Successful men’s Denny squad reaches the Plate final again
The Men’s squad from Boston Indoor Bowls Club have reached the Denny Plate final in the national team competition for the second year running, a brilliant achievement for the local club.
They will now play Folkestone IBC in the final at Nottingham on March 28th, hoping to go one better this year and claim the title.
Meeting Darlington IBC in the semi-final on neutral ground at New Earswick near York, they were ahead from the start and never headed over the four-hour match, eventually winning with an overall shot aggregate of 75-66.
Andy Reeson and Matt Whyers skipped their rinks to win 24-12 and 23-11 respectively. Andy, playing with son Liam, Aidan Brickles and Rod West, started strongly to lead 18-1 after eight ends, while Matt’s rink of Ian Clark, Dave Allen and Alex Tomlin, steadily built their advantage after scoring five shots on the first end and never looked back.
The other rinks ended 15-21 and 13-22 and, while Darlington narrowed the shot aggregate to nine shots towards the end of the match, Boston kept the upper hand to make it through to the final for the second year, helped and encouraged by their travelling supporters.
Back to the Evening League, three matches in the Orchard Health Group First Division finished 3-3, including the top of the table clash between Holland Fen and Invaders, where Martin Tomlin’s rink won 19-15 and Nathan Dunnington’s 18-14.
Third-placed Strollers finished 3-3 for the second week running, this time against IBC, who are eighth, Andy Warne’s rink winning 18-14, Jim Gott’s, for IBC, 21-17. The third 3-3 game featured Breakaways and Dynamics, the closest of them all, Nick Whitmore winning 22-21 for Breakaways, Mick Rate 12-11 for Dynamics.
Optimists won against A40 by 4-2, with Matt Whyers dominating his rink to win 26-8. Optimists led 18-8 on the other rink, but Sue Hoyles for A40 won the last five ends to snatch victory 19-18 and two points.
Parthians took all the points against Golfers, Keith Nix taking control from the tenth end to win 29-15 and Richard Keeling winning 17-13.
The bottom-of-the-table clash between Nomads in eleventh and Royal Mail, bottom, saw Royal Mail win 5-1 after two competitive games, Carly Morris winning 14-11 on one rink and Keith Sharp and Pino Venniri sharing the points 16-16 on the other.
The gap between the leaders in Cammacks Division Two now stands at seven points from a high of twenty-one at the end of January. In the latest round of games, Desperados only managed two points, while second-placed Hotspurs took all six and are chasing hard.
Against Central, Adam Hodgson’s Desperados rink was 16-2 ahead, eventually winning 20-11, while Central dominated the other rink, winning 27-13. Hotspurs won 24-13 and 19-13 against Woodpeckers.
The other games all finished 4-2 for Burtons, Amateurs and Shipmates. Burtons, now third, won 23-11 and lost 8-17 against Phantoms, Amateurs beat Vikings 22-15 on one rink, losing the other 16-18, and Shipmates won 17-13 and lost 19-20 against Vectors.