Dandara Dynamos win Isle of Man dodgeball title in charity event

Dandara Dynamos left the National Sports Centre with more than a trophy. Their run through Isle Listen’s second annual Isle of Man Dodgeball Championship turned a 16-team night into a fundraiser with a real sporting edge, blending knockout pressure, a mental-health cause and enough local interest to push the event toward a third edition in 2027.

The Dynamos had to earn it the hard way. Ardern & Druggan, the electrical contractors who had hoped to reclaim the title, were sent out by Dandara in the quarter-finals before the Dynamos finished the job and were crowned champions. The exact scoreline was not released, but the quarter-final win over one of the event’s established contenders gave Dandara’s title run its defining moment and confirmed that the new champions had beaten quality opposition on the way to the top.

The competition mattered well beyond the bracket. Isle Listen used the event to raise money for its work with children and young people, while the tournament itself sat inside the charity’s wider Take Action campaign and followed Mental Health Awareness Week. The 2026 championship was staged on Friday, May 22, just after the awareness week window, with Active Souls hosting and Percy Hampton, the podcaster behind What’s the Skeet? Conversations with Percy, compering the evening. Flutter International backed the tournament, and the format helped widen participation by allowing teams to choose between competitive or friendly matches, bringing in organizations from across the island community.

That openness has become part of the tournament’s appeal. Isle Listen’s first championship in 2025 drew 23 teams and ran from a round-robin stage into quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final, while the second edition was smaller at 16 teams but still strong enough to support a knockout bracket after the groups. The charity says the format has worked so well that dodgeball will return in 2027 at the National Sports Centre in Douglas, with entry open to adult teams of six to nine players.

For Isle Listen, the event delivered funding and visibility for a cause built around early intervention and prevention in mental health. For the island’s dodgeball scene, it produced a champion and a template: a charity tournament that can pull in clubs, workplaces and other local groups, while giving the sport a recurring place on the Isle of Man’s calendar.