Busy week for Division One teams in Night League
A busy week in the Night League at Boston Indoor Bowls Club saw teams in the Orchard Health Group First Division play two rounds of matches, with the stand-out fixtures seeing the top four teams playing each other to establish superiority in the table.
Leaders Holland Fen met their close rivals, Invaders, winning 4-2. Alex Tomlin’s Holland Fen rink was dominant in winning 29-8, while the Invaders rink of Harry Allerton, Ian Tebbs and skip Nathan Dunnington started well to lead 12-6 before being pegged back to 14-13, then finished well to win 22-14 for two points.
IBC and Strollers in third and fourth also met, Strollers coming out on top 4-2 after two closely fought games. Paul Flatters’ rink won 17-13 for Strollers, with Derek Smith taking the other rink for IBC, 17-15.
The second round of games matched Holland Fen against IBC and Invaders and Strollers. Dominic McVittie skipped Holland Fen to a commanding 39-9 win, but the second rink was much more competitive with IBC coming back from 5-14 down to lose by just two shots at the end, 14-16.
Invaders beat Strollers 5-1, Scott Whyers leading throughout to win 16-12, while the other rink was drawn 21-21 as Strollers with skip Paul Flatters came back from being 11-21 behind. Holland Fen are now 3 points ahead of Invaders, with Strollers third, nine points behind, and IBC fourth.
Breakaways had two 6-0 wins this week to move them into fifth place behind IBC on shot aggregate. Nick Whitmore’s rink had a good 22-12 win against Dynamics, while Mark Brown’s game was closely fought to eke out a 17-16 win. Against A40, Mark Brown’s rink won 19-15 and Mike Rymer’s 18-14.
Close rivals, Dynamics and Optimists, sixth and seventh, met with Dynamics winning 4-2. Graham Wilkinson’s rink dominated their game to win 32-9, while John Melless skipped his Optimists rink to win 22-15 having trailed 9-15 after 14 ends. Optimists took 4 points against A40 in another game.
Parthians had 4-2 victories against both Golfers and Royal Mail. Against Golfers, Ron Moore won 16-11, while David Marshall’s Golfers finished well to take the other rink 13-11. Richard Keeling’s rink played well to win 21-11 against Royal Mail, who hung on to win a close game 18-16 on the second rink.
Nomads beat Royal Mail 6-0, winning one rink convincingly 25-6 and taking the other on the last end, 18-14, having been behind throughout. Golfers won their game against Nomads 4-2, Ian Drury having a good 22-6 win. Pino Venniri won the other 23-13 for Nomads.
Hotspurs are the new leaders in Cammacks Division Two, after a 6-0 win against the previous top side, Woodpeckers, recording 23-12 and 19-14 wins.
Phantoms took all 6 points against Burtons to continue their good start to the season, winning 17-11 and 15-12.
Struggling Central met Desperados, who were second, taking all the points with 16-12 and 18-17 wins.
Two matches ended with 5-1 wins, for Vikings against Amateurs and Shipmates vs Vectors.