Positive COVID-19 test sees bowling action postponed

Thursday’s league matches were postponed and the venue shut its door as a safety measure before the weekend’s lockdown announcement.

Sport and socialising at the bowling club now appears to be on hold until December, at least, following the Government placing the country back in lockdown, and putting a stop to indoor sport.

The evening league matches at Boston Indoor Bowling Club had reached the half-way point of the autumn season, with clear leaders emerging in Divisions One and Two.

Eastenders confirmed their status as league leaders in the Orchard Health Group Division One by beating bottom-placed Parthians 6-0.

Both rinks won had convincingly, 23-4 and 21-8.

Second-placed Holland Fen were pitted against Invaders, three places lower in the table, but were beaten 4-2 on the night.

The Fenmen won one rink 21-9, but Invaders won 23-6 on the other rink, also doing enough to collect the extra points for total shots scored.

Even so, the respective positions of the teams in the table were unchanged after the match, with the Fenmen still second and Invaders fifth.

A40 overcame IBC by 5-1, and in consequence the teams swapped places in the table as a result, with A40 now in third spot.

One rink was tied at 14 shots all, but A40 took the spoils on the second rink to win 15-10.

In the T&B Containers Division Two, the top-of-the-table clash between leaders Royal Mail and second-placed Breakaways saw the Mail take all six points and confirm their position out front.

However, the final score was close on both rinks, with RM only gaining the upper hand by 12-11 and 12-10.

The mid-table match between third-placed Nomads and Central in fourth ended with Central winning 6-0 and leaping into second position in the table.

They had clear wins on both rinks, by 18-9 and 14-10.

The match between Pilgrims and Dynamics had to be postponed.

Two tight matches were played out in Cammacks Division Three before the enforced closure.

Sixth placed Patriarchs took on Vectors in second, the match ending with the aggregate shots standing at 19 apiece, so each team took three points for their league positions.

Vectors have gone back to head the table.

The individual rink scores were 12-9 in favour of Patriarchs on one rink, and 10-7 for Vectors on the other.

Vikings and Amateurs started their match on 16 league points each in fourth and fifth positions.

Overall, there was very little between the teams, Vikings winning 17-7 on one rink, Amateurs taking the other rink 17-9, with Vikings just nipping in at the end to claim the extra points for total shots scored.

The third match between Shipmates, who were league leaders on shot difference before this round, and bottom-placed Phantoms, will be played out in the future.

With the number of positive cases of coronavirus rising across the county and further afield, it was inevitable that eventually someone visiting or working in the club would test positive at some point.

The club was able to re-open in mid-August after the directors, manager and staff set up a detailed set of protocols to follow to ensure the safety of bowlers and staff and create as safe an environment as possible.

A Track and Trace system has been introduced, there’s a one-way system around the playing area, temperature is taken on entry to the building, masks are worn at all times, except when bowling on the mat, and the regular use of hand sanitiser is encouraged.

Jacks and mats are swapped between each bowling session and are sanitised afresh, along with scoreboards, chairs and more, and the arena is ventilated.

But those who have returned to bowling over the last 10 weeks were very happy to be back and the club hopes it will open its doors again very soon.