Isle of Man Indoor Bowling Association held its men’s and women’s Singles Championship in the Bowls Hall at the NSC last week.

In the women’s competition there were two preliminary round matches in which Win Kewley beat Marilyn Ellison and Dee Lewis defeated Glynis Drinkwater.

This led to the quarter-finals and here Lewis continued her winning form to beat Kewley, while Libby Andrade lost out to Bernice McGreal. In the remaining two matches, Paula Garrett beat Shirley Corrin and Janice Pilling got the better of Muriel Cain.

In the semi-finals Garrett, who had won the last two championship finals, lost the first set to Pilling before winning the second set only to lose out in the one-end tie-break. In the other semi, Lewis beat McGreal to earn her place in the showpiece event.

The final saw Pilling win the first set but Lewis fought back to win the second and set up a tie-break. This was won by Pilling with her very last bowl to become the 2022 women’s singles champion.

In the men’s championship there were again two preliminary round matches, with the ever-enthusiastic Rob Matthews losing out to Wayne Roberts and Gary Lenton beating Mike Moyer.

In the first round, Roberts beat Lenton and Edward Carlyle defeated Colin Brown who has proved himself over the years to be competitive in a number of sports.

Trevor Quayle proved to be too strong for Gordon Wynne-Smythe and Clive McGreal beat Shaun Seal. John Kewley got the better of Stephen Bradley while in the battle between Gordon Corrin and Gordon Drinkwater it was the latter who took the win.

In the remaining two matches, Jimmy Sansom beat Chas Grills and Mark McGreal defeated Mike Ashmole.

At the quarter-final stage, Roberts lost out to Carlyle and Quayle took the win against Clive McGreal. Kewley beat Gordon Drinkwater to win a place in the semi-final against Mark McGreal who got past Sansom.

In the semi-finals, on the night Quayle was too good for Carlyle while Mark McGreal - who has had multiple championship wins over the years - defeated Kewley.

The final saw McGreal win the first set and Quayle won the second to set up a tie-break which was won by McGreal who drew the perfect bowl to win his fourth singles championship in five years.

NORMAN KNEEN