Josh Ffrench took his first ever 4 Bowl Singles title after beating Stephen Gale 11-8 in a thrilling day of short mat bowls at the NSC.

Ffrench got his day off to a perfect start with a 14-2 win over Chris Holland in the first round while Gale advanced with a 13-5 victory against Sylvia Maddrell. Defending champion Seamus Whelan suffered a 10-6 defeat to John Jauncey and Rita Woodworth took a last end victory over David Cottier 8-7. Collin Holland progressed to the next round with a 10-5 win against Ann Hollingworth and Moira Anderson beat Ramsey team-mate Jill Quayle 8-6. The biggest win of the round were for Dave McTaggart (16-1) over Matt Quayle and Jayne Smith (19-1) against Peter Coward.

The quarter finals saw Ffrench again impress with a 13-5 win over Rita Woodworth and Gale won 10-4 against Jayne Smith.Collin Holland took his place in the semi finals with a 14-7 victory over Moira Anderson and Dave McTaggart needed an extra end to defeat John Jauncey 9-7.

The semi finals both produced great games, first with Ffrench getting to the final after coming from behind at 8-6 ti win the l three ends to take a 12-8 victory. The second semi final saw Gale & Holland exchange early singles with the game 2-2 after 4 ends, but Gale managed to stretch out a lead and after scoring a three on the penultimate end ran out a 10-3 winner.

The final saw Ffrench twice take a good lead after being 4-0 ahead after 4 ends Gale fought back to be 4-3 behind at the halfway stage but Ffrench quickly stretched his lead to 7-3 before Gale scored a four to level the game with 4 ends remaining. The match getting ever tighter, two singles over the next 2 ends saw Ffrench again take the lead but Gale managed to score a single on the penultimate end to trail by one. However, Ffrench came out a deserved winner after some incredible drawing shots to score a two on the final end to run out 11-8 winner and deserved champion.

Also, after three weeks of competition the National Championships have been decided with Stephen Gale winning the singles, Jill Quayle & Moira Anderson won the pairs, Peter Coward, Seamus Whelan & Collin Holland are triples champions and Josh Ffrench, Clare Hussain, Chris Holland & Jayne Smith are the champions of the fours. They will now represent the Isle of Man in the British Isles Championships in November.