Petanque Wallingford

Sunday 24th August dawned warm and misty … and the weather forecast said cloudy, so we were in for a nice day.

And a nice day it was, expecially after the soakings we had recently. 20 visitors from other Thames Valley clubs came to play with 18 of us on our boulodrome in the Park.

The day was run as an individual melee (panache as the Americans call it) and we played 4 timed games in the morning, broke for an hour for lunch (Lamoon and her helpers in the kitchen did us proud again) and two games in the afternoon. People drew numbers out the bags on arrival – one bag for the visitors and another bag for the Petanque Wallingford players. The board was formed (totally at random) of 5 doubles and 3 triples, each team consisting of players representing the visitors and Petanque Wallingford members.

We started promptly at 10.00 and had really fun games. Ros and Kevin did a fantastic job running the 'control desk' : recording the scores, checking entries and keeping the running total. And Ros helped me change the tags between games.  

After six games the winners were:

1st Place: Dean Webb from Burnham Petanque Club, 2nd Place Loren Butt (our President), and 3rd Place our member Moiya Clark. The Friendliest Player Alec Hayton.  (I am still champion! with -40….).  Each winner received a trophy and a monetary prize: Mike Crook turned the bases and fixed in the dotty egg cups with our badge and I pyrographed the details. Moiya and Loren returned their prize money to the club (thank you very much) and Loren presented me with his trophy and thanks for organising the day which everyone enjoyed very much. I am pleased to have the trophy - I would have loved to have won it (in fact I didn't lose a single game! Well I didn't play any so that figures … I maintain that you can't organize a match and play!). I am sure our members, some of whom have only been playing for 5 months, learned a lot from the 'visitors' most of whom have been playing for ages. We'll do the same next year and hope for more of our people so we can have the maximum 48 people playing.

We also held a raffle, the proceeds of which went to Men United vs Prostate Cancer. (Sadly, some of the prizes were not collected. When I got home I emptied my pockets of all the stuff I accumulated in the day and found a strip of raffle tickets and lo and behold! two of the prizes were in fact mine (a bottle of sloe gin, made from sloes collected last year at our 'temporary home' at Aston Tirrold, which I had contributed, and the other a bottle of French apertif contributed by one of our members!  That made me smile. Some of the entry money goes towards our 'Lights' fund. So a very successful day all round - thanks to everyone who came, who contributed raffle prizes and bought raffle tickets.)

Thérèse

Ma (as we all call her) comes down every time Jules plays and we kept saying we'd have her playing soon. Well now, she is our newest recruit (even newer than Steve!) – Vibeke Sankey, 94 – C, rusty boule, showing her the ropes of how to play from a wheelchair. V loved it and hopes to play again soon. Next time we'll have her 'chair in the circle.

STEVE, our newest recruit, goes to Cracow tomorrow for the Transplant Games  to play petanque - we have been training him like mad so he can put in a good showing at the games. Good luck Steve - keep focussed, and come back well laden with medals!

Friday – Oh well, you win some you lose some – it was our first 'private hire' event and we were scheduled to provide boules for some 30 hockey players but only 17 came – because the clever ones saw the clouds amassing. The 17 arrived in time and all got kitted out with numbers and boules and down came the rain. They soldiered on in true Brit style, playing while holding umbrellas if they had them, getting soaked if not.  Liz shot home to get a gazebo for the 'control table' and me to cower under while play progressed. Julian's mother was there, watching, and she was getting most anxious that I should stop play 'because the rain was only getting worse'. Well after one game, we did. So off they all went to play skittles in the Main Hall of the pavilion (the barbecue had been set up under the shelter) while the five of us cleared up hastily and went home to dry off and have our picnics indoors!

            The scoreboards were not very happy – they wood expanded in the wet so the pegs wouldn't go in the holes – they will need to spend a day in the sun to dry out and the some of the boules have gone rusty.

            Sometime in August or maybe September, we will have a rematch and get the rest of the games with the hockey club played! I hope the prizes will keep. I hope the weather improves for our next 'private hire' on 14th August!

I took the camera, but it was too wet to get some really funny shots of people playing petanque in the rain!

Cllubnight and what a terrific turnout – 30 PW bouligans, 2 visitors and 2 newcomers and a lovely balmy evening it was too. We had some lovely games and hope for the same sort of weather on Friday when the Hockey club is coming to play a pre-Season match with barbecue after.

Saturday 2nd August – and an effort to do something to Mill Brook in the Park. January saw dreadful flooding in the Park, many rugby matches were cancelled, tennis was called off and bar takings at the Park were consequently down too - something has to be done.  A survey is necessary; so Roger Haycock masterminded the task and sent round an email to all the Park clubs to come and lend a hand. He drew up a detailed list of the work to be done on the bank of the brook for the survey sites on both sides of the roadway into Jubilee Field showing what should be done, what equipment may be necessary, and the number of people required to do the work.

    Many people (lots of them strong Rugby players) turned up with their loppers, chainsaws, hand saws, strimmers and ladders (and – me to keep the troops watered and take some pictures). They set to on the spots marked out by Roger.  Each area, marked A to M on the side of the brook was to be cleared so surveyors could assess the area and decide what to do.  The Brook itself was closed off at one end in 1968 (or even before, when the land was developed). It is hoped that the water will flow 'back into Bradford's Brook' and so into the Thames …

    We had sunny dry weather for weeks and weeks before today, and just after everyone started work DOWN came the rain! The forecast indicated rain was expected at 12.00 but an hour early, down it came. I was taking pictures and the camera and its bag got a bit soaked, not to mention the workers! So G and I abandoned ship so to speak, and came home – wet through – leaving the rest to carry on or not, in the rain! And as I write, the rain has stopped here, so perhaps it was 'just' a shower … but it appears more, heavier stuff is to come …

Here are a few pictures of what the flooding was like in January.

After the work was done, Roger gave a brief report on this morning's efforts: 

"All went extremely well,  thanks to great contributions from Des and some 16 rugby players, seven or eight tennis players, and six petanque players.  Also Richard Prunier and my son Phil (counting as a hockey parent).

            Dave Baldwin and a surveyor were there, so Dave was able to sign off each survey point as meeting his needs.  He seemed to be exceedingly happy to see our efforts. 

            Apart from meeting our objective, I think today’s effort will be important for the future."

Here are some picture of the forces at work

Wednesday Evening 30th July – our Doubles Championship and a lovely balmy evening too. Completely (Double) Random Knockout. And the uncanny thing was last year's winners were drawn to play with each other!
    We started a bit late, waiting for four late arrivals: three didn't show up.  So we started on 6 pistes with 12 teams, because we had a lot to get through before the light faded. While the first game was in full swing one of the missing people arrived, so G gave up his place in the 'bye' to the latecomer who went straight into the quarter final.

            The final was between Chris & Margie and Moiya & Biggi. After a very exiting game watched by everyone else, Chris Shaw and Margie Rigby beat Moiya Clark and Biggi Wright 13:5 – Well done all four – the last few ends were played in very poor light! And, as you can see, the picture was taken in the dark. Future tournaments will probably be held on a weekend in the daytime … to get round this problem. Look at the Roll of Honour for past holders our various club trophies.