Earlier this month, Monkstone Petanque Club paid its respects to former member Bernard Bradshaw, who passed away earlier this year, in the form of a memorial melee.

Before things got underway though, the Club also paid its respects, with a few moments of silence, to our good friend Peter Westall of Maesteg PC who tragically passed away last month. Peter was also a former member of Monkstone PC.

The competition took the form of a 3 round melee run by President Mike Jones.

After Round 1 there were 4 players tying for first place with wins of 13-2 – Rose, Roger, Sean and Gill. Things were shaken up a bit in Round 2 with all three leaders losing. Only Rose managed to stay in the top 3 – first was Keith with +21, followed by new girl Jane with +16 and Rose on +15.

The position going into the final round was that only Jane & Rose could topple Keith but they would need to win by almost 13-0 and Keith would have to lose by a similar score. In the event this proved to much to overcome but all three carved out a win and there was no change in the top three. Final scores were Keith +34, Jane +27 and Rose +24.

El Presidente presents the shield to Keith

Jane, Keith & Rose

The 2019 WPA League Cup/Plate Finals were held on 28 September at Ystradowen PC. The Competing teams were Maesteg, Monkstone Minotaurs, Monkstone Monarchs & Penarth Panthers.

Before the competition commenced a period of silence was observed in memory of our good friend Peter Westall who was a member of Maesteg PC.

The semi- finals featured Maesteg v Minotaurs and Monarchs v Panthers. Moments after play started the rain started and for the whole of the semi-finals continued with a couple of short breaks until lunchtime.

The Minotaurs got off to a poor start when Bernard & Pred never really got into the game and lost 3 -13 in very quick order. In the other game Vickie and Peter K kept the Minotaurs in the tie with a 13 – 7 win although with points counting in the event of a draw it was unfortunate that, leading 12-2, they let their opponents chalk up another 5 points before closing out the game. In the reverse games Bernard & Pred came good and ran out easy winners by 13-2. This meant that Vickie & Peter needed only 6 points to draw the tie and 7 to win. Things were not looking good when they were trailing 1-10, when with Maesteg holding but out of boule, Vickie pushed the cosh out into open territory and they pointed in for 4. Only 2 more points were needed for the win but unfortunately Maesteg regrouped and got to 13 to win the tie by 1 point leaving the Minotaurs to rue the missed opportunities in the first two games.

In the other semi-final, represented by Rogers Griffin & Green, Sean & Mike J, the Monarchs ran out comfortable winners against the Panthers by 4-0 and 52-31 although they were pushed to to concede 9 points in 2 of the games.

After the lunch break, the weather cleared and only a couple of light showers spoiled the fine weather. In the Cup final, the Monarchs struggled against Maesteg. In their best game they took 11 points but eventually went down 0-4 and 37-52.

The Minotaurs went into the Plate final knowing that the pistes suited Penarth who generally play a pointing game. In the event the Minotaurs proved much too strong for their opponents and ran out winners by 3-1 and 47-28.

So Maesteg took the Cup and the Plate went to the Minotaurs.

All the teams agreed that new club Ystradowen had  developed a superb facility and their hospitality was second to none – bacon rolls will always win over a petanquer! Seriously. very well done to Ystradowen in hosting their first WPA competition in their first season.

CUP WINNERS – MAESTEG PC

Kevin Edwards, Jeremy Clare, Len Field & Matthew Clare

CUP RUNNERS-UP – MONKSTONE MONARCHS

Roger Griffin, Mike Jones, Roger Green & Sean Smith

PLATE WINNERS – MONKSTONE MINOTAURS

Peter Kensett, Vickie Adshead, Bernard Adshead & Peredur John

Wales started Day 2 well and part way through Round 8 they have closed the gap on Jersey to 2 games and are only 5 games behind England. The current round against Jersey and the next against England will be crucial to the final outcome.

At the end of Day 1 of the 2019 Home Nations, Wales had pulled back a little and are now in 3rd Place. There is still everything to play for with England on 28 wins, Jersey on 27 and Wales not that far behind on 22 with Scotland trailing on 19. It is certainly the closest Home Nations at this stage for a number of years. It is essential Wales get a good start on Day 2.