Category: International News

Home Nations Qualifiers – Final results

Today saw the second day of qualifiers for the teams hoping to represent Wales at the Home Nations which as we are all aware is being held in Wales this year and the competition for places was always going to be stiff.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the teams that took part, it was great to see new players coming forward and entering for their first time, I really hope you enjoyed the experience. It is a great opportunity to gain experience playing against people you may not have met or played against before and hopefully you will have formed new bonds.

Again well done to everyone that took part and let’s look forward to a successful Home Nations this year. So with no further delay, here is the bit you all want to see. . . . . The results.

Regards

Gareth

PS an extra special thanks to Kon who has been busy running qualifying events all weekend but has still got these out for us tonight.

Celtic Challenge 2019 – latest news

Celtic Challenge WPA website page.

The Celtic Challenge website page has been updated to reflect this years competition that was held over the weekend of 4th/5th of May at Pontyclun PC.

The full results are there along with a selection of photographs taken over the weekend.

The page can be found in the dropdown menu under Competitions.

Celtic Challenge 2019

 

Today saw the start of the 2019 Celtic Challenge.

It opened with welcoming words from Cllr. Margret Griffiths, Rhondda Cynon Taff and her husband Cllr. Paul Griffiths, leader of Pontyclun Community Council, these were then followed by welcoming speeches from Bob Pugh, president of the WPA, Heads of delegations for Ireland and Scotland along with Gareth Jackson, President of the hosting club (Pontyclun PC) and Bob Parker from the English Pétanque Association, our guest umpire.

The competition started and all teams were up to the challenge, Wales A had to play their first games against Wales B which was a tough fought battle with Wales A finishing 8 – 4 ahead at the lunch break.

Similarly, Scotland were showing Ireland no quarter in their early rounds and they too finished 8 – 4 up at the break but Wales A were ahead on points.

The afternoon session started with Wales B taking games off Wales A, Scotland continued their strong play and by the close of play had held their nerve and continued to take games from all angles including those against the home nation.

The day finished at:-

Scotland – 15

Wales A – 13

Wales B – 13

Ireland – 7

Tomorrow brings a new day and more great games, there were a few nail biters there today and I am sure there will be many more tomorrow.

There will be more pics posted soon, don’t forget to watch out on the WPA facebook page for the games that are being live streamed.

2019 World Championships – Almeria, Spain.

It was brought to our attention at last night’s OGM that the names of the players who qualified to represent Wales were not published on the website, this was obviously an oversight and I would like to apologise on behalf of the Exec.

Following three rounds of assessments in various disciplines over several weeks the following players were selected to represent Wales at this year’s World Championships.

Players:

Gemma Foster
Tansy Mayfield
Matthew Howells
Richard Harris

Coaches:

Tony Smith and Peter Beresford

We would like to wish them all the best for a successful and a safe trip.

2019 Veteran’s Welsh National Championships

This year’s National Veteran’s Championships will be held at Monkstone Petanque Club, Penylan, Cardiff  on Sunday 28th April.

Registration will be between 09:00am and 09:30am.

The winners and runners up of this event will be invited to represent Wales at the Veteran’s Nations Cup which this year is also being held at the Monkstone Petanque Club.

The Veteran’s Nations Cup is to be held over the weekend of 29th and 30th June 2019.

Pre Entry is required, please email your entry to:-

dev [at] welshpetanque [dot] org [dot] uk

Payment can be made on the day, the closing date for entries is 21st April 2019.

2019 Veterans Poster

BBC Feature on Pétanque in Wales

The BBC Wales cameras attended the Cup for Clubs match between Penarth and Caerleon on Sunday 11th December to produce a feature on the growth of Pétanque in Wales.

James Pontin from BBC Wales spoke with WPA President Dan Murphy, Director of Development Jean-Yves Robic, Caerleon’s Wales International Tansy Mayfield and Penarth’s Tim Howard, who is one of the younger members of the Association.

View the BBC Wales Video Here

Several hours of Pétanque were captured for the BBC archives and Pontin has cut that down to an excellent 3 minute feature of the BBC’s digital platforms.

The match was won comfortably by Caerleon, who join Wenvoe at the top of the table in the 2016/17 Cup for Clubs. The competition continues in the New Year.

Fred Stirland 1936-2013

It has been announced on the English Petanque Association’s website the very sad news that Fred Stirland, past President of the EPA, has died.

There is no further information at this time but the WPA, together with the EPA membership would also like to express our sincere condolences to his family.