Sunday 15 December 2024 was a busy day down at the Club. It started with the Christmas Melee which was followed later by the first Monkstone Christmas Dinner at which the December Club 100 Draw was made.
Christmas Melee
The melee started almost on time at 11:00am after it transpired that the Organiser had set up the teams for the 40 people he was told were there when in fact there were 42! This little hiccup resolved, play commenced.
After Round 1, as might have been expected , there were 21 players on 1 win. The early leaders were Lindsay Christian & Claude le Razavet (+12) followed by Mike Jones & Tony Cooper (+11).
Round 2 is where the real contenders for the title begin to emerge if they can follow up their Round 1 win with another victory. When the dust had settled there were 13 players on 2 wins. Of the Round 1 leaders only Lindsay & Claude had managed a second win but some of the lower winners had good Round 2 wins to bring them up into convention. So, leading the field were Lindsay (+18), Peter David (+16), Claude (+14) and Alex Skibinski (+14).
Onto the 3rd and final round – could Lindsay maintain her lead and take the trophy or would someone out of the top 4 have a big win and propel themselves to the top. When the scores were in and checked Claude & Peter had fallen at the final hurdle but Lindsay & Alex were still up there. The final results were in and the top 4 on 3 wins were:
| 1st | Alex Skibinski | +25 |
| 2nd | Lindsay Christian | +24 |
| 3rd | Lloyd Kinsey | +23 |
| 4th | Keith Thomas | +15 |
Congratulations to Alex and thanks to all who took part.
Christmas Dinner
After the Melee some of the players repaired to the clubhouse, where they were joined by other Club members and families along with one or two friends, for the first (annual?) Monkstone PC Christmas Dinner.
The meal of Christmas Dinner or Vegan Wellington followed by Christmas Pudding or Gateaux was served amongst the sounds of everyone having a good time. The meal was rounded off with coffee and a chocolate.
A very enjoyable occasion and, from appearances, a good time was had by all.
Huge thanks are due to Judith Smith (who had decided that Madeira was a better option!) for organising the event, Katrina Munro & Richard King for setting up the room on the day and making sure everything went well with the serving and Katrina, Richard, Vickie Adshead & Sandy Warner for clearing up. Apologies if I have missed any one who was involved in any way in putting on the event.
Club 100 Draw
The December draw was made at the Christmas Dinner. This was the big one with the Christmas Bonus draw – “El Gordo”. The lucky winners were:
| Bonus | Roger “Ben” Bennett | £200 |
| 1 | Spencer Bartlett | £100 |
| 2 | Del Axon | £40 |
| 3 | Keith Thomas | £20 |
The Club 100 has 69 members which means the total monthly prize pot is approximately £155. In addition there is a bonus draw in December for a prize of around £200 (depending on the number of members). Grateful thanks to all those Monkstone Club members and others who support the petanque club through the Club 100. If you are not a member please consider joining. The more people that join the bigger the prizes and the more improvements we can make to YOUR Club.
Congratulations to the winners but don’t forget:
YOU HAVE TO BE IN IT TO WIN IT
Contact Bernard on treasurer [at] monkstonepetanque [dot] org [dot] uk or speak to him at the Club if you would like to join or for more details.
