Petanque Wallingford

Last night saw us at The Bear - all around us was rain and donner und blitzen - we thought if it was horrible we would just adjourn to the pub since it was our last club night for the season.  Got there at 5.45 at the same time as
J - lovely surprise, followed shortly by C and A and then S (B had phoned to say she would skulk indoors as it was pouring in Oxford).  C and T raked leaves off the piste and did a spot of gardening, then at about 6.15, piste raked, drinks in, we started playing. GS & C in one team and TA & J in the other.
For some reason GS & C won 3 games (the middle one was a real nail-biter: TA & J had 2 points to GS & C's 10. TA & J pulled their socks up and got 2 points, and then 5 - gave GS & C a real fright and they finally won by one point! What a lovely game.  And between whiles everyone looked at the clouds and identified some faces - Einstein blowing a cloud, a lady with a bun, the moon rise, Dave and his Lady sitting in a TV aerial, silhouetted against the moon. We are very lucky to have lights, although we can only play in one direction! And no rain; lovely and warm - considering the flooding in the rest of the country. T&G left at 8.15 tired and happy and dry.
All this is leading to TONIGHT Thursday - 5.45 start - hoping for
good weather. If not, in the church hall, I mean the pub for some liquid refreshment and chat and a bag of crisps and the Pork Pie (Last night's winners promised reward ...) It's hard to believe that it's six months till Spring!

Keeping a blog going turns out to be quite time consuming – and holidays get in the way…! This is, therefore one big ‘catch up’ .
22 September (Saturday afternoon): 6 people came to play at Aston Tirrold. We had some very challenging games on a ‘proper’ surface, albeit it a bit bumpy, but very fast. We have played on all sorts of surfaces now, so are getting quite good at 'reading' the terrain.  (How we have come on in 12 months!)
We resolved to ask Aston Tirrold if we could play during the Winter. An email will be sent to everyone to see who wants to play.
They are holding a committee meeting in Early October to sort things out, and we also have a meeting in early October with the Sports Park to ‘continue talking’ about our aspirations there. So a busy month to follow.
21 September (Friday): The Secretary and a fellow member went to look at the pistes at Aston Tirrold, to see what we had missed. The pistes turn out to have a very nice playing surface and we chanced to meet someone who filled us in with a contact. Play for the Saturday afternoon was duly arranged.
20 September (Thursday): saw us at The Bear for our usual Thursday night fun where we learned about the petanque pistes in Aston Tirrold, a village down the road from The Bear: Loren had been for a walk and came across a poster adversiting ‘petanque tomorrow’.  We thought we would like to join in, but investigation found that ‘Tomorrow’ turned out to have been 2 weeks previously …
19 September (Wednesday): second last clubnight  Playing for the President’s Pint - arrangements had been made to play at The Bear on account of things being impossible at the Sports Park.  12 people turned out and we started promptly at 6.00 so as to get our games in before it got too dark.  We did have lights, so that was a help.  We adjouned to the pub where we had use of the function room. The President bought us all a drink and we had some food at £5.00 a head … The President thanked us all for turning up to play throughout the Season. Thank you, Loren, for the drinks.
13 September play at The Bear well into the night - well 9.30. So warm and clear you would never have thought it was on the edge of Autumn! We had a lovely time. No sign of Dave and his new lady friend.
12 September (Wednesday ) was our third last clubnight. We had been ‘warned’ that Rugby was starting practice, along with hockey and junior football and that the car park at WSP would be pretty busy.  So a member and his son said they would cordon off ‘our’ usual playing area – thus booking it, but we should get there early to reinforce our occupation! We duly arrived in plenty of time to find the sports park FULL to bursting with cars parked all over ‘out’ usual pistes (plus down the roads outside the park ...).
The simple expedient had been to move the traffic cones from 'our pistes' and park.  We had no option but to retire gracefully! So we went to The Bear, leaving one member behind to tell any other people who turned up that we (obviously) could not play there and that they should go to the Bear.
We now had a problem – the second last clubnight on 19 September was scheduled to be Playing for the President’s Pint (one pint each, not one pint to share … the President’s Treat) with nibbles, at the WSP.  The club had agreed to provide a bite for us after play too.  And a room had been booked ... Something would be sorted, no doubt.

We went to play petanque at the Bear on Saturday lunchtime. No sign of Dave the Dove; we suspected he had found a girlfriend who was more interesting that us humans.
During a lull in proceedings Gerry, who is taller than the rest of us, could see over the fence where Dave had lived.  And there he was - his 'human' was sitting in the hot tub (everything concealed by the water). Dave was sitting on his head.  Now that would have made a funny picture!

  .... one week ago – how time flies. We arrived on the Crowmarsh Recreation ground at 2pm to set up our piste on the grass, like we did for the Wallingford Carnival.  Weather was just perfect – overcast, cool, slight breeze. Much activity going on with technicians setting up the big screen, people building the climbing wall, gazebos and tables going up all around.  A really jolly atmosphere – all the fun of the fair.
     Our space in front of the cricket pitch was beautifully prepared – nice and hard. Everything was lovely.  So, having set up our stall, we settled down to wait for the first players to arrive to ‘have a go’.  And the clouds vanished, the humidity shot up and it was as hot as can be.  Oh dear.
     Well, nothing daunted, we made the most of it.  And throughout the afternoon until about 6.00 we had a constant stream of people coming to play. We had teams playing doubles and triples and in all had 12 people play with the ‘proper’ boules, and 6 kiddies played with the soft boules.  All together a very successful day.  All we need now is for them to come and join us.
     We packed up at 6.00 and went to friends for supper, and then on to the Corn Exchange Theatre in Wallingford to watch the Olympic opening ceremony on the ‘big screen’ in the cinema.  Highlights for me were James Bond, the Queen and the corgies, and Rowan Atkinson and the orchestra, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle no less, playing Chariots of Fire …
    They want to do this 'have a go day' again next year. We will have more pistes, so more people can play at the same time.
    

    

    

C G A and T went to the Bear for some practice for various forthcoming events - The Carnival, the Carter Jonas Melee the following week, The Triples Match at the end of June, and The Club FUNDAY. No sign of the 'supervisor' in the shape of the Bird, so we set to practicing shooting. The noise of our success must have alerted the Bird that we were there and so it joined us on its usual perch.

Rained really heavily all day so we thought – no play tonight.  G looked at the rainfall radar on his iPad and it showed rain at first, then later on that the rain would skirt us, so off we went for our petanque fix.  As T walked onto the piste the Bird* came flying straight down to greet her like a long awaited friend, and promptly sat on her head.  L hates birds around his head, so he was a bit twitchy. But it was determined to sit on someone.
   T tried taking it off and putting it on the fence, in the hedge, on the blackboard - but no, sit on her it wanted to do, and that was that. We wish someone had been there with a video camera to film that bird.  It was determined to join in.  She had no option but to play with the bird on her head throughout the evening. Delivering a boule with a bird on your head must be a first!
     Coach said ‘deliver, and FOLLOW THROUGH’.  T delivered and kept her hand up ‘following through’, as instructed, and the bird thought this hand was for its benefit, so flew off the head and sat on the hand. It also tried to sit on T’s glasses. She got it to sit on the fence and went down to look at the layout of boules, only to find the bird scuttling along behind to take a look too! 
  Play was a bit hazardous because an incautious step and Bird could get trodden on, squashed, hit by a flying projectile …. We can only hope Bird finds another bird friend and flies away. (You will notice it has lost the ‘the’ and acquired a capital letter – it’s obviously here to stay. How long do these things live?).
   But, against all the odds, she actually WON 2 games. L won the third rather convincingly. It must be lucky, having Bird sit on ones head, even without, thank goodness, the lucky parcel!
   Afterwards - T with her hair in all directions because of Bird - joined G in the pub for a drink and supper, thoroughly bemused, but having had a very pleasant tine. She played quite well with the Bird on her head. If it’s there next week we must get some more pictures! Moving ones perhaps.
* See earlier post of 17 May for pictures of the Bird

Wednesday 16th May saw everyone in the Car Park at WSP. So pleasant when it's warmer.  8 players turned out so they played doublettes. One member had a lovely set of brand new Boules Bleu. We were all most envious.  The newest newcomer shows promise to be a good shooter.

And so on to Thursday, 17th with a visit to the Bear at Home in North Moreton.  When they play there the Pub's petanque piste is used.  Part of it is very good, but the bottom part has been used for bonfires so the ground is 'dead'. Good practice! The Aunt Sally* pitch is also used. Both pitches go uphill, or downhill, depending where you are standing. Everyone likes playing on the Aunt Sally pitch as the downward direction is nice for plombé and the uphill, which includes the pole, has some interesting opportunities.

*Aunt Sally is a game, similar to skittles, played in Oxfordshire (and a few other English Counties. It involves putting a 'dolly' on a pole, and then hurling chunks of wood at it to try to knock it off. If you hit the dolly you score a point. If you hit the pole, you don't. It also appears to involve a lot of noise because the blackboard used for scoring has 'NEIGHBOURS!' chalked on it.  We use the blackboard for our scoring too, and we try to keep our noise down! This is also where the bird likes to sit ... see below.

One of our players (C) arrived with her camera. T noticed C staring at the blackboard for a long time.  Funny that, she thought, the score is not that interesting.  When she got back down to that end she saw that C was in fact looking at a collared dove sitting on the pole supporting the board. G also saw the bird and invited it to sit on his hand.  After a while it flew off and sat on T's head! T looks a bit anxious - it could have left her a lucky present ...

It eventually flew back to its perch in the tree and everyone played some more. But it was determined to join in and flew out and sat on P's head
   

G went to remove it and it sat on his head!  

 
Much fun was had by all.  Perhaps it will still be there next week.