Mother Nature continued her rule over the Hong Kong Lawn Bowls Association Premier League season, having washed away half of the games on the first match day of the second half of the season.
While most of the teams took the entire summer to clean up all the games that were affected by poor weather in the first half of the season, a lot of teams will be busy re-arranging their games that were abandoned last Saturday Aug 31.
Despite scattered rain on Saturday morning, most of the matches started as planned, albeit under an overcasted skyline. After an hour the weather quickly changed face with showers and a few squally thunderstorms.
At the end, of the 31 men’s games scheduled, 16 were forced to abandon. For the women’s 20 scheduled matches, only half were finished.
In the men’s first division, while the standings leader Kowloon Cricket Club’s game against Indian Recreation Club was abandoned after just a few ends, the focus is on an internal affair between the A and B team of the Hong Kong Football Club.
The HKFC-B team, who was lying in second place and trailing the leader by five points before the weekend, could have climbed to pole position should they defeat their club-mates. Technically the B team, who uses HKFC’s indoor green as its home, was playing away because the game was played at HKFC’s outdoor green.
Under the thunderstorm and frequent lightening, both teams struggled with the changing green conditions, but at the end it was the home side that adapted better and prevail victorious.
The 8:0 loss means that HKFC-B remains in second and is still trailing KCC by five points, who now have a game in hand. Meanwhile, HKFC-A moved out of the relegation zone and progressed to mid-table.
In the only other first division game played, bottom club Island Lawn Bowls Club lost 2:6 to the Police to worsen their relegation fear. They have now played one game more than the three teams above them and are 10 points away from safety.
Women’s
The leader Hong Kong Football Club A suffered a loss to the hands of their club-mates, but still hold onto the top standings position; largely due to the game between second-placed Shatin Sports Association and third-placed United Services Recreation Club being called off.
HKFC-A now lead the table with a four-point cushion.
Claudius Lam is an Officer with the Hong Kong Lawn Bowls Association.
