Monkstone Pétanque Club

The annual President’s Cup was up for grabs on Sunday. 22 members entered on the day for the competition which was played as a doubles melee. Play got underway on a chilly morning and at the end of round 1, Tony Smith, Tony Newton, Barbara Kensett and John Xiberras shared the lead with a win and a score of +7.

The pairings were changed for round 2 and after some close, and some not so close, games only 4 players were on 2 wins with Peter Kensett leading the way on +15 followed by Tony Newton & John Xiberras on +13 and Roger Griffin on +9.

Another change of parings and round 3 was underway. At the end of the round only Roger of the 4 players on 2 wins had managed a win. The last game to finish was between Bernard Adshead/John Xiberras and Phil Roberts/Lynda Hodges and nobody had realised the significance this game could have on the final result. With all the other players watching Bernard & John let a 13-9 lead slip and lost 12-13. Had Bernard & John got that final point John could have won the competition. Reviewing the scores later it also became evident that Tony Newton who also lost 12-13 in the final round could also have won had he not suffered that close defeat.

So a great competition finished with Roger being declared the winner on 3 wins and +13 closely followed by John & Tony both on 2 wins and +12.

President Mike presents the President’s Cup to Roger

Sean Smith, Ian Baildon-Smith & Phil Roberts accept the Triples Shield from Club President Mike Jones (2nd from left)

Last Sunday Monkstone PC entertained the Barristers, a team from the Temple Bar pub in Ewyas Harold in Herefordshire who play in Division 3 of the Marches league. On a glorious, sunny, if somewhat chilly, day a Monkstone team of Division 2 & 3 players took on the visitors in a match modelled on the Cup for Clubs format of singles, doubles & triples although it was decided that each game would only attract 1 match point. The games were played in reverse order to the Cup for Clubs with the triples being played first and ending with the singles.

Monkstone got off to a good start with Sean Smith, Rob Harris and Carol Maroney winning 13-4 but Phil Roberts, Gill Clarke and Judith Smith were unable to keep the momentum going down 10-13. All square at the end of the triples. The doubles started badly for Monkstone with first Carol and John Xiberras going down 11-13 followed by Lynda Hodges and Rob succumbing to the same score. Sean and Phil managed to pull one game back, winning 13-10.

So it was into the final round with Monkstone 2-3 down overall and needing to win four of the six singles to take the match. Monkstone made an excellent start with Judith and Gill winning 13-4 and 13-5 respectively but this was soon cancelled out by Lynda losing 10-13 followed by John going down to the same score. Phil brought the overall score back to 5-5 with a solid 13-6 win.

The script couldn’t have been written better with Sean nip and tuck with his opponent in what he didn’t know was the deciding game. With the score standing at 9-9, Sean seemed to lose his concentration and went down 9-13 leaving the Barristers as the 6-5 winners.

Congratulations to Bill Sparey and his team on their fine win. Everyone agreed that it had been a very enjoyable day and it was resolved to arrange a return fixture in Herefordshire next year.

Thanks to Joy Griffin and Vickie Adshead for providing the delicious leek & potato soup which warmed all the players up in the chill wind.

The team captains Bill Sparey and Roger Griffin (non-playing)

The Rules for the 2018 Winter Shooting Competition are now available on the Documentation page ahead of the launch by President Mike on Friday morning