Double headers at bowls club following Covid closure

It’s been a busy week at Boston Indoor Bowling Club following the recent closure after a number of bowlers tested positive for Covid.

Teams in the Orchard Health Group First Division were asked to play two matches after the timetable was rearranged to allow their postponed fixtures to be played and this threw up some intriguing results.

Holland Fen, second, had matches against third-placed Strollers, losing 2-4, and Breakaways in fourth, winning 6-0.

Andy Warne’s Strollers rink grabbed the lead on the third end against the Fenmen and scored heavily thereafter to win 30-12.

The final score on the other rink was 20-11 for the Fenmen.

Against Breakaways, the Fenmen were in commanding form, winning 26-12 for Les Feary and 22-6 for Jim Gott.

Strollers also played A40, who are in fifth, and won 6-0.

Alan Everitt’s rink took 10 ends to get the lead and then powered on to win 20-8.

Mick Dodes, skip on the other rink, went 2-13 down after nine ends before starting to work their way back into the match, taking the remaining ends 17-1 to make the final score 19-14.

IBC participated in two very close contests during the week.

One was a mid-table clash with Nomads that IBC lost 6-0, but the winning margin on each rink was only by a single shot.

Understandably, there was little to choose between the teams on either rink during the games, with Derek Smith’s rink winning 14-13 and Barry Beagles’ rink 18-17.

When IBC faced top team Invaders, the points were shared 3-3.

For Invaders, Scott Whyers’ rink were never headed and ran out winners by 21-16.

The second rink went to IBC, skipped by Richard Pearson, where they started well and built an 18-3 advantage, then had to hold on as Invaders mounted a fight back, the final score being 22-17.

The extras for shot aggregate were shared.

Parthians met Royal Mail and played well to take all the points, winning 27-14 for Keith Nix and 22-17 for Pete Bedford.

As a consequence, Parthians went up two places to replace Royal Mail in eighth spot.

A40 played Cosmos, winning 6-0. Cosmos were in contention on both rinks for the first half of each game, but A40 finished with better scoring bursts, to win 23-13 for Jean Cammack and 17-14 for Alan Bachelor.

Finally, in this division, Breakaways beat Central 6-0, with wins of 32-7 on Neil Harrison’s rink and, in a more evenly contested game, 19-14 on Derek Butwright’s.

Breakaways remain in fourth position, one point ahead of A40.

There were more dramatic results in the T&B Containers Second Division, continuing the recent trend in this competitive league.

Bottom-placed Phantoms beat the leaders Golfers 4-2, and might be slightly disappointed not to have taken all six points.

Graham Taylor skipped his rink to win 17-11, helped massively by scoring a six to grab the lead towards the end of the game.

Skip Gordon Gallichan won 15-14 for the Golfers in a close game on the other rink.

Hotspurs in fourth faced second-placed Dynamics and won 4-2, with Mike Long’s rink winning 21-17 by finishing the game more strongly.

There was little between the teams on the other rink, Ken Burr just sneaking the win 16-14 for Dynamics by scoring six shots to four over the final three ends.

The Patriarchs rink suffered a rare loss this week, 8-15, to a determined and courageous Vectors squad, skipped by Kevin Rockall.

Vikings beat Amateurs 6-0, winning 17-12 on John Millership’s rink and 21-15 on John Stray’s.

Amateurs skip, Ron Spence, had a fantastic game on the second rink and didn’t deserve to be on the losing side.

In a catch-up match against The Burtons, Vikings took two points for the 17-15 win on Terry Marshall’s rink, in a game where the fortunes fluctuated both ways.

Chris Hill skipped The Burtons to a 21-8 win on the other rink.

The Burtons also faced U3, taking all the points with two convincing wins, 25-10 for Clare Britchford and 19-7 for Dave Bailey.

Shipmates had their best result for several weeks, beating Autos 6-0 with 21-7 and 14-11 wins for Ted Vere and Walter Parker respectively. Autos dropped one place to seventh as a result, with Shipmates still eighth.