Here is a lovely picture of our new home - taken from the sky on a late spring evening. And three of us are actually playing ... In the autumn we will have a job clearing up the leaves! But playing in the dappled shade will be a real pleasure.
 One of the 'Easter Bonnets' Easter Monday 21st April and Play for the Easter Eggs. The day started off really beautiful - sunny, warm, everyone turned up with something to share and wearing a hat of some sort. We had a lovely time, and were all looking forward to prize giving and tea.
At ten to three (actually ten minutes earlier than the predicted 'possible rain') the heavens opened and it POURED! Everybody made a dash for their cars. I grabbed the basket of tea things and headed to the Pavilion and got thoroughly drenched in the process. I was going to come back to round everybody up for tea in the Pavilion, but by the time I got back to the car park drowned rat didn't even come close to describing what I looked like! So we just decided to call it a day and go home. Oh well, they say Petanque is a metaphor for life anything can happen! And it did. So no one got the eggs, we will play for them another time! Monday 31 March – was the day we started erecting the post and rail fence around the new Boulodrome. The Trust ultimately wants a picket fence but we don't have that sort of money at present, so post and rail it is. When we have funds we can add the pickets. (We took two days to do this work). We took delivery of the first lot of fencing material in the morning and got on with the job of making holes and erecting the fence. Adrian – the our Architest and Project Manager, Mike M the foreman with lots of tools, Gerry with his mower, Julian to provide muscle power, me with my one arm (luckily the right one can still crack the whip and deliver the boules!) and Christiane to keep us all in order and play some petanque with me turned out for the job. Adrian laid the line where he wanted the fence, Gerry started by mowing the area, then he and Mike made the first hole. While Adrian and Mike did the hole for the next post Gerry did some more mowing. And while they were making holes for the posts, Christiane and I painted the bits that were to go in the ground with wood preservative. When that was finished we went off to get lunch ready for the workers.
After lunch and a few drops of rain Christiane and I played a few ends and then, feeling guilty because we were having fun while they were working, we made nuisances of ourselves 'what can we do to help'? till we were given jobs – tighten the screws on the picnic furniture! But they did let us hold things and watch the bubbles on the spirit levels. After 8 posts we called it a day and arranged to come back the following day to finish the job. It looks very nice. We will do the rest of the fence over 4 days when everyone is back from holidays etc. Thanks to Mike, Adrian, Gerry, Alan, Christiane and JJ - Many hands make light work, as they say ....  Nine of us went at 8.30 on the 6th April to play a triples melee at Burnham - the Thames Valley Petanque Association Memorial Silver Salver. (A Petanque Wallingford member was one of the three winning players in 2012 so a couple of years on, with more experience under our belts, we went filled with hope.) We started the day in fine style, Alun J and I the only team playing doubles (with 3 boules each - two people pulled out at the last minute) - apparently we had the advantage! Alun is a fine shooter and saved the day often when I was throwing like an idiot. We played 4 games before lunch, then 3 games after lunch, in which Alun and I had a bye and a nice rest . Following a great day's fun, the team with Moiya (the PW member - left) Gussie (middle) and Maggie(right) won the Plate. Well done Moiya, Petanque Wallingford shines again. |
