Despite inclement weather, members of the Lawn Bowls (Flat Green) Club in Onchan braved drizzling rain to compete in the annual Yardstick competition on Saturday.

In this event, pairs are randomly selected and a wooden stick measuring a yard in length is used to measure all the bowls that end up within a yard of the jack.

Each bowl gains one point regardless of which pair they belong to, with an extra point on offer for each toucher (bowl that touches the jack during course of its delivery).

As each bowler has four bowls, potentially each pair could gain at least eight points every end. The match is played in a round-robin format of four ends each before pairs moves to another rink to play against different opponents.

The highest number of points scored in any one round was 24 by the eventual winners, last year’s victor Phil Smith and Dee Lewis who recently joined the club.

They from the start, with the other teams giving it their all but were unable to catch them despite the valiant efforts of second-placed Eric Maddocks and Jill Fleming, plus third-placed Marcia Pearson and Anne Watterson.

At the conclusion of the afternoon, with a commanding lead of 11 points over the rest of the field, Smith and Lewis became worthy winners of the 2020 Yardstick trophy.

The committee would like to thank all members who competed for making it such an enjoyable afternoon despite the weather, with thanks to committee member Pam Makin for keeping the scores and to the greenkeeper for the excellent condition of the bowling green.

l Anyone interested in learning more about the sport of lawn bowls (flat green), coaching and equipment is available - contact secretary Win Kewley on 499174 or email [email protected]

WIN KEWLEY