Monkstone Pétanque Club

On Sunday 13 February we hosted Caerleon in the second leg of our Winter Friendly tournament, our visitors having won the first leg in November by 7 points to 5.. A good win for our club was a necessity if we were to have any chance of carrying off the fine trophy generously donated by Gareth Spencer.

The format remained the same, with four triples kicking off proceedings. At the end of the round, honours were even at 2-2, with Roger Griffin, Gill Clark and Peter Kensett winning a tight game 12-11, while Gareth Spencer, Phil Roberts and Ian Baildon-Smith produced a convincing 13-5 win.

Round 2 saw both squads splitting into four doubles and four singles, with eight points on offer. In the singles there were wins for Roger Green, Roger Griffin and Tony Smith, giving our club a lead of 5-3. Everything rested on the doubles and Sean Smith and Michelle Spencer came up trumps with an impressive 13-1 win, making it 6-3. But Caerleon rallied and took the next two doubles, reducing Monkstone’s lead to the slender margin of 6-5. All eyes were on the final game, with Phil and Ian playing the formidable duo of Tansy and Paul. It proved a very tense game and as time ran out Tansy and Paul saw their lead whittled away by the dogged play of Phil and Ian who snatched victory on the final end, winning 11-10. Monkstone had won the leg 7-5! – making the overall score 12-12

But which club had won the two-match series? After a thorough scrutiny of the stats of both legs, the teams were equal on wins and losses but a bonus point to Caerleon for a team winning all three games in the first leg gave them the spoils. However, in the end it was the game of petanque that was the winner in terms of the spirit of healthy competition and fair play that both sides displayed throughout these Winter Friendly games.

So, our thanks go to Caerleon for a really enjoyable tournament and to all the Monkstone players who took part in the series. Thanks also to Joy for preparing a delicious hot meal after the game and to Lynda for her help in the kitchen. One mystery remains unsolved – who raked our pistes before the match? But thank you anyway.

We look forward to the Winter Friendlies becoming a regular feature between our two clubs in the years ahead.

The 2019 Playing Calendar is now available under the “Calendar” tab at the top of the page. The Calendar incorporates all events that we are aware of, Club, WPA, Other Clubs, International and League.

It looks like a very busy year of bouling.

Good Luck to everyone in whatever competitions you decided to enter.

Monkstone Petanque Club received club. team and individual awards at the WPA Presentation Evening for 2018  held at the Penylan Club on Friday 4 January 2019.

First up were Roger Griffin, Tony Smith and Vickie & Bernard Adshead to receive the National Veterans +55 trophy won back in February on a bitterly cold day in Pontyclun. As winners the team has travelled to competitions in Holland & Denmark.

The next award, the League Cup runners-up, went to Monkstone Minotaurs and was accepted on behalf of the team by  Vickie & Bernard Adshead.

This was followed by the League Plate runners-up trophy which was won by Monkstone  Mystics. Unfortunately none of the team were present so the trophy was presented by Vickie in her capacity as League Secretary and accepted on the behalf of the team by Tony Smith representing his wife, team captain Judith Smith.

The first three trophies had been expected as they had been won in the relevant competitions, but the recipient of the final award, WPA Most Improved Player of the Year, had not been announced in advance. Club members present were delighted when it went to our own Jayne Dunn who unfortunately was not present as she was on holiday in Costa Rica. Again, Vickie stepped into the breach and accepted the award on her behalf from WPA Secretary, Derek Jones. We will have another presentation at the club when Jayne returns home.

Club members taking part in yesterday’s Christmas Melee Competition were surprised to find that Santa had taken time out of his busy pre-Christmas schedule to visit the Club. They were even more surprised when Santa said he wanted to play – he started well but in the final round he was let down by his little helper. He did, however, manage to avoid the wooden spoon.

At the end of Round 1, Vickie Adshead and Mike Wigg had taken an early lead with a win and +11.

Round 2 got underway with the weather till holding out and no sign of the promised rain. At the end of the round there were 6 players on 2 wins with Tony Smith in the lead with +19 followed by Phil Roberts on +14

Before the final round started Santa unveiled the cakes, doughnuts and mince pies he had brought along to sustain the players. These went down very nicely with a cup of tea or coffee – no sherry from Santa. Some players were lurking around the table with all the goodies hoping no-one was counting how many cakes they had.

As the final round got underway there was everything to play for – a slip up by either of the leaders could let in any of the other 4 players who were on 2 wins. When the scores came in, 5 of the players on 2 wins had converted that into 3 wins – only Mike Jones fell at the last hurdle.

The scores were checked, double-checked and scrutinised as they were very close indeed. Eventually the final results were declared.

As Santa had to leave to get back and make sure his elves were hard at work in the toy factory, it fell to President Mike Jones to present Tony with the trophy.

Santa had said before he left that he had a special prize for the least successful player and, with 3 losses and -23 , that went to John Chichester who had very sensibly left before it was announced.

A big thank-you to Roger Green for organising the melee and a special thanks to Santa for his unexpected visit.