Petanque Wallingford

Twenty eight people from the Sinodun Players (the local amateur dramatic society) came to play today starting with a pop up picnic.  They started play at 3.00 pm and played 3 games, with breaks between for more picnic. They had a super time, 'full of fun and competition' and although most had not played before, did very well indeed. They enjoyed themselves so much they want to make this an annual event. First prize went to Dr. Sue , 2nd went to Polly and Fiona was the 'friendliest player. Gloria got a special prize for being responsible for the creating the 'first fanny'. She also organised the event. It was lovely to see so many people enjoying themselves.
 

PW was asked to have a training day for the Heart Transplant team members. This was held at the end of May and in June they went to play in Sardinia in the International Transplant Sport Games. The terrain was amazing to say the least! But they did very well, on it:  (The names in red are the ones we worked with):
Singles: Hamish Barrie and Iklaq Ahmed – Gold;
Sam Clark – Silver
Carlton Richardson, Robert Jackson, Dino Maroudias and Martin Strang – All received Bronze
Doubles: Iklaq Ahmed & Robert Jackson – Silver
Hamish Barrie, Sam Clark, Dino Maroudias, Martin Strang – Bronze.
 
It is hoped to form a team for the International Transplant Games being held in Newcastle-upon-Tyne next year. Petanque England is helping organise it and one of our Members, who had another kidney transplant in April, is in line to captain the team (he captained the team when they went to play in Durban in 2013).

This event took place lastnight, clubnight.
(This is a club match where people chose, in the early part of the year, who they want to play with, then I divide them into two leagues. Everyone in each League (1 & A) plays everyone else in their league whenever they like over the following 2/3 months. The winner of league A plays the No 2 from League 1 and the winner from League 1 plays No 2 from League A. Then the winners play each other to find the trophy winner).

The first match was between Mark & Chris H (Pickled Eggs) and JJ & Tony (Tie Breakers) – and JJ & Tony WON (13:12). Mark & Chris were trying some difficult shots. Tony was pointing very well and JJ was shooting well. It was a very long game - 1 and a half hours. Good job they only had to play one game – we would have been there all night! (Gerry is presenting the trophy to JJ (centre) and Tony).
 
Val & Dave (Flower Power) played Chris S & Sarah (Latecomers). Chris and Sarah won 13:1 - All over in 20 minutes.
 
So the final was between Chris S & Sarah and JJ &Tony. JJ and Tony won 13:6.
A sensible length of game, but nevertheless quite exciting.
 
The watchers enjoyed themselves  too.

Paul, Dean, Christian (from Burnham) and PW's Mark (one of our Red Kite 'boys', entered the Home Nations Qualifier this weekend in Notthingham. The format was Swiss and the top 8 teams (some 34 teams entered) would play in the Home Nations Tournament this August in Jersey.

Mark, Paul Dean and Christian did well and won their first 4 games. The final game was against another team that had also won all of their games. MPD and C managed to win 13-11 which means they came top of all the teams. So they will be representing England this August.  Well done chaps!

As for PW Red Kites playing Sunday Leagues against Combined - 3 players from MTTA and 3 from Bozos on the Bozos home turf at Bourne End (a match much lower down the ladder!) - we played out of our collective skins and won 5:2. Phew! Red Kites' next weekend league match is on the Boulodrome against Arborfield while the Red Herrings will meet the combined team at Bourne End.

The Red Kites played the Red Herrings on 6th April and the Kites won 5:2. Next week the Kites play Combined - 3 players from MTTA and 3 from Bozos. We will be missing the two 'boys' (we call them boys because they are so much younger than us!) so we will need to play really well ... Mark is playing in the Home National Qualifier in Nottingham with three Burnham players.. Good luck Mark, and good luck Kites

1st May
Serious Catch up
A lot has been happening, so this is serious catch up.
In March the Winter Pairs Final was held at Burnham and was won by our very own Mark Dowman and Chris Hurst.
         The shelter flat pack was delivered from Holland, and assembled in a day on Thursday 26th April. It took at bit of head scratching where to begin, but once the assembly squad started it went very well and slotted together beautifully.
See https://youtu.be/p9KWxHyDgYI to view the final part of the roofing (tongue and groove) being done. Only the roof felting, edging and painting needs to be done and we will be the proud owners of a very classy shelter!
       Below is a picture of the shelter construction team.

The Regional Doubles was supposed to be held at Arborfield, but more people than anticipated entered resulting in insufficient pistes being available (they needed nine), so the tournament was relocated to the PW Boulodrome and was held on Sunday 29th April.
 
We made full use of the shelter – it was so cold! I sat out of the wind, wrapped in a blanket,   cuddling my hot water bottle and cheered our three teams from a distance!
    Mark and Dave C and Julian and Chris S (PW members) met in the 3rd and 4th place play off and Mark and Dave won. Paul and Dean and Christian and Bob B (all from Burnham) met in the final. After a very close march, Paul and Dean won. Well done everyone; a lovely day was had by all.
         Sunday Leagues and Weekday Leagues continue – our next matches are 6th May at the Boulodrome – PW Red Herrings v PW Red Kites, 8th May is the midweek league PW against MTTA at Marlow
We have two teams from PW entered in the Londonnaise, on 9th June at Crystal Palace and then we have the regional triples match on 10th June, at Arborfield - but some of PW peple are going to help the Newbury Rotary with their Petanque in the Square.

Our shelter plans are steaming ahead - the paved base was laid on 19th and 20th April. The average age of the six installers was 71, so they did very well to get it down in two days!
Thanks to Steve, our official photographer .
T provided the chuck-wagon to keep the workers fed and watered. 

As you know, we have two of these beautiful boules and yesterday (11th March) we had a lovely day to play for them. We had a super turnout - 25 people came down to the Boulodrome (including me and G, but we did not play, we 'just' organised). We could only play 3 games because it was Mothers Day and people had to leave for the lunch with their famalies.
And the new winners for 2018 are Moiya Clark (3 wins +22 and Richard Doughty (3 wins +16). Ava Dowman, who is 9, was the lady who came second (3 wins +16). Ava, Josie, our newest members, and Addison are being coached by Paul Lancaster a retired National Youth Coach. It would be fantastic to have 3 more youngsters to make up a team ... Well done to everyone and thank you for coming to play.

We played Winter Pairs yesterday at the Boulodrome Wallingford - League 1 and Leagues 2 and 3 at Arborfield. Cloudy with occasional drizzle, but not freezing like it was on Friday!

League 1 (standing in this league)
Mind the Gap (Steve & Wendy) 2nd
The Berets (Julie & Adrian) came 3rd

League 2 (standing in this league)
Red Roses (Chris S and Sarah) came 5th
The Kites (Peter S and Dave Chalkey) came 6th

League 3 (standing in this league)
Pickled Eggs (Mark and Chris ) won all 3 of their games
Smoking Dragon (Gerry & Moiya) came 5th
Red Fox (Thérèse & Alec) came 6th

So overall Pickled Eggs are top so far and Twiglets are second. Still all to play for.