Monkstone Pétanque Club

Three teams from the Club have entered this year’s President’s Cup – the first competition of the new season.

The three teams are:

Monkstone Monarchs: Tony Smith, Inthrayut Kongchun & Roger Griffin.
Monkstone Marauders: Jim Harrison, Peter Kensett & John Barnes.
Monkstone Minotaurs: Bernard Adshead, Vicki Adshead & Keith Nott.

Travel arrangements will be confirmed on Wednesday evening.

There will be hot food available on the day, either Cawl or Faggots, both come recommended.

For a number of the members this will be their first competition, we wish them all and all the teams good luck.

You will need your licences.

Recently the Monkstone Pétanque Club hosted the Welsh Pétanque Associations (WPA) National Veterans Championship.

Thirteen triples teams from around south-east Wales entered the final championship of the season, which as always was competitively fought. Over the day, six games were played by each of the teams entered, and it soon became apparent that four teams were in the running to take the title.

The home team of Jim Harrison, Roger Griffin and John Barnes (Monkstone Marauders) became the team to beat; the first team that lost to the local trio was the team of Graham Attfield, Tony Smith and Kon Tomczyk (The Barn PC, Monkstone PC and Caerleon RFC PC).

Next the team Age Concern, consisting of three stalwarts of the Welsh pétanque world, Dai Cannan, Mike Jacques (both of Wenvoe PC) and Jake Caston (Wheatsheaf PC, Llanhennock) played the Monkstone Marauders, this time the Marauders lost, placing Age Concern in a strong position to take the title.

The last team in pole position to take the title was GPS comprising Gay Evans, Stewart Spencer (both of the Monkstone Inn PC) and Peter Beresford (Caerleon Club RFC PC) who took on the Monkstone Marauders in the final round of the day. Up to this point GPS had won 5 games and needed the final game to put them on equal wins with Age Concern.

The Monkstone Marauders took a firm control of the game and failed to allow GPS to enter the game, losing 13/0 and thereby failing to achieve their much needed 6th win.

This left Age Concern the only team to win all their 6 games of the day with a handsome points difference of plus 48 and taking the 2013 National Veterans Championship title.

Final Results: Those players highlighted in red are members of the Monkstone Pétanque Club.

1.Age Concern: Dai Cannan, Mike Jacques & Jake Caston – 6 wins +48
2.Barnstone: Graham Attfield, Tony Smith & Kon Tomczyk – 5 wins +42
3.Monkstone Marauders: Jim Harrison, John Barnes & Roger Griffin – 5 wins +41
4.GPS: Gay Evans, Stewart Spencer & Peter Beresford – 5 wins +26
5.Monkstone Monarchs: Mike Wigg, Mike Jones & Paul Milton – 5 wins +20.

The remaining teams were, in order of placing:

6. Caerleon 1970: D Bevan, N Wilkinson & R Derret
7. PD&B: P Daviss, D Murphy & R White
8. Gloria, Me & Bob: G Davies, M Davies & R Hayman
9. Monmouth Marques: P Macer-Wright, L Lewis & V Lewis
10.Monow Misfits: L Humphries, R Clifford & J Clifford
11. Jakaba: B Vaughan, K Macleod & R Dobbins
12. The Bodjers: J Moody, D Lake & W Lake
13. MSF: P Clarke, B Clarke & J Prosser

Yesterday our club hosted a successful National Triples in very hot conditions. Twelve club members participated in club and mixed teams and congratulations must go to Tony Smith for winning the title with team members Jean-Yves Robic (Penarth PC) and Kon Tomczyk (Caerleon RFC PC). This is Tony’s second Welsh title this year as he has already won the WPA Doubles, a fantastic achievement.

A special mention should go to the Milton family who played under the avuncular guidance of Mike Jones. This was the first time Heather, Paul and Liam had played together in a national competition and, although they failed to reach the knock-outs, did themselves and the club proud.

Thanks to Judith for providing the obligatory bacon rolls and the much-needed bottles of water and to William for both helping Judith and for selling the raffle tickets. The food and raffle raised over £80 for the club, which neatly covers the cost of our new pop-up gazebo.