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

The final match in the Welsh Cup for Clubs between Penarth & Monkstone took place today at Creigiau PC. After last weeks opening rounds a win for Monkstone would see tham crowned champions but a win for Penarth would almost certainly eliminate Monkstone and possibly Penarth themselves on countback.

The singles got underway under leaden skies with light rain still falling. Roger Green comfortably won his singles to give Monkstone a good start but then Bernard, Roger Griffin and Mike Jones (filling in as Tony Smith & Peter Kensett were unavailable) all succumbed to give Penarth a 3-1 lead. The ladies then pulled things out of the fire when Jayne won 13-7 and, in a nail biting finish, Vickie pulled off a 13-12 win to bring Monkstone up to all square with 6 points going to each team.

The weather had improved by the start of the doubles with the rain having stopped. First blood went to Roger Green & Sean with a very comfortable 13-1 win. Things were looking good for Monkstone with Mike & Bernard leading 9-1  and then 12-4, when the wheels fell off and they went down 12-13. Roger and Vickie lead for most of their mixed doubles game but never by more than a couple of points. The club that won this game would have to win only one of the triples but the loser would need to win both the triples. Suddenly things were looking precarious when Penarth moved into a 12-11 lead. Some magical pointing by Vickie led to the final 2 points being taken on the next end for a 13-12 win taking the overall score to 12-9 in Monkstone’s favour.

So it was on to the two triples with Monkstone needing one wn to secure the title – the weather had really cleared, the sun was trying to burst through but more significantly the pistes were drying fast making it a totally different playing surface. Roger Green, Sean and Jayne faced Scott Murray, Tim Howard and Pat McCarthy in the first game whilst on the other piste Roger Griffin, Bernard and Vickie were facing Jean-Yves Robic, Celia Scott and Valerie Falconer in the mixed triples. In the mixed game there was a very cagey start from both teams with the score going up in ones until with the score at 4-3 to Monkstone they realised that the other game had finished. Fearing the worst, they were delighted, if not amazed, to learn that Monkstone had taken the game 13-0, This took the pressure off the mixed triples team and playing a much more relaxed game they ran out 13-4 winners taking the overall score to 22-9 to Monkstone.

Despite some very good play by all members of the team the honours for the day must go to Roger Green who only conceded a total of 3 points in in 3 games and new boy Sean Smith who only conceded 1 point over the 2 games he played.

As well as the honour of winning the Welsh Cup for Clubs, Monkstone will be invited to compete in the EuroCup Qualifiers at the end of July 2019 at an, as yet, unknown venue somewhere in Europe.

The full Monkstone team for today’s match was:

Roger Griffin (c), Bernard Adshead (vc), Mike Jones, Roger Green, Sean Smith, Jayne Dunn and Vickie Adshead.