Key matches involving highfliers in Boston Indoor Bowls League

Another busy week at Boston Indoor Bowling Club saw plenty of action in the T&B Containers Second Division, including several key matches between teams in the top half of the table.

The Burtons retained second place after being held to a 3-3 draw from their match with fourth-placed Hotspurs.

The score was the same on both rinks, 22-10, with wins recorded for Burtons skip Clare Britchford on one rink and Mike Nelson for Hotspurs on the other.

Hotspurs also faced Amateurs, who are fifth, winning 4-2.

Neil Owen’s rink were in control from the start, with the Exton brothers bowling particularly well, winning with ease by 29-7.

Amateurs skip Tony Nixon brought some control to the game on the other rink to win 18-10.

In their second match of the week, Amateurs beat Dynamics 4-2, with Tony Nixon again guiding his rink to victory, an emphatic 25-9 win.

The other rink saw a closely fought contest, eventually won 15-12 by Graham Wilkinson for Dynamics.

Patriarchs also played Dynamics and won by 23-9 for 2 points, leaving Dynamics to pick up the other four.

Dynamics ended the week in fourth spot, one point behind Hotspurs, who moved up to third, and four behind Burtons, still in second.

Amateurs are seven points adrift of Dynamics in fifth place.

Golfers played Patriarchs and were in total control to win 29-3.

They also beat Vectors 28-14 and 18-10 in games they mostly controlled to take another six points.

Golfers now have a comfortable 28-point margin over The Burtons at the head of the table.

Vikings had good wins on both rinks against U3, 31-11 and 28-9, leaving them in sixth, only one point behind Amateurs.

Autos remain in seventh place after a 6-0 win over Vectors and drawing 3-3 with Phantoms.

Against Vectors, they went ahead early on both rinks, then held on as Vectors closed the gap, winning 20-15 for Jeff Homewood and 18-16 for Ivor Roberts.

The Phantoms match saw one shot margins on both rinks, 17-16 for Autos skip Ivor Roberts and 15-14 for Phantoms skip Keith Brown.

With one end to go, though, Phantoms were in position to win both rinks and take all six points.

Phantoms beat Shipmates 4-2. Both rinks were won by a clear margin, Graham Taylor’s Phantoms rink by 23-8 and Ted Vere for Shipmates 23-11.

The extras for shot aggregate went to Phantoms by just three shots.

U3 took four points off Shipmates, winning one rink 36-9 for two points and taking the extras.

The other rink was close, Shipmates just getting the advantage on the last end to win 16-15.

The top two teams in the Orchard Health Group First Division both had 6-0 wins last week, leaving a five-point gap between them at the top of the table.

Against Nomads, Invaders won easily on Scott Whyers’ rink 29-7.

They trailed on the second rink for most of the game and only claimed victory on the last end to win 12-11 for skip Ian Tebbs.

Les Feary’s Holland Fen rink were in control of their match throughout against A40 and ran out 22-8 winners.

A40 started well on the other rink to lead by 13 shots, but the Fenmen with skip Steve Skelton fought back to win 20-16.

Cosmos played two matches, against Royal Mail and Parthians, and came away with 10 points from the week, moving them up to eighth.

Against Royal Mail, Simon Sperring’s Cosmos rink won 21-15.

Royal Mail and skip Keith Sharp won the other rink 12-10 following a tight game, only grabbing the lead as the final two ends approached.

Cosmos had control of both rinks against Parthians, winning 28-10 for Simon Sperring and 23-9 for Jean Thompson.

Third-placed Strollers also played Parthians, taking four points.

Mick Dodes’s rink dominated the game to win by 32-9.

Parthians skip Pete Bedford snatched victory on the last end of the other game after a topsy-turvy struggle for superiority, winning by one shot 16-15.

Finally, IBC beat Central 5-1, winning Chris Gill’s rink 20-7 and drawing the second rink 15-15, where Central were rewarded for their strong finish after they’d trailed for much of the game.