Petanque Wallingford

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.

Wednesday 25th in the afternoon, a lovely sunny day, we had 10 people from Style Acre come and play at the boulodrome on 2 pistes. They formed two teams -  a triple and a double. Like all petanque players, they quickly learned how to deliver a boule and soon learned the difference between shooting and pointing. We showed them when to shoot  and when pointing was more appropriate. They had a lovely time and it looks like this will become a regular feature in their calendar.
     In the evening, our Clubnight featured our end of Month Club match which this time was for the Singles Cup.
      Sixteen people elected to play. We conducted this as a straight knockout competition to find the winner for 2014.
            The event was scheduled to start promptly at 6.30 so we could finish before it got too dark to see. Most people turned up in plenty of time to get the numbers but ran into a problem – one player had injured her back and couldn't play so G jumped into the car and drove round to J's house to get him to replace her. OK!
            Then, with 6.30 approaching two others turned up to watch – fortunately they brought their boules with them because two others didn't show, so they played instead. The final person didn't turn up – it was too late to do anything. So to keep the numbers even, the opposing player got a bye and the match started on time. Phew!
            Opponents had been drawn at random and it worked out in a nice mix of players with some surprising results. While the next rounds went ahead those knocked out played on the vacant pistes, until the final which was played between Alec and Ant – both 'newcomers' to the Club – watched be everyone else. Well I suppose Ant had the advantage – he has been playing for ages and ages, and he is our youngest player at 30 something!
            In any event, everyone had a great time and played some good petanque. We all look forward to the doubles championship which will be held at the end of July.

     Today, Bank Holiday Monday, made up for Easter Monday when our melee was thoroughly washed out – we had fab weather, really warm and no wind. We only played three games and then stopped for tea.  Everyone brought something to share: sausage rolls, cakes, sandwiches, quiches, etc etc and beakers of tea.  Yum yum.

     It is always pointed out that petanque is a metaphor for life – anything can happen – and it does: a melee means you can play with anyone and the outcome is totally unpredictable – so Ros W got first place, Ant got second place (a new comer to Petanque Wallingford, but he has been playing for ages and ages), Yvette got third place, and Biggi was the friendliest player.  They generously contributed their winnings to the club fundraising drive, thank you.

     Well I am still the champion friendliest player, I think I will be for all time! My excuse is you can't play well and organise things … But we all had a lovely time and look forward to the next Melee. No pictures! I forgot to take the camera ...

At last our OPENING DAY - this was held yesterday but I was too tired to write up the day ...
Up early to get to the Sports Park to make ready for the Day and the sun was shining in a lovely blue sky. And to put the icing on the cake – there was a super e-card message from a member and his wife who could not be with us for the opening – they were unfortunately away - a picture of a beautiful basket of flowers with the good luck message. (CLICK HERE TO SEE the card)
So, after a quick breakfast (we would have the 'traditional' bacon butties later) with a happy heart and full car we set off for the Park.
    But we were not there first! Julian had already delivered the pots of flowers and a ladder to put up the bunting – thanks Jules! Players started arriving at  10 to 10 and by 10 c'clock everyone had arrived, spot on time – parking was already hotting up. We all got our commemorative badges and score sheets for the 3 games before lunch and 3 after. All we needed now was the bacon butties and the two 'ribbon cutters' to arrive. Unfortunately the butties were a bit late, but they only delayed proceedings by 5 minutes!
    At 10.35 we began .... The Club President, Loren Butt, said a few words of thanks all round. Richard Knight, the immediate past Chairman of the Trustees proposed a toast to the new boulodrome and then he, John Atkins, the current Chairman of the Trustees (and President of the Wallingford Hockey Club, based in the Park), Julian Sankey (Petanque Wallingford Committee member and a hockey keeper) and Loren threw some ceremonial boules on the new surface to celebrate the Opening to much cheering and clapping.
    Then 23 players got on with the business of a melee, playing for the 1st President’s trophies – A pair of 1890 Boule Lyonnaise Cloutees*, one for a lady and one for a gentleman. We played 3 games before lunch. And what a lunch – Lamoon did us proud. Very nice. And then, after an hour’s break we played another 3 games (getting more tired by the minute!!) But we had a lot of fun and saw some very fine shooting and pointing. The scores for the contenders were very close: for the men - JJ 5 wins +28 and Mike Marshall 5 wins + 25; and for the women - Biggi 5 wins +30 and Christiane 5 wins +24.
    The President made the presentations of the trophies to the final winners : John Johnson (JJ)  and Biggi Wright, while we ate chocolate cupcakes and almond slices. Well done to everyone. 
    Despite the strong wind, we all had a lovely day. And now look forward to more PLAY on our fabulous, challenging, new home.

*The pair of Boules Lyonnaise Cloutees were donated by our President and are made of chestnut and studded in a star patterns with bronze, copper and iron nails. Because they are a pair, he wanted one to go to the 'best' woman player of the day, and one for the 'best' man.

Just got back from some petanque fun play at Billingbear Golf Club - the Jolly Farmer Club was made homeless, so they had to find a new place to play - the main club is in Sonning but they have made arrangements with the Golf Club to play on the machinery-parking area once a month. They got everything ready for us today - putting out the boards and strings, score boards, sorted out the teams and arranged with the clubhouse to lay on a Christmas buffet and we had a raffle too - a thoroughly well organised affair. And to put the icing the cake - Petanque Wallingford got 1st, 2nd and 3rd places in the melee (on wins).  Well, I am amazed how we have 'come on' since we started playing with the 'Summer Vets' and Winter Clubs and what fun we have.  It is nice to stop for something to eat and drink, but it almost seems a pity to stop playing when one is having fun! Well, there is always tomorrow; and Sunday. Well done Club, keep it up!

Several things have happened recently: I have been on holiday and had much fun playing petanque with people on the beach. Some of them proved to be complete 'naturals' and certainly gave us a run for our money! We played every evening at about 5.00 when the tide was right and most castle-builders had gone home.

The pub near the beach had a webcam, which streamed the pictures direct to the world so everyone saw us playing. We emailed some of our friends to take a look while we were out on the beach in the hope that they would see us. They were not very good pictures, but fun, nonetheless.

While I was away Petanque Wallingford was granted planning permission to build a terrain with lighting – so, we are Associate Members of the Wallingford Sports Park, we have a place to build a terrain, and we have planning permission to have 8 pistes. We have submitted our bid for funding – so all we now have to do is hold thumbs and WAIT and hope we get the money we need for a new home.

On 24th JULY 2013, we held the singles championship. It was originally intended to hold preliminaries on one night and the quarters, semis, and final the following week, but the best laid plans ….

In the event the eventual semi-finalist knocked me out in the first round and the other semi-finalist knocked out Gerry! On the way Carol and Cynthia, both newly joined players, startled and delighted themselves by reaching the quarterfinals. Well done!

It was extremely hot but they all agreed to press on. Cynthia played Chris and Carol played John L and we all watched. It was a very tense time! And the final outcome was Chris was to meet John L in the final.  After a very close match (13:12) we now have a new Singles Champion: Chris Shaw. Well done to everyone for sticking to it on such a hot evening.
Roger (Champion for 2012 has a certificate to keep) and Chris was presented with the Singles Cup (shown below) and a Certificate.

And so play continues at the Sports Park until the end of August when we have to play somewhere else because the other sports will need the car parking spaces …

Meanwhile, we also have a couple of bootsales planned – fundraising continues because we still need to raise the money for the lighting ourselves.

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

Last year in August the club held its Single Competition. Our first 'official' competition. We awarded medals to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd places, Olympic style, complete with a bunch of flowers and did a comprehensive write up and made a somewhat dodgy video – it was getting dark, and the orchestra had the night off, but we did the best we could. The medal for the first place was only supposed to be a 'stop gap' till we could sort out something permanent – when we had some funds …

We finally decided on a Cup, based on the suggestion of Esther, another member and so this was duly completed and presented to the winner, Roger, yesterday – only 6 months late, but these things take time!  Roger can hold the cup until our next singles competition on Wednesday 31st July 2013 when he will be the defending champion, and we can all have a go at being the next holder! Let's hope for a good night.