Champions begin title defence with win on opening day of Boston's indoor evening league

The new season of matches in the Evening League at Boston Indoor Bowling Club is now underway.
Invaders, started the new campaign with a 5-1 defeat of Nomads.Invaders, started the new campaign with a 5-1 defeat of Nomads.
Invaders, started the new campaign with a 5-1 defeat of Nomads.

In the Orchard Health Group First Division, last year’s champions, Invaders, started the new campaign with a 5-1 defeat of Nomads. They won convincingly on Nathan Dunnington’s rink 23-11, taking control from the off.

Nomads had the better start on the second rink, going 12-2 ahead after 8 ends, before Invaders found their form to fight back to draw 15-15.

Holland Fen and Strollers, who were second and third last year, both had commanding 6-0 wins.

Holland Fen were ruthless in beating newly promoted Golfers 26-3 and 28-9, hitting their form from the very start.

Strollers were pitched against Royal Mail, dominating on Alan Everitt’s rink to win easily 28-6. Royal Mail started better on the second rink, but Strollers got into their stride from the seventh end to run out 24-13 winners for skip Mick Dodes.

A40, fourth last season, beat Cosmos 4-2. Bill Exton’s rink were always in control of their match to win 29-4.

Cosmos took 2 points by winning Jean Thompson’s rink by 17-13, holding the lead virtually throughout the game.

Parthians made a very good start by taking all the points off Breakaways, in spite of being slightly behind on both rinks at around the half-way stage.

Keith Nix’s rink won 17-11 after trailing 5-8 at 8 ends. Pete Bedford skipped his rink to win 19-15, having trailed 8-11 after 10 ends.

Hotspurs, the second team promoted to this division, were beaten 6-0 by IBC, but will be disappointed not to claim at least 2 points.

They had the better of the scoring on one rink, only losing to a score of 5 shots on the last end, leaving the final score 17-16 to IBC. Alex Seaton skipped IBC to win 20-9 on the other rink.

The early leaders in the Cammacks Division Two are Shipmates who took all 6 points from their encounter with Amateurs.

Jeff Skelton’s rink were in total control on their rink to win 23-0, beating an Amateurs rink who didn’t deserve to end the game without troubling the scoreboard.

The second rink was closer at 18-12, but Shipmates were always ahead once they took the lead on the eighth end.

The Burtons, who narrowly missed promotion last time, put in a solid performance to win 6-0 against new team Woodpeckers, who were not overawed by the occasion. Dave Bailey’s rink won 19-11 and Chris Hill’s rink by 16-11.

The second new team, Kingfishers, made an excellent start by beating Vikings 6-0, winning convincingly 21-9 for Dave Fox and 15-12, a closer match, for Richard Keeling.

Dynamics, who ended last season in fourth, met Central, who have come down from the First Division. Dynamics took the match 4-2.

Graham Wilkinson’s rink won 25-5 for Dynamics, while Fred Epton guided his Central bowlers to win 21-9 on the second rink after a slow start.

The final match saw the re-named team, The Desperados, beat Phantoms 4-2, with skip Jack Carr leading the way by winning his rink 23-11. Phantoms produced a strong finish to take the other rink 20-13 for Graham Taylor.