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

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.