Petanque Wallingford

We played on Sunday at Aston - 12 people turned out, probably because they all have got used to having mulled wine and mince pies partway through the proceedings...
'They' got the top piste and 'we' got the one with the muddy puddle in the middle. Well, playing through the puddle was not such a bad thing because it slowed the boules down. We had a lovely 3 games.
'They' did some amazing shots - not absolutely how it happened, but JJ's initial point was not matched by the opposition's SIX. Jj's second point succeeded in shifting the cochonet away from the opposition and his partners applied the coup de gras by packing four more shots in next to the cochonet. Fantastic.
Well our next outing will be Boxing Day. Let's hope for nice weather. In the meantime, everyone have a Merry Christmas and may Father Christmas bring you your heart's desire.

We had our AGM on Thursday when all sorts of things were decided - a full report will be sent to all members: those who were there and those who were not. But the main thing is we were turned down for a grant so it all begins again. Well, not really, we have been doing stuff in the meanwhile, so we are pressing ahead with that and hope that we have more success this time.

Then today we had our Feast in the Pub (20 of us) - we had some terrific fun at Aston Tirrold first - Very close games indeed: My,how we have come along! Then we all withdrew to The Crown in South Moreton for lunch and chat. Claire, the Landlady, coped very well with 20 people descending on her at once for all sorts of different things. Lovely.  Thank you Claire and your helpers, you did us proud.
And we are going to play again tomorrow - we just can't get enough of it!

The Club has had a really busy time lately - this is a bit of catch up. But I will work down wards from today, since I have been a bit backward in getting this posted!

Sunday 30th June – we played petanque with the tennis  club – 14 adults and 7 children (10 to 13) and four of us. Ros came along to get some fresh air but ended up 'manning' the 'desk' and supervising the timer (we had timed games). We had a lovely time and really hope the tennis players will decide to come and join us – they are really good. And thanks Ros!

First Place went to Dave (who had never played before …), Second Place went to Kay, Third Place went to Arthur and Ces was the Friendliest Player. As for the kids – well we could have a pretty good junior squad if they joined too! So, when we get our own piste and don't have to play on the car parks …. perhaps they will join us. And thanks very much to the winners for donating their winnings to Wallingford Petanque!

Saturday 29th June – we often play at Aston Tirrold on Fridays and some Sundays when they don't have Cricket at Home. The Recreation Ground Committee have recently refurbished the children's play area with the help of a grant from WREN - a super job and yesterday was the 'Grand Opening'. As the playground is right next to the pistes we were going to stay out of the way since we are not 'of the village' but one of the members of ARC invited us to be there, so we set up our gazebo – Alan and Cynthia donated a Dreams Bedtime Bear complete, with stripy pyjamas and nightcap, for people to name; we had some of our 'coin' cards for sale and we organised petanque for the kids (special boules for little 'uns) and anyone else who wanted to play.  After everyone had had a go trying to guess the name of the Bear, we opened the envelope to find out the Bear's name – he was called Henry, or Harry. No one guessed his name so all the names were given a number and one of the organisers chose a number. This was No. 17 – Silvester – and Elma Wishart won him. A successful but tiring day and we hope some good PR was achieved.

On Wednesday evening 26th June we had our club Doubles Championship. This was played as a Doubles Individual Melee – teams were made up of an 'experienced player' and a 'less experienced' player playing against a pair of the same make up, and the winners were the players who scored the most points – one from each group.  The trophy – donated by RedCandy – was won by Loren from the experienced group and Alan from the less experienced group (Alan joined the club in April and Loren is our coach! (Well to be fair to Loren, he was put forward to stand in for one of our members who was unable to attend at the last minute). The trophy is a pair of egg cups mounted on a little plinth. Kevin cut the plinth in half (and embedded a pair of magnets to hold the two pieces together for presentation). The two cups are separate so each winner gets a cup to hold for a year. When the cups are returned we will put the names on the plinth.  I forgot to take my camera (doh …) so I have no picture of them with their winners and certificates. But hope to make amends …

On Sunday 23rd June we were in Newbury market place helping the Newbury Rotarians organise a petanque tournament. They had built a temporary piste on the cobbles and Petanque Wallingford supplied the boules and 'supervision & coaching power'. The object was a taster session to see if a tournament would 'work'. If the Rotarians consider it worth it, then next year will be a bigger event. There were several sponsors who fielded teams or helped with financing the piste by donating timber, matting and sand to build it. From our point of view – people seemed to enjoy themselves, and we (5 of us) came home pretty worn out!

The rest of the time has been play as usual in the Sports Park and at Aston Tirrold. We were delighted to have some visitors from Mansfield – who played at both the Sports Park and Aston Tirrold. We hope to meet them on their home ground. The weather is getting gradually better, and if anything, too hot (!) now … but the sunshine is lovely. O - and we had a bootsale in the beginning of June - made a small fortune - hope to make a bigger one at the next bootsale on 7th JULY 2013 AT WARBOROUGH.

Our next club match event is the Singles (TO BE PLAYED OVER 2 CLUB NIGHTS 24th & 31st JULY to make sure everyone has a go, so let me know by 5th PLEASE) – to play for the dotty cup currently held by Roger. Meanwhile play and practice on Wednesdays as usual.

Thérèse

Easter Monday 1st April - Woke to a gloomy day – just our luck.  The previous day had been sunshine. And it was trying to SNOW.  But at least it was dry, and by the afternoon, it might just be sunny, or at least warmer.
    And so it transpired – the temperature reached a dizzy 6 degrees.  Eleven of us turned out to play the Money Melee Go Round with the entry fees being returned as prizes. After Registration we set to and had a lovely time. Playing 4 full games on a lovely piste.
     We had hired the pavilion so we could have tea afterwards. T had made sandwiches and a little box with Easter eggs for each of the winners, G sorted the cash prizes into packets. At about 3.30 we had tea and prizegiving - 1st prize went to Chris, 2nd to Sue, 3rd to Kevin, both guests who have played with us before, and the Friendliest Player was T (in other words she came last …! She had an amazing score which even the coach said took some doing …. Oh well, better luck next time at least she got her 'stake' back.)
     We play again on Sunday, and then next week, 10th April we start our new Season CLUBNIGHTS with, we hope, some new people joining. We also hope for a good outcome for a terrain in the months to come. Watch this space -  as they say.

Had a lovely day's play today - cloudy but warm and no wind (well a little but not enough to sail a ship).
    And there we were, just about to tot up our winning boules when this screaming broke out.  At first we thought 'kids ... crying wolf again' as they do, when it didn't stop and sounded real; everyone raced across the rec to the noise to see what help was needed, when a boy of about 11 was seen running as fast as his legs would carry him across the rec towards the lane entrance.  T stayed with the boules and watched from a distance.
    Eventually she walked down the lane towards where the running boy and help might appear - to send them down to the other entrance.  A car loaded with kids eventually arrived and was directed down to the other entrance of the rec to collect the kid who, it turned out, had injured himself.  He had apparently trodden on a nail or something which had gone through his trainers.  Much blood all around, but his friend 'who is always dealing with emergencies' told him to hold his sock against the hole while he went for help.  Good on ya blue.
    And so, we resumed play.  Glad to have been of use.

In June of 2012 we had a piste on the Kinecroft in Wallingford and people came along to play and sign up to join Petanque Wallingford. (click the link)
(carnival-day-16th-june-2012.html.)
      Well, one of the chaps who came to play with us that Saturday has joined and plays regularly for 'fun', but he also has a serious reason – he is taking part in the 19th International Transplant Games in Durban (South Africa). The games are being held between 28th July and 4th August 2013. (The games are open to anyone who has had a transplant of some sort - he has had a kidney transplant. We are not eligible as some of us have only had replacements – knees, hips etc.) He attended the annual UK&NI games in Bath 2010, Belfast 2011 and Medway 2012 playing Badminton & Squash!
    Pétanque was one of the games at the 18th International Transplant Games held in Sweden in 2011 and he was determined to get a British Pétanque Team together for the 2013 games. He is currently lobbying to get Petanque introduced as one of the core games in the UK & NI Transplant games (it is not played currently) as it is an ideal sport for Transplant Athletes.  Petanque is one of a list of sports that can be selected by the hosting country for the world games but is not a core sport yet. South Africa chose to make it one of their selected sports!
     Meanwhile, he has joined us to learn to play while the lobbying goes ahead.  We have, as you know, a qualified coach, so conditions for an aspiring Pétanque athlete are ideal. The actual terrain to play on is a bit more tricky, but we have a couple of places to play at the moment. In the future we want to be in the forefront helping people learn to play.
      He is the captain of the newly formed Pétanque team going to the games. We have been training him at Pétanque as hard as we can go to get him in shape for the games in 2013. He has never played before but is working hard so he is at least beaten in style ...
       He got a nice little bag for Christmas in which to stow all his kit – his boules, little cloth to polish them, cochonnets, licence and he now also has his top with appropriate embroidery and Pétanque on the back – and we are very excited.  He is coming on in leaps and bounds: pointing very well and learning to be a fiend at shooting! One of our members who has played in competitions before says he is doing very well, but will be against tough opposition – but we've got to start somewhere. This is the games website: http://www.wtg2013.com/

            We wish him the very best in his endeavours and will post things here whenever we can.

I and the other Mad Dogs (and Englishmen) are truly addicted - 10 of us were out today playing. Going out to play in this weather, indeed ..... it was wonderful weather today: sun, 3 degrees but sheltered, no wind so it felt very pleasant.  We played two games, warmed up a bit with some mulled wine and coffee and played another game before light spoiled play - there is no lighting there - but we were rewarded with a beautiful sunset.  And now, tomorrow is supposed to be thick snow! in the morning at any rate, then it is supposed to rain, which, if it's cold, will probably turn to ice. So all round sounds pretty horrible.  Glad we got some games in before all this happens.  Lets hope for better on Friday, our next outing.
   Oh - and I hope if you are reading this, you remember to sign up to our new 'subscriciption' (it's on the right below the panel) to get a note to say the blog has been updated .....

Happy New Year to everyone .... and so, here I am doing 'important jobs' because I can't get out to play. What did we do over the Festive Season? We played boules a few times before Christmas, then had a quiet day as most people were engaged with families.
    But, we played boules on Boxing Day - seven of us - girls vs boys.  The girls won. But they did have the advantage: there were three of them. 2 had 3 boules and the shooter had 2. The boys had four players but only two boules each. But it was a lovely game and they finished off with mulled wine to warm thelselves up.
    Then it was on to the rest of the year with a stop off at WSP on the last Friday of the year for some play.
    New Year's Day saw us all at Aston for some serious play after the nights jollifications.  Again, we had lovely time: the weather was fantastic, cool and sunny - really quite mild for the time of year and, judging by the news and the state of the fields roundabout, we were well away from flooding and wet. So lucky to have such a lovely piste. Again, mulled wine and smiles all around. We are looking forward to much fun in the new year.
    Things are, however, starting to get a bit grim - rain all day today and the temperature has dropped significantly. There were even a few flakes of snow which the forecast says will be coming in thick and fast by the end of the week - expect 12 inches of snow in some places, they say. (Funny how when it's HOT the temperature is described in °F and when it's COLD it's °C and depth turns up in inches ...) So tomorrow, Sunday looks to be sunny (but very cold apparently just above zero) so we will don our gloves and woolly hats and get in some play before Snow Stops Play! I suppose if you can see the cochonnet you can play and if someone buries it, then it's out ... but perhaps it's better to stay indoors and play in the mind in front of a roaring fire ....  More tomorrow perhaps.

We have played throughout October (at the Sports Park on Tuesdays and Fridays in the day time, and at Aston Tirrold on Saturdays and/or Sundays) and hope to continue till April, when the new Season begins!
We have had lunch a few times in the newly reopened Crown in South Moreton too.
Its 4.00pm and we have just got back from our 'usual' Sunday Play at Aston Tirrold.  Lovely crisp sunny day, 10 people turned out to play.  The only problem with the sun is we cast shadows on the piste! But what a complaint - rather sun than rain ...
At coffee break time we had mini chocolate muffins.The feeling is that we should start playing earlier because by 3.30 the sun goes down and it gets chilly and the light starts to go. .

Meanwhile, play continues as follows:
Tuesday mornings at 10.00am and Friday afternoons at 1.00 at Wallingford Sports Park
Saturdays at 11.00am and Sundays at 1.00pm at Aston Tirrold.
Players will be notified if there are any changes: not playing because of the weather, or other commitments and if times change.  So keep checking your emails. If anyone wants to join us, please contact us for details.Newcomers are always welcome. We even have boules for you to play with. Just let us know you want to play so we take them along ....