Hotspurs extend their lead at the top of Boston Indoor Bowling League

Yvonne Smith, Rob Druce and Mike Long were in control from the off to win 23-12, while the second rink of Pam Rate, Phil Exton and Mick Rate played out a closely fought game to eventually grab the win 20-18 on the last end

Central, second, beat Amateurs 4-2. Fred Epton’s rink, with Anthea Hall and Marion Epton in support, won convincingly 26-6 for 2 points, also ensuring the extras for the shot aggregate. Amateurs and skip Trevor Coulson took the other rink 26-10.

Desperados maintained third place by beating Kingfishers 6-0, Adam Hodgson’s rink winning 23-11 and Colin Louth’s 17-12.

Optimists in fourth took 4 points off Phantoms, dominating Andrew Reeson’s rink, with Stan Lawrence and Judith Richmond, to win 41-7. Roy Stanley took the other rink for Phantoms 16-12.

Vectors faced Woodpeckers, winning 4-2, Kevin Rockall’s rink taking control of the game from the seventh end to win 15-8. Two points went to Woodpeckers as Keith Motley skipped his rink to win 16-13 in a closely fought final three ends.

Holland Fen, Invaders and Strollers, the top three sides in the Orchard Health Group First Division, all won 6-0, against Nomads, Parthians and Golfers.

For Holland Fen, Les Feary’s rink were in control from the start and won 23-10. The second rink was still tied at 11-11 after 14 ends, before Chris Gill finished strongly to win 18-11.

Against Invaders, Parthians competed well for the first half of the games on each rink. But Invaders superior scoring over the second half saw them home 27-19 on Scott Whyers’ rink and 21-14 on Rod West’s.

Strollers were too good for Golfers on both rinks, Andy Warne winning 22-7 and Paul Flatters 22-11.

IBC met A40 in two closely contested games, eventually winning 4-2. IBC are clear in fourth place, five points ahead of Nomads in fifth.

Jim Gott’s IBC rink took control of the game from the eleventh end to win 18-14. A40 were leading 14-6 on the other rink, then had to withstand a final surge by IBC over the finishing ends to leave the score 15-14 to A40.

Breakaways and Royal Mail faced Burtons and Dynamics respectively, winning 4-2 in each case.

The scores were close at times on both rinks of the Breakaways – Burtons contest. Mark Brown’s Breakaways rink eventually won 22-14, while Dave Bailey took the other 18-14 for Burtons, their third success this season.

Keith Sharp’s Royal Mail rink started slowly against Dynamics to be 7-12 behind after twelve ends, but then found a rich vein of form to score 19 shots without reply and so win the game 26-12.

Graham Wilkinson took the other rink for Dynamics 19-13, coming back from being 5-9 behind at the half-way point.