Monkstone Pétanque Club

Club members taking part in yesterday’s Christmas Melee Competition were surprised to find that Santa had taken time out of his busy pre-Christmas schedule to visit the Club. They were even more surprised when Santa said he wanted to play – he started well but in the final round he was let down by his little helper. He did, however, manage to avoid the wooden spoon.

At the end of Round 1, Vickie Adshead and Mike Wigg had taken an early lead with a win and +11.

Round 2 got underway with the weather till holding out and no sign of the promised rain. At the end of the round there were 6 players on 2 wins with Tony Smith in the lead with +19 followed by Phil Roberts on +14

Before the final round started Santa unveiled the cakes, doughnuts and mince pies he had brought along to sustain the players. These went down very nicely with a cup of tea or coffee – no sherry from Santa. Some players were lurking around the table with all the goodies hoping no-one was counting how many cakes they had.

As the final round got underway there was everything to play for – a slip up by either of the leaders could let in any of the other 4 players who were on 2 wins. When the scores came in, 5 of the players on 2 wins had converted that into 3 wins – only Mike Jones fell at the last hurdle.

The scores were checked, double-checked and scrutinised as they were very close indeed. Eventually the final results were declared.

As Santa had to leave to get back and make sure his elves were hard at work in the toy factory, it fell to President Mike Jones to present Tony with the trophy.

Santa had said before he left that he had a special prize for the least successful player and, with 3 losses and -23 , that went to John Chichester who had very sensibly left before it was announced.

A big thank-you to Roger Green for organising the melee and a special thanks to Santa for his unexpected visit.

The annual President’s Cup was up for grabs on Sunday. 22 members entered on the day for the competition which was played as a doubles melee. Play got underway on a chilly morning and at the end of round 1, Tony Smith, Tony Newton, Barbara Kensett and John Xiberras shared the lead with a win and a score of +7.

The pairings were changed for round 2 and after some close, and some not so close, games only 4 players were on 2 wins with Peter Kensett leading the way on +15 followed by Tony Newton & John Xiberras on +13 and Roger Griffin on +9.

Another change of parings and round 3 was underway. At the end of the round only Roger of the 4 players on 2 wins had managed a win. The last game to finish was between Bernard Adshead/John Xiberras and Phil Roberts/Lynda Hodges and nobody had realised the significance this game could have on the final result. With all the other players watching Bernard & John let a 13-9 lead slip and lost 12-13. Had Bernard & John got that final point John could have won the competition. Reviewing the scores later it also became evident that Tony Newton who also lost 12-13 in the final round could also have won had he not suffered that close defeat.

So a great competition finished with Roger being declared the winner on 3 wins and +13 closely followed by John & Tony both on 2 wins and +12.

President Mike presents the President’s Cup to Roger

Sean Smith, Ian Baildon-Smith & Phil Roberts accept the Triples Shield from Club President Mike Jones (2nd from left)

Last Sunday Monkstone PC entertained the Barristers, a team from the Temple Bar pub in Ewyas Harold in Herefordshire who play in Division 3 of the Marches league. On a glorious, sunny, if somewhat chilly, day a Monkstone team of Division 2 & 3 players took on the visitors in a match modelled on the Cup for Clubs format of singles, doubles & triples although it was decided that each game would only attract 1 match point. The games were played in reverse order to the Cup for Clubs with the triples being played first and ending with the singles.

Monkstone got off to a good start with Sean Smith, Rob Harris and Carol Maroney winning 13-4 but Phil Roberts, Gill Clarke and Judith Smith were unable to keep the momentum going down 10-13. All square at the end of the triples. The doubles started badly for Monkstone with first Carol and John Xiberras going down 11-13 followed by Lynda Hodges and Rob succumbing to the same score. Sean and Phil managed to pull one game back, winning 13-10.

So it was into the final round with Monkstone 2-3 down overall and needing to win four of the six singles to take the match. Monkstone made an excellent start with Judith and Gill winning 13-4 and 13-5 respectively but this was soon cancelled out by Lynda losing 10-13 followed by John going down to the same score. Phil brought the overall score back to 5-5 with a solid 13-6 win.

The script couldn’t have been written better with Sean nip and tuck with his opponent in what he didn’t know was the deciding game. With the score standing at 9-9, Sean seemed to lose his concentration and went down 9-13 leaving the Barristers as the 6-5 winners.

Congratulations to Bill Sparey and his team on their fine win. Everyone agreed that it had been a very enjoyable day and it was resolved to arrange a return fixture in Herefordshire next year.

Thanks to Joy Griffin and Vickie Adshead for providing the delicious leek & potato soup which warmed all the players up in the chill wind.

The team captains Bill Sparey and Roger Griffin (non-playing)