Petanque Wallingford

28 people turned up to play for the triples trophies. All the players who joined in April were competing – which was very gratifying. Everyone had already formed themselves into teams of three, so it was only a matter of finding out which teams were playing each other and who had a bye, because we had an odd number of teams.
Having sorted that out play began. And some very interesting results emerged! Those we expected to do well didn't and those who were beginners did very well indeed. In the end, however, we have new triples holders – Adrian, Wendy H and Sarah who were longer standing members. Well done everyone and we look forward to the next trophy match – The Memorial Trophy on 20/21 September 2016.
Picture shows Gerry, President, present the trophies to Wendy H, Adrian and Sarah.

Thirty Four people turned out to play in our Open Day – 16 from PW and 16 from the Thames Valley Clubs. A bit disappointing as we can support 48 players, but many people were away on holidays and the bank holiday was looming! It was very hot and extremely windy! Luckily we were playing with steel boules so the wind had no influence on the games.
 
We held an 'individual melee' and had a lot of fun. The traditional Open Day Dotty Trophy was awarded for the 1st prize, with a bottle of Prosecco and medals & wine prizes (it was the final day of the Olympics after all) were awarded for 2nd  3rd and 4th  places, while 5th and 6th places received a Towel to keep those boules polished.
 
The winners were:
1st place: Chris H of PW - Dotty Cup trophy (4W1d+16); 2nd place Eric of MTTA, Marlow (4W1L+39); 3rd place Wendy H of PW (4W1L+21); 4th place Louise of Burnham (4W1L+15); 5th place Stuart F - Independent (3W2D+25) who he lives in Oxford and thinks he lives too far away to join! (We have 3 members from Oxford …) and 6th place Charlie of Winnersh & Wokingham Wanderers (3w1d+23). Seems pretty close to me! Looking forward to next year!
 
Lets hope for a fine turnout for our next OPEN event this year:  evening of the 14th October Fundraising for the RLNI (email me if you want to come to make sure there is space to play).

Cholsey WI – They came to play last year with 12 members. They enjoyed themselves so much that this year they came with 28 people (WI members and partners). Play (melee format) started at 7.00 with a brief demonstration of how to play, 6 PW members clad in their red tops acted as mentors (one per piste) while 3 of us got the Rugby Room in the pavilion ready for the pizzas at 8.45.
The Pizzas were delivered from the local Dominoes - they were delicious - and prizes were awarded to 1st (a Lovely CUP!!) 2nd and 3rd places. They hope we can repeat this exercise again next year. Yes, of course! We can support 48 We can have a lot of fun.

THAMES VALLEY MEMORIAL TROPHY
     July 31st was the Thames Valley Memorial Trophy Day when everyone plays in memory of those who are no longer with us. PW member Christianne, who passed away in February 2015, was the winner with Paul and Louise B in 2013, it is somewhat fitting that one of our people, Steve G (left), was in the winning team this year with Bill and Gussy. Jules (left), Mal and Eric were the runners up and Loren, Lynda and Charlie won the Consolage so three PW players featured in the finals of the competition. Well done to them.
 
 
 ARBORFIELD OPEN
     August 7th was the Arborfield Open – an early start for PW to get to Arborfield by 9am to register for play at 9.30.  17 teams played 3 games before a very nice barbecue lunch, then 2 games after lunch to find the players for the 'Main' and 'Consolage'.
Gerry Moiya and Chris (The Red Kites) got into the Main competition and played Gussy, Bill and Ron and the Bozos in the semi finals and went on to meet the 3 Wise Monkeys (Mark Matt and  Dave).
So I suppose it could be said PW have had quite a successful season so far!

The sequence of events has gone a bit awry - I have been struggling to keep up, as is the way with blogs!

REGIONAL TEAM QUALIFYING SERIES
 The Regional Qualifiers to see which 12 teams from the Thames Valley Region would go to Hayling Island were held durin June and July.  15 Teams took part and PW  entered a team this time (The Red Kites – Gerry, Moiya, Chris S and Thérèse). PW came 7th in the first round, 12th in the 2nd round and 10th in the Final Round – So we're in the Challenge Section - Hayling Island here we come! Thérèse has been asked to be the Regional Challenge Team Manager.

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NEW CLUB COACHES
Thérèse, Mike M and Chris S are three new coaches for the Club.  They took the coaching exam in Early June and got DBS Cleared on learning that they had passed. They are now fully-fledged club coaches, ready to stand alongside Loren who has been a EPA Club Coach for some time.

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HELPING OUT
     PW is also getting a bit of a reputation as being willing to help out when the Tuesday Leagues have trouble finding a team – Mark D and Gerry have both played for the Burnham Bowlers (who are the Champions!) and Jules, Thérèse, Margie and Wendy have played for the MTTA Cygnets.