Monkstone Pétanque Club

The 2022 Xmas Melee, delayed from December due to appalling weather, was finally played at the Club on Sunday 15 January 2023. In the best Christmas tradition, the 23 members who entered were fortified with mince pies and mulled wine between rounds 1 & 2. The weather this time was fine with exception of a couple of showers before the competition started and a downpour at the start of Round 2 – but, with everyone full of mince pies and mulled wine, did we care?

The competition got underway under leaden skies but no rain. As there were 23 entarnts some games had to be played as triples or double v triple. At the conclusion of the first round their were 11 players on 1 win with Roger “Ben” Bennett and newbie Sharon Paynter leading the way on +10.

Mulled wine & mince pies were consumed in the break and all waited to see if this had any impact on the play in Round 2 – which began in a deluge with some of the less hardy players still sheltering in the clubhouse when the whistle went for the start of the round. Evryone made it out onto the terrain but some of the games were considerably shorter than the alloted 40 minutes. When the scores were in we were down to 7 players on 2 wins. Ben had dropped away but Sharon was still leading with +20 now followed by Tony Smith (+17), Sean Smith (+15) and Keith Nott (+10). Could Sharon hang on with these seasoned players yapping at her heels.

Round 3 was duly played out and it was revealed that Sharon had won but by only 1 point giving her (+21) for the competition which left Tony & Sean well within striking distance and even Keith with an outside chance if he could secure a big win. As the results came in Tony had lost taking him out of the picture but Keith Nott was the opposition. His win by (+ 8) was not enough to dislodge Sharon from the top spot which left only Sean who won his game but by a margin of (+4) which left Sharon as a very popular winner having only taken up the game in the last few months. 

2021 winner Bernard Adshead presents the trophy to Sharon Paynter

FULL RESULTS

The second leg of the annual Winter Friendly against Caerleon RFC PC was played today at a rather chilly Caerlon but at least the rain held off untill the last 30 mins or so.

In order to involve as may players as possible, it was agreed to increase the number of games from the usual format to:  12 x Singles, 7 x Doubles, 5 x Triples.

Monkstone were 12 points down from the first leg but closing the gap, particularly with the extra games, was by no means an impossible task.

The opening Singles went well for Monkstone with a 7-5 [14pts to 10pts] win during which Phil Roberts beat Gemma Foster [13-12] for the third successive time and Vickie Adshead beat Steve Snudden [13-4] to record an unexpected, particularly by her, win. Monkstone had made up 4 of the 12 point deficit. 

The Doubles, which hadn’t gone well for Monkstone in the 1st Leg, went even better that the singles this time round with the away team winning 5-2 [15pts to 6pts] giving Monkstone a 1 point overall lead in the competition. Beryl McCarthy continued her winning run in the doubles from the 1st Leg, this time showing Bernard Adshead how to point, in a 13-10 win. 

So onto the Triples where Monkstone needed to win at 3 out of 5 games to win the trophy for the 3rd successive year.  Ultimately Monkstone fell just short by taking only 2 of the 5 triples and so losing the competition by 4 points [64 – 68] but took some consolation from winning on the 2nd Leg [39 – 31].

A terrific effort by the whole team paricularly the less experienced players who found themselves drawn against Caerleon’s top players. 

The competitive but friendly spirit that this fixture has become accustomed to continues but the time had come for Monkstone Captain, Bernard, to hand over the trophy to Caerleon Captain, Kon Tomczyk, while asking him to look after it as we want it back next year!

Kon Tomczyk, Keith Wanklyn (Caerleon V-Chair) & Bernard Adshead

Many many thanks to all those who took part over the two legs and I hope that the less experienced players got something out the competition.

FULL RESULTS of the 2 legs

The 10th and final round of the 2022 Super League took place on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. Whilst the top and bottom places in the league were already decided, their were a number of scenarios, as set out in the Round 9 report, for the three teams in the middle leaving it uncertain who would finish 2nd, 3rd or 4th.

Tuesday saw a fine but very chilly evening when Monarchs took on Minotaurs who, realistically needed a minimum of a draw to remain in 2nd place and a win to definitely take 2nd spot. When the match started at 6:30pm no one could imagine the titanic struggle that was about to unfold. Monarchs were represented by Sean Smith & Keith Nott and Roger Griffin & Mike Wigg whilst Minotaurs fielded John Barnes & Pete Kensett and Vickie & Bernard Adshead. 

In the first round, Roger & Mike took on Barney & Pete. Monarchs started strongly and opened up a  sizeable lead but Minotaurs got back in the game with a 5. Roger & Mike pulled ahead again but Barney & Pete stuck at it to level the scores at 12-12. Minotaurs, however, couldn’t quite sustain the recovery and went down 12-13 after an exciting match. That was nothing, however, to what was developing on the other piste. Vickie & Bernard opened the scoring with a 1 and so they continued, when, with the score at 9-9 they had actually won 9 ends out of the 15 ends played and the game had lasted 90 minutes up to that point! The game continued with Minotaurs finally breaking their run of 1’s by taking a 2 but this was followed immediately by Sean & Keith taking 2 for 11-11. Vickie & Bernard managed to continue the new sequence of taking 2 to close out the game at 13-11 after 2hrs 5mins play in what was possibly the longest game ever seen at Monkstone.  The players from the other game had been sat in the cold for over 1 hour but, at 1-1, it was all to play for!