Easter Egg-travaganza of Sport

Our proverbial Easter egg runneth over with sport this weekend, in one of the busiest periods of the sporting calendar.

Amongst a packed schedule, there’s two cup finals in football, almost 600 entered in the festival of running, plus a mountain marathon, rugby, mountain biking, trials riding and pit bikes.

Things kick off later today, Friday, with the GH Corlett Woods Cup at the Bowl. St Mary’s and Castletown meet in the second tier competition, with kick off at 2pm.

There’s more football on Saturday as two of the current pacesetters in the Canada Life Premier League – Peel and Corinthians – meet in the ECAP FA Cup final.

Again at the Bowl, this kicks off at the slightly earlier time of 1.45pm owing to FC Isle of Man’s game with Oldham side Avro at 6.30pm.

That match will see the Ravens aiming to continue their fine end to the North West Counties Premier Division season that saw them banish any lingering relegation fears last weekend with two wins in as many days against Lower Breck and Longridge Town.

The other big event this weekend is the 59th Easter Festival of Running. Nearly 600, including many visitors, will compete in the event across its three days, starting with a 10km road race in around Port Erin on Friday evening at 6.45pm.

On Saturday the action heads west for the Peel Hill Races at 2.15pm, for the men, and 3.15pm for the women.
The festival concludes on Sunday morning with the with the 5km road races along Douglas Promenade. The women are away first at 10.15am, with the men following at 11.15am. Late entries are available for all three events.

If that wasn’t enough athletics action for you, there’s also the grueling Manx Mountain Marathon on Saturday down the spine of the island. More than 260 will tackle the full 50km race distance, which starts in Ramsey at 8am, and the 22km ‘half’ which begins in St John’s at 1pm.

There’s a busy weekend of rugby in store at Ballafletcher. Vagabonds host their annual sevens competition on Sunday afternoon, while on Saturday there’s a busy afternoon in store. At midday there’s junior games, followed by a women’s under-30 versus over-30 match at 1pm. The day culminates with the annual ABC Memorial fixture at 2.30pm when Vagabonds host visitors Leigh.

Round two of the Manx Trials Club’s 2023 championship takes place on Friday, starting at 10am from Marown school car park. The latest round of the pit bikes championship is on Sunday at Jurby, with practice getting under way at 10.30am.
Finally, the opening round of the mountain bike enduro series also takes place on Sunday at South Barrule plantation. Timed runs begin at midday.