Night League Report

Boston Indoor Bowling Club (Bibc)

Evening League Report                                               Week 5: 6, 7 and 9 October 2025

Headline: Hotspurs and Desperados lead the charge in bowls club second division

Results last week in Cammacks Division Two of the Night League at Boston Indoor Bowls Club saw Hotspurs and Desperados confirm their status as the teams most likely to vie for promotion come the end of the season in April.

Hotspurs took ten points from two matches, winning 6-0 against Vikings and 4-2 vs Kingfishers, to maintain leadership in this division with 27 points.  Against Vikings, Ken Burr’s rink, with lead Yvonne Smith and pin Stewart Reynolds, dominated the game, winning 29-10.  Mike Long won the second rink 18-9.  Mike Long also won against Kingfishers, 22-12, controlling the game from the tenth end.  Kingfishers took the other rink 16-11.

Desperados recovered from a poor result the previous week to record two convincing 6-0 wins, leaving them just 3 points behind Hotspurs in second place.  Adam Hodgson skipped Jason Williams and John Hodgson to win 30-10 against Vectors, while Dean Harris took the other rink 21-17.  In their second game, Desperados had good wins on both rinks against Amateurs, 26-9 for David Allen and 23-8 for Dean Harris.

Burtons took 8 points from their two games to move into third place, leaving them eight points behind Desperados.  Just six points separating Burtons and all the teams below them reflects the close competition in Division Two.  Beating Woodpeckers 6-0, Chris Hill won 14-9 by virtue of scoring six shots over the last three ends, and Reg Felton won 15-11, holding on as Woodpeckers finished strongly.

Shipmates recent good form saw them beat Burtons 4-2, with Jeff Ginsburgh’s rink dominating the game to win 26-7.  Chris Hill ensured 2 points for Burtons by taking the other rink 26-11.

Vikings beat Central 4-2, John Millership’s rink winning 25-10.  David Boyne won a close game for Central on the other rink by 15-13.

Amateurs took all the points against Phantoms, winning 20-7 and 14-13 for Jeff Homewood and Trevor Coulson.  Vectors then played Phantoms, winning 6-0, to move into fourth place, leaving Phantoms and Amateurs equal on points with them in fifth and sixth, but with poorer shot aggregates.  For Vectors, Colin Heppenstall dominated to win 18-5, while Kevin Rockall won 17-10.

In the Orchard Health Group First Division, Holland Fen extended their lead over Invaders at the top by beating Optimists on both rinks, 23-7 and 20-11, with Invaders dropping 2 points against Royal Mail, who took one rink 14-13, having led 6-0 and 10-3 early on.  Invaders took a close game on the other rink 18-11.

Strollers stay in third after beating Parthians 4-2, Andy Warne winning 16-10.  Keith Nix took the other rink, 17-12.

Dynamics met IBC and beat them 6-0 with good wins on both rinks to move them up to fourth, replacing IBC.  Mick Rate won 23-13 and Graham Wilkinson, 20-14.

Breakaways held onto fifth after taking just one point from a very close match with Golfers, the rink scores being 14-14 and 13-14.

A40’s best result of the season saw them beat Nomads 6-0 with 26-6 and 19-10 wins.

Stephen Boycott

Boston Indoor Bowling Club (Bibc)

Evening League Report Week 3: 22 and 23 September 2024

Headline: New Indoor season starts at Bowls Club with Drawn Pairs competition

The new indoor season has begun at Boston Indoor Bowls Club. The action kicked off in the first week of September with a Drawn Pairs competition, the first competition to be played on the new carpet installed in May.

Attracting 66 bowlers playing a knock-out competition over five rounds, the winners were Jose Isaacs and Ian Clark who beat Wayne Smith and Richard Allam by 57 points to 43 in the final. Isaacs and Clark had the easier route through the previous rounds with wins of 20, 40, 20 and 20 points, compared with Smith and Allam’s progress of wins by 22, 8, 6 and 4 points. Thanks go to the sponsors Duckworth’s and the club’s Bonus Ball, and to Mark Brown and Carol Dowse for organising the event.

The new Night League competition is now well under way after playing the first three rounds. In the Orchard Health Group First Division, last year’s champions and runners-up, Holland Fen and Invaders, have both made perfect starts to the new campaign, taking the maximum of 18 points from their games.

Holland Fen played strongly to beat A40, Nomads and Royal Mail convincingly with an average shot advantage of over 40 shots per game. Invaders have been in charge in each of their matches against Nomads, Optimists and A40, but without the heavy scoring achieved by Holland Fen.

IBC and Strollers have started well and are close behind in third and fourth. IBC beat both Breakaways and Parthians 6-0, having control of the games on each rink. They shared the points 3-3 against Golfers, for whom David Marshall’s rink won well by 27-18.

Strollers took all the points against Golfers, winning one of the rinks 23-18 having started slowly to trail 4-16 at the half-way point. Against Dynamics and Breakaways, they won 4-2, with good wins on one rink in each match, 32-7 against Dynamics and 30-11 against Breakaways.

Dynamics have made a solid start to the season to be in fifth place, taking six points against Parthians, four off Golfers and two against Strollers. Graham Wilkinson’s rink, with Pam Rate and Seamus Rooney, have won all three of their games 27-10, 18-14 and 18-17.

Newly promoted Optimists took two points in their opening game against Royal Mail, winning one rink 25-20, lost both rinks against Invaders, then dominated the game with Nomads, winning 21-10 and 20-11.

In Cammacks Division Two, the early leaders are Woodpeckers, after taking six points off both Vikings and Phantoms and four points from Amateurs.

Desperados have played twice, winning both convincingly 6-0 against Shipmates and Kingfishers.

Hotspurs, relegated from Division One last season, are just behind in third. They were beaten 0-6 in their first match against Phantoms, in spite of starting well on both rinks, then took five points against Burtons and all six against Amateurs.

Just two points separate the next five teams after each have had inconsistent starts to the campaign, with Kingfishers in fourth, Phantoms, fifth, Vectors, sixth, Amateurs, seventh and Vikings, ninth.

Stephen Boycott

 

Boston Indoor Bowling Club (Bibc)

Evening League Report                          Week 4: 29, 30 September and 2 October 2024

Headline: Busy week for Division One teams in Night League

A busy week in the Night League at Boston Indoor Bowls Club saw teams in the Orchard Health Group First Division play two rounds of matches, with the stand-out fixtures seeing the top four teams playing each other to establish superiority in the table.

Leaders Holland Fen met their close rivals, Invaders, winning 4-2.  Alex Tomlin’s Holland Fen rink was dominant in winning 29-8, while the Invaders rink of Harry Allerton, Ian Tebbs and skip Nathan Dunnington started well to lead 12-6 before being pegged back to 14-13, then finished well to win 22-14 for two points.

IBC and Strollers in third and fourth also met, Strollers coming out on top 4-2 after two closely fought games.  Paul Flatters’ rink won 17-13 for Strollers, with Derek Smith taking the other rink for IBC, 17-15.

The second round of games matched Holland Fen against IBC and Invaders and Strollers.  Dominic McVittie skipped Holland Fen to a commanding 39-9 win, but the second rink was much more competitive with IBC coming back from 5-14 down to lose by just two shots at the end, 14-16.

Invaders beat Strollers 5-1, Scott Whyers leading throughout to win 16-12, while the other rink was drawn 21-21 as Strollers with skip Paul Flatters came back from being 11-21 behind.  Holland Fen are now 3 points ahead of Invaders, with Strollers third, nine points behind, and IBC fourth.

Breakaways had two 6-0 wins this week to move them into fifth place behind IBC on shot aggregate.  Nick Whitmore’s rink had a good 22-12 win against Dynamics, while Mark Brown’s game was closely fought to eke out a 17-16 win.  Against A40, Mark Brown’s rink won 19-15 and Mike Rymer’s 18-14.

Close rivals, Dynamics and Optimists, sixth and seventh, met with Dynamics winning 4-2.  Graham Wilkinson’s rink dominated their game to win 32-9, while John Melless skipped his Optimists rink to win 22-15 having trailed 9-15 after 14 ends.  Optimists took 4 points against A40 in another game.

Parthians had 4-2 victories against both Golfers and Royal Mail.  Against Golfers, Ron Moore won 16-11, while David Marshall’s Golfers finished well to take the other rink 13-11.  Richard Keeling’s rink played well to win 21-11 against Royal Mail, who hung on to win a close game 18-16 on the second rink.

Nomads beat Royal Mail 6-0, winning one rink convincingly 25-6 and taking the other on the last end, 18-14, having been behind throughout.  Golfers won their game against Nomads 4-2, Ian Drury having a good 22-6 win.  Pino Venniri won the other 23-13 for Nomads.

Hotspurs are the new leaders in Cammacks Division Two, after a 6-0 win against the previous top side, Woodpeckers, recording 23-12 and 19-14 wins.

Phantoms took all 6 points against Burtons to continue their good start to the season, winning 17-11 and 15-12.

Struggling Central met Desperados, who were second, taking all the points with 16-12 and 18-17 wins.

Two matches ended with 5-1 wins, for Vikings against Amateurs and Shipmates vs Vectors.

Stephen Boycott