Monkstone Pétanque Club

In glorious sunshine, the club today held its first Women v Men Challenge Competition. The teams consisted of 12 players each and the competition was held over four rounds, two of doubles and two of triples. The team captains, Sean Smith and Gill Clark, picked the pairs and triplets to compete in each game and, as in the Cup for Clubs, there were 3 points for a doubles win and five points for a triples win.

In Round 1 there was notable win for the Women when Rose Fiera/Beryl McCarthy beat Roger Griffin/Tony Newton 13-1 but the Men returned the compliment with a 13-1 win for Mike Jones/Bernard Adshead over Vickie Adshead/Barbara Kensett. Perhaps the most remarkable finish was in the game between Sean Smith/Ian McCarthy and Judith Smith/Linda Halloran. With the Men leading by 12-8, captain Sean contrived to shoot out the jack with his last boule leaving the Women with 5 in hand giving them a 13-12 victory – as they “It’s not how you win …..”. The round finished with the Men leading 4-2 in games giving them a points lead of 12-6.    

The second round saw the Men consolidate their lead by winning 5 games to 1, with the Women’s only victory coming when the Judith/Linda combo put one over on Bernard/Ian by 13-7. The round ended with the Men leading 9-3 in games and 27-9 in points. 

Following a break for a picnic lunch, supplemented by some of Tony’s finest ales from the bar, Round 3 the 4 games of triples got underway. Would the Women fair any better in this format? In the event it certainly seemed so with the honours being even. The 2 Gills, Clark/Greenwell* recorded a 13-11 win over Peredur John/Mike Jones/Tony Smith and Vickie Adshead/Denise Jones/Betty Hoyle stole a 12-11 win over Roger Griffin/Ian McCarthy/Phil Roberts by taking 1 point in the final end after limit time had been called. the scores at this point had the Men leading 11-5 in games and 37-19 in points.

* Rose Fiera had a family commitment in the afternoon, so the 2 Gills had to play as a pair 

And so it was into the final round which unfortunately did not go well for the Women, with the Men taking all 4 games to leave them the overall winners by 52-19.  The match was, however, a lot closer than the score suggests but the Men, with 9 first division players in their squad, just proved too powerful on the day. It is a tribute to the Club that they can put out a team of 12 Women with at least 2 others who wanted to play but couldn’t for various reasons.

Everyone enjoyed a very friendly day of petanque and huge thanks go to everyone who took part and especially to the two captains, Gill Clark and Sean Smith, who also conceived the idea of the competition, for the work they put in managing their teams. Everyone agreed that it should become an annual event.

The day finished with Gill Clark generously presenting, socially distanced of course, the trophy to Sean Smith whilst warning that the Women would be looking to take it back next year. 

The Teams