A group of 11 Isle of Man lawn bowlers enjoyed a successful trip to the Atlantic Senior Fours international competition in Paphos, Cyprus recently.

The event attracted more than 20 countries, including the likes of Australia, Norfolk Island, Spain, Czech Republic, South Africa, Botswana, Canada and the USA.

This is the second time this competition – first held in 2023 – has been hosted by Bowls Cyprus in Paphos. The increase in countries competing and the high standard of this World Bowls event ensures credence given to it.

Cyprus holds this excellent competition at the Athena Beach Hotel which boasts 16 bowls rinks plus an underground indoor rink.

The weather was very variable with sun, rain, wind and even a lightning storm which forced games to be moved to the inside rinks for safety. To top it off, there was even a couple of small earthquakes which luckily caused no damage.

The first week was the fours teams in action and the island quartet of Bernice McGreal, Marilyn Ellison, Karen Slack and Dee Lewis got off to a great start by defeating the reigning champions from Cyprus.

Although not all games went their way, they rallied to defeat Jersey and had some really close games, including only losing to Australia by one shot on the last end.

The men’s fours Andy Dixon, John Kewley, David Slack and Clive McGreal played very well, scoring victories against larger nations such as Wales, Zimbabwe, Canada, Israel and an excellent 35 shots defeat against Jersey’s eight shots.

The second week was the mixed fours of two men and two women in each team, with Lewis and Ellison joining the two Swiss men to compete as a mixed Swiss /Isle of Man team.

There were some wins and close games for the mixed teams and by the end of the competition the Manx mixed quartet of McGreal, David Slack, Karen Slack and Whitehead played extremely well to win the section they were in and as worthy winners claim a gold medal.