Defending champions find out life's tough at the top

This week they dropped further points when least expected.

Matched against Punchbowlers, Gordon Harris, John Rylott and Chris Gill fell heavily to the Bowlers’ Iris Reeson, Bunny Reeson and Andrew Limb (24-10).

But all was not in vain as the Road’s Les Feary produced a winning 6-25 result which secured the aggregate points.

Current leaders Eastenders and second-placed Holland Fen widened the gap on the champions when they both won all six points.

For the Enders, Richard Vinter triumphed 30-12 and Andrew Reeson - in an evenly-balanced game - just won 15-12 as bottom team Norprint finished pointless.

Holland Fen were matched against Invaders, and Jim Gott won 33-8 and Bazza Wilson, Ab French and Ron Flowers were grateful to pick up a count on the 15th end which pushed them into the lead, running out 18-14 winners.

After last week’s disappointing result, A40 bounced back to win the aggregate points from Strollers.

For Strollers, Alex Seaton, Roy Risborough and Alan Everitt won 13-20, but A40 responded 22-12 for the extra points.

Royal Mail would be disappointed to lose the majority of the points to IBC.

In two very close games, Michael Bolsin, Derek Smith and Michael King won 17-13 against Jill Smith, Jeff Powell and Denis Ellis, while Richard White dropped a count of two to tie 13-13.

In the T&B Containers Division Two, Red 5 appear to be marching on relentlessly to win the league and a place in the top division.

Matched against Amateurs, the team put in a very solid performance to win the points.

Colin Price, Howard Williams and Bob Lody triumphed 20-8 and Judith Richmond, Nick Whitmore-Brown and Peter Comberworth won 22-13.

With second-placed Feathers on a bye week, Breakaways and Boston Park upped the ante.

Breakaways’ Carol Dowse, Anne Jackson and Derek Butwright won 30-5 but Jo Dowse, Gordon Gallichan and Ivan Dilley fell 12-18 to the Burtons’ Dave Bailey.

Boston Park faced Autos but claimed all six points.

Nigel Taylor won 15-11 and Geoff Harris went on to win 28-11.

These two results saw Feathers drop down to fourth but with a game in hand.

The Golfers’ game with Parthians saw the rink points shared and also the aggregate points.

Golfers’ Norman Ablard won 20-9 but, replying for Parthians, Pete Bedford triumphed 10-21.

Patriarchs and Poachers were also involved in a close game which saw the Patriarchs win overall by two shots.

For Poachers, Mick Dodes won 14 -11, which fell short of the reply from Colin Baxter, who won 12-17.

Vikings saw their five-point advantage at the top of the Cammacks Division Three cut to just one as they dropped four points to under-strength Central.

Dave Clark, Hazel Clark and Peter Sharman won 22-6, and this result enabled Marion Epton and Fred Epton to play really doggedly to keep their deficit to the minimum, which saw them win four points, Doug Staples’ trio winning 18-29.

Second-placed Cosmos, playing at the same time as the leaders, took advantage and won all six from their game with U3.

Bob Thompson won 24-7 and Eddie Bell added a 16-15 score.

The Dynamics versus Traders game, on paper, should have been maximum points to Dynamics .

But that was not the case in practice.

Jonathan West won 28-9 but, replying for the lower team, Barrie Hudson, Margaret Wells and Norman Stanley hung on to win 16-19 for two very good points.

Fairways would be pleased with their success against Shipmates, which moved them ahead of their opposition in the table.

Heather Scarboro succeeded 20-9 and Anthea Hall won 13-9.

Highflyers did not field a full team and paid the penalty against the Rileys, Tracey Hodgson and John Hodgson with wins of 39-4 and 30-17.

Boston Indoor Bowling Club had disappointing results in the Denny Cup and Yetton Trophy, both national team competitions.

The Denny team fell to Spalding 49-81.

The ladies’ Yetton team fell to South Forest 42-91, again by a mammoth margin.

The ladies’ Mason team set off in defence of the trophy they won last year with a predictable win against Scunthorpe B.

With their top two players not available they still won 53-22.