A 99 from Nigel Christian made the difference for Castletown as they got out of jail at Kirk Michael in the Winter League.
Just one point separated the teams and denied Kirk Michael their first win of the season - but they are getting close and thanks to 97s from Illiam Christian and Perryn Watson, the club will surely break that duck against any teams who turn up expecting easy wins on the night.
Kirk Michael Castletown
97 Perryn Watson Nigel Christian 99
97 Illiam Christian (J) John Brewis 96
Alex Trafford (J) Shirley Caley 96
95 Suzanne McKnight Richard Arthur 95
95 Kevin Quinn Henry Qualtrough 95
480 481
Castletown also had wins in Divisions 2 and 3.
Nigel's 24 hours of glory came when he won the WS Cowin knockout competition at St Johns by beating Fergus Coulter of Sulby in a dramatic final round in which regauging of the scores was needed to separate the men after they tied with 97 each. Fergus could take confidence, though, from scoring a flawless 100 in an earlier round.
99s THE ORDER OF THE DAY AS PORT POWER TO VICTORY
Ben Kelly, Ryan Forrest and Callum Grant all hit 99s for defending champions Port St Mary on the road at Laxey. Against such consistent scores, the home side, clearly struggling for numbers beyond a first team, could make no impression and were soundly beaten with PSM notching their sixth win out of six in the Winter League campaign.
Laxey Port St Mary
97 Stephen Curphey Ben Kelly 99
97 Gemma Kermode Ryan Forrest (J) 99
96 Harry Creevy Callum Grant (J) 99
96 John Wood Kevan Kneale 97
90 Bridget Kneale Graham Brown 96
476 490
In all there were three divisional wins from champions Port St Mary.
SULBY SURGE PAST SANDSIDERS
A very strong performance from Sulby at home to IOMSC Sandsiders gave them a thumping win with the highest score of the night coming from the barrel of Mark Boyde.
Sulby IOMSC Sandsiders
98 Mark Boyde Bill Jones 95
97 Fergus Coulter Matthew Roosen 94
97 Mark Cain Graham Wyatt 93
97 Andy Mitchell Phil Kneen 88
97 Julian H Teare Anthony Kneale 87
486 457
Sulby had little difficulty in taking the Division 2 and 3 matches as they were uncontested.
Michelle puts shooters on course for success
Members of the Isle of Man Shooting Club Development Squad (and this poor writer) spent a weekend on the Sinclair 50m range in St Johns honing their skills and discovering new ones with the help of top-class English coach Michelle Smith.
Assisted by Lara Ward, the athletes (and even I) trained hard and played hard in some pretty cold conditions outdoors which meant seeking some help from duvets to keep warm and get results at times.
The sessions centred around defining and seeking goals as well as discussions on the theory of small bore target rifle shooting - and of course, practice matches and plenty of shoots throughout the day.
In addition, video recordings were made of each of the attendees so they could be analysed, sometimes seriously, sometimes not so seriously in a group session and advice to improve each person handed out.
I learned a lot in the two days of training sessions and Michelle's teaching style made the hard work easier to get the most out of it. Certainly, I picked up a lot of valuable advice that will let me get the best out target shooting here - if I do what I am told, for once!
The aim of the training sessions is not only to improve technique and help participants become better shooters, but also to propel some of them towards a place in the Isle of Man team for the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in Australia.
Michelle, a Commonwealth Games medal winner herself, will return to the Island for more sessions on January 21-22 next year. Her courses attract great praise and we can't wait for her next instalment.
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
Next week's fixtures include:
Kirk Michael v Sulby
IOMSC Sandsiders v Castletown
Laxey v IOMSC Douglas
Port St Mary have a bye.
