built around the green, the next game off was John Gelling versus Dave ’Dido’ Kelly. With Gelling in a commanding 14-5 lead, Kelly got himself back into the game with a good run to level the scores 18-18. With Kelly lying two good bowls, Gelling played a superb wood to win the end and take a further two singles to win 21-18.

In the penultimate game - and one of three key games in the second half with the games finely balanced - it was Paul Dunn versus Stefan Kelly. Dunn was behind all game at 7-13 and 13-17.

With the score 18-15 to Kelly, enjoying two bowls inside 18 inches, Dunn played a superb bowl to win the end, then finished the game on a longer length mark to see the game out with a vital 21-18 win.

This left Marown needing only one more chalk to secure a great comeback and a famous victory with Neil Withers being 20-9 up over Peter Collister. Withers quickly took a 21-11 victory to secure the Rayner Shield for the Crosby men.

The presentation was made by Adrian Skinner on behalf of the competition committee. He thanked the sponsors for their continued support, everyone that helped and Douglas for preparing an excellent playing surface. He then introduced Marown captain Neil Withers, who offered his commiserations to South Ramsey and congratulated his team for their efforts on what was a great comeback.

Marown’s win sees them draw level with outright leaders Onchan on 15 Rayner Shield victories, with all of Marown’s coming since 1990.