Monkstone Pétanque Club

There was a fantastic turn-out last Sunday for our melee with nearly 30 players participating. It was a pleasure to be joined by Tansy and Paul from Caerleon with their Finnish friends, Tony and Kimmo. But all the honours went to three club players who were the only players to win all their matches. Congratulations to Ian Baildon-Smith (1st), Phil Roberts (2nd) and Vickie Adshead (3rd).

Monkstone entered 2 full teams and Tony Smith played in a composite team at today’s Caerleon Open Triples. 18 teams battled it out all day under the blazing sun. After the mornings snake competition Barney’s Rabble (John Barnes, Roger Green, Keith Nott, Peter Kensett) and Monkstone Marvels (Vickie Adshead, Peredur John, Bernard Adshead) finished 10th and 11th respectively putting them in the Silver Competition.

Both teams won their Quarter Finals, but the Marvels run came to an end in the Semi Final against the Vikings. They made a spirited recovery from 12-2 down to pull the score up to 12-9 when unfortunately with all the momentum with them, they ran out of time. Barney’s Rabble won their Semi Final and faced the Marvels conquerors, the Vikings, in the Final. Barney’s Rabble struggled to get going and found themselves 7 points behind. They then got their act together and clawed their way back into the game (no doubt the Vikings had been softened up by the Marvels recovery in the previous game) and eventually ran out 13-11 winners.

Thanks to Caerleon – especially organiser Tansy – for a great day’s boules,