Michael Collister provided an excellent display in the Manx Short Mat Bowls 4 Bowl Singles to take his maiden title in the event after beating Eddie Brew 8-7 in the final.
Final – As It Happened
| M COLLISTER | E BREW | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Point | Total | End | Point | Total |
| – | – | one | 3 | 3 |
| 1 | 1 | two | – | 3 |
| – | 1 | three | 2 | 5 |
| – | 1 | four | 1 | 6 |
| 2 | 3 | five | – | 6 |
| 1 | 4 | six | – | 6 |
| 1 | 5 | seven | – | 6 |
| – | 5 | eight | 1 | 7 |
| 1 | 6 | nine | – | 7 |
| 2 | 8 | ten | – | 7 |
| 8 | total | 7 | ||
Collister started well with a 9-5 win over David Cottier in the first round, while Brew also had an impressive 13-8 victory over 3 time winner Seamus Whelan. Elsewhere in the opening round, defending champion Josh Ffrench progressed with a 16-4 win over Georgina Moore, Jayne Smith defeated Collin Holland 8-5. Matt Quayle went through with a 17-3 win over James Teare. Ann Gale beat fellow Ballaugh team mate Richard Faragher 8-5 and Chris Holland beat Dave McTaggart 12-9.
Round two saw Collister continue his good form with a 15-6 win over Matt Quayle which saw him score two 4’s on the last two ends. Brew had a tough match against Ann Gale, after leading 7-2 Gale came back to level at 8-8 with two ends remaining but Brew ran out the winner 12-8. Josh Ffrench’s defense came to an end against Chris Holland, losing 9-7 thanks to Holland scoring a 3 on the last end. In the last game of the second round Stephen Gale, who received a bye in the first round beat Jayne Smith 12-6.
The semi-finals saw Collister up against Stephen Gale and after Collister took an early 5-0 lead, Gale fought back to level at 6-6 after 7 ends and lead 8-7 going into the last end but Collister was the one who came though a tough game, taking a 2 on the final end to win 9-8. The other semi-final saw Eddie Brew face Chris Holland and after trailing 3-2 at the half-way point, Brew took 6 points in the next the ends to lead 8-3 and ran out an 8-5 winner.
The final was of the highest quality from both players and early on it looked like Brew would cap his impressive devut season with the Singles crown after racing into a 6-1 lead after the first four ends but Collister found his length and started to hit back with 4 points from the next three ends to trail Brew by 1 point, Brew managed to win a single point on the eighth end but Collister won the penultimate end and then played a fantastic last end to take the championship by a point with an 8-7 victory.
It was the perfect preparation for Collister who, along with Stephen Gale will be playing in the World Masters in Belfast next month, competing against 180 of the world’s finest bowlers.