Peel Bowling Club hosted the pre-festival Autumn Shield on Sunday with a strong entry of 96, including the welcome return of visiting bowlers.

The tournament was sponsored by Davison’s Ice Cream and all players were off a handicap of +6 in order to get through the field in good time.

With a 10am start time, it was a long day for some on a green that ran well throughout the proceedings.

Losing out in the quarter-finals were home greener Tony Carroon, who had his challenge ended by clubmate Peter Greenlees 12-21, while Gareth Jones (Dalton Cricket) lost out 13-21 to Reg Temporaza (Onchan).

In the bottom half of the draw, Marown’s Neil Withers battled well before losing out 19-21 to Jamie Fitzpatrick (West Kirby Victoria), while Tony Carter (Fairfield) lost to the same score to Glynn Hargraves (South Ramsey).

In the semi-final Fitzpatrick trailed 10-12 to Hargraves, before moving up a gear as the former ran out with a 21-14 win to take his place in the final.

The other semi-final was close throughout with Temporaza leading 19-18. A double took Greenlees into a 20-19 lead only for Temporaza to level things up at 20-20.

On the last end a good first bowl from Greenlees to Temporaza’s jack was enough to take a 21-20 win to go through to the final.

The final got underway in front of a good crowd who had stayed to watch under the excellent floodlights. With the green having lost some of the pace from earlier in the day neither player was able to take firm control of the game in the early stages.

With the score tied at 14-14 after 12 ends, it looked like Fitzpatrick was making his move as a two on the following end took him into a 16-14 lead.

Greenlees responded brilliantly, keeping his composure and taking his time with every bowl as he got in with a single. He then headed over the crown, playing a good length as he scored two consecutive doubles followed by another single to get within touching distance of glory as he led 20-16.

Fitzpatrick responded with a good two to reduce the deficit to 18-20 and promptly headed for the corner. Two short bowls gave Greenlees some room to go in for game, which he did as he changed his peg to claim his first open competition win.

Peter has shown that with dedication and a positive mentality that it is possible to get to a standard in a short space of time to be able to compete with and beat the best as he came through a field of almost 100 bowlers, including a resounding victory over seven-time Manx champion Colin Kelly in the early rounds.

The presentation was made by Peel Sunset Bowling Club president Dougie Allan who thanked Davison’s for the generous sponsorship, club members for assisting throughout the day, plus competition secretary Dave ’Barney’ Kelly for organising and running the competition.

A special mention was also made on the ongoing improvement seen in the Peel green over the past couple of years.

Vice-president Lennie Kerruish was then introduced to present the prizes with more than £700 paid out. Greenlees took the £250 first prize, with the competition finishing a little under 12 hours after it had started.

In his speech, an understandably emotional Peter dedicated the win to his late father-in-law Ray Osborne who introduced him to the game after Peter had moved to the island four years ago and was wondering what to do to occupy his free time. He took up bowls and hasn’t looked back since taking up the game in 2018.