………………… and what did we get? The answer is fabulous new pistes!
A magnificent turn out at the Club this morning when members turned out on a glorious Saturday morning to celebrate St David’s Day …. oh, just a minute, that’s not why they were there.
You’ve heard of the Magnificent 7 – well this was the Magnificent 27!! Yes that’s how many members turned up to help spread 5 tonnes of gravel on the pistes and that was after moving 2 or 3 tonnes of the old gravel from one set of pistes to another. And all this was accomplished in about 90 minutes!
Never was there a better proof of the saying “Many hands make light work”.
A huge thank you all those who gave up their Saturday morning to help improve their Club for all members.
The January draw was made on 19 January 2025 at the Club. The lucky winners were:
1
Phil Lloyd
£100.50
2
Peter Axon
£33.50
3
Keith Thomas
£16.75
The February draw was made 19 February 2025 at the Club. The lucky winners were:
1
Peter Axon
£100.50
2
Lloyd Kinsey
£33.50
3
Lyn Keast
£16.75
The 100 Club currently has a total of 67 members, making the monthly prize pot £150.75. In addition there is a bonus draw in December for a prize of £175+ (depending on the number of members). 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.
The 2nd Leg of the annual winter friendly took place at Caerleon on Sunday 9 February. The first Leg at Monkstone before Christmas was a very tight affair with Caerleon leading by 2 points at the end. It seemed that there was all to play for and Monkstone were optimistic of wresting the cup back from Caerleon.
On a fine but blustery day things didn’t quite turn out as might have hoped. I was going to point out the highlights but there weren’t many other than the excellent pointing from Sharon who was a late replacement for Vickie who was not well. In the opening singles, which she had never played competitively before, she took Tansy Mayfield to the wire before going doe 11-13 at the end.
So its just well done to the few Monkstone winners and congratulations to Caerleon, winners overall by 75pts to 39, in retaining the cup for another year.
The Super League recommenced after the winter break on 17 February 2025 with Mustangs unbeaten in the first half of the season and Marlins who couldn’t buy a win in the same period. Dreams do come true and Marlins ran out winners (3-1) moving them up from the bottom spot to 5th place.
On Tuesday Marvels took on Mammoths who were 4th and 7th respectively before the break although only 1 point separated them. The match ended with the spoils even (2-2) and still separated by 1 point.
Wednesday evening became Super Wednesday with 2 matches taking place although the weather didn’t play ball with very heavy rain persisting from shortly after the start.
Misfits who took on Meerkats, the only other unbeaten side before the break, went down to heavy defeat (0-4) although in one of the games they had led (11-0) before going down (11-13) which took Meerkats to the top and left Misfits languishing at the bottom.
In the other match Mavericks came up against Mercenaries but neither side could get the upper hand with the match finishing all square (2-2).
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.
Melee 1
Melee 2
Melee 3
Melee 5
Melee 4
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.
Meal 1
Meal 6
Meal 2
Melee 6
Meal 4
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.
