Petanque Wallingford

The final matches of the Thames Valley District Weekend League were played today and the Burnham Eagles came top with the PW Red Kites the 'runners up' because Winnersh Wanders beat the Bozos. Phew! The Red Kites were pleased to be second, but thought they would gradually move down as they met more experienced players. To come second overall is a wonderful surprise! Hope for good things next year ….

Below is the table of the final standings.

This trophy is in memory of those who are no longer with us.
We played for it in two Rounds on 20th and 21 September. 30 in all took part . Congratulations to Chris Shaw, the new Trophy Holder.
(The trophy is made of a wire armature covered in foil, then 'dressed' in clothes made out of T-Shirts soaked in fabric hardnerer, the boule are glass marbles covered with cotton fabric. The statue is painted with burnt umber acrylic paint, highlighted with gold (to make it look like bronze) and then mounted on a base of Meranti with the plaque pyrographed on a piece of beech veneer)

The new Changing Rooms at the Sports Park were officially opened yesterday by the Chairman of SODC, Paul Harrison. Representatives of all the other clubs, grant-givers, original and present Trustees attended. Style Acre and 16 of our members came to play and were joined by Paul Harrison who threw a few boules. He was most impressed by our terrain and lights.

   The team scheduled play in the Inter-Regionals at Hayling Island over the weekend of 10-11 September set off at 1.30 for the drive down, car laden with all the necessary stuff – an umbrella for the 'workstation', the wheelchair to transport T and all the stuff around the site. T was the Challenge 'Team Manager' – prime responsibility collecting scores and keeping the set of four teams focussed and watered for the weekend. Teams were from Winnersh British Legion, Burnham, MTTA and Petanque Wallingford. Moiya, Gerry and Chris S were playing for PW.
   We arrived in good time after an uneventful trip down and left the umbrella at the main gate at Mill Rythe where the competition was to take place. Some people were already hard at it practising for the forthcoming matches. We set off to our accommodation in the static caravan park as we had booked too late to get into Mill Rythe. The accommodation turned out to be a huge disappointment, but the shuttle bus between the two sites proved to be excellent.
   Saturday dawned overcast. We were were required to be onsite at 8.00 for briefing, play to start at 8.30. Seven games to be played, an hour and a half for lunch (depending of course on state of play!) starting again at 2.30.
860 people started to play promptly at 8.30 and the rain arrived promptly 15 minutes later. And it rained ALL day, with very brief lulls between showers - when T took the pictures! What a horrible day! Our people played their last match on 2cms of mud …  However, one of our teams (MTTA) managed to win 6 of the 7 matches, one team (PW) lost all of theirs and the other two won 4 - Burnham and 1 (Winnersh). Scoresheets papier mache, we finished at 7.30, thoroughly soaked, but fortunately not frozen.  We went back by shuttle bus to our accommodation for a quick change, then off for supper at a local pub. Food not bad.
   Chris decided to sleep on the sofa – which would at least be long enough and wide enough for him to sleep comfortably. The sleeping accommodation was very 'tight' and caused problems for the rest of us too.
   Sunday (what a change!) started with the briefing at 8.30. Only 5 games this day, and we were on a different set of pistes. PW fared better on this day as we won one game! But at least it was bright and sunny – a total change from the day before.
   There were 4 official umpires – so it was good to know and abide by the rules – They checked for anomalies as well as answering calls for their input. The Thames Valley 'Challenge' teams (Division 2) came 6th of 8 and the 'Championship' (Division 2) came 7th of 8. For a look at how we did, click on this link .
The event was very well organised and the standard of play was very high. Will we send a PW team next year? I hope so, but it depends if we qualify, and accommodation must be booked well in advance to be sure to get into Mill Rythe!