Category: National Competition

WPA Assessments: WC & EC: Men & EC Veterans: Women & Men, Round 1 – Report

A Cold and Wet Day for the opening round of Assessments 

The morning (in particular) weather didn’t help the competitors in the first round of the Qualifying Assessments for the 2021 World Championships (Triples: Men), European Championships (Triples: Men) and European Championships for Veterans (Triples: Women & Men).

I need to begin with thanking the Monkstone PC for giving over their pistes for the day to allow us to safely spread out and run the three individual Assessments, as well as a distanced area for playing/warming up (a term I use lightly, given the weather).

I must also thank the people who marked each event – Jean-Yves Robic, Tony Smith and, especially, Lyn Babbage who stepped in at the last minute to help out after I had to pull-out due to illness.

There had been a lot of discussion among the Executive Committee and with the National Coach prior to the event taking place – firstly around whether it should have gone ahead at all. We always knew it would be a risk, starting such an important process in nearly December, and we have 2 further weekends for scheduled into the 2021 Draft Playing Calendar for more rounds for these events, as well as a separate event for the World Championships (Triples: Women). In addition, this is partly driven by the closing date for entries to the World Championships. Based on our experience earlier this year, the organisers will need full details of the team by early Spring.

Given this likely requirement, along with the uncertainty surrounding the Coronavirus restrictions in Wales, we decided it would be useful to get at least one round “in the bag” while we had a window of opportunity.

We added a second day to the Playing Calendar in case we needed that extra time, depending on the number of players who entered, but as it turned out, only the Saturday was needed.

With a slight evolution of the process, we used in 2019, the original plan for the day involved a number of timed triples matches between teams made up of the players not undergoing their individual assessments and taking place simultaneously with those. The plan was for these games to be observed and each player marked using the same process as our coaches follow at international events. Unfortunately, the lack of people available to undertake this observation & marking meant this element had to be removed from the event.

All the players who took part have been asked for their feedback on the event. I am grateful for the replies received so far and hope the people who haven’t responded yet, will be able to do so. All suggestions/thoughts/views will be considered before the next rounds.

The Standings at the end of Round 1 can be seen below. Each player’s individual detailed scoring will be emailed directly to them by the National Coach.

Congratulations to everyone who took part, and a big thank you again to Monkstone PC and the volunteer markers.

Let’s hope the following rounds take place in kinder conditions.

 

WPA Assessments Round 1 Standings

 

Bob Pugh
WPA National President

WPA National Doubles: Mixed – Report

Rainbows, Road-Closures & Floodlit Finale fail to Dampen Spirits 

Re-arranged after being postponed as a result of the recent Welsh Government Firebreak, this year’s National Mixed Doubles finally got underway at Caerleon RFC PC.

Having offered to host the original event, we were delighted that Caerleon were able to also meet the revised date. Our thanks to the Rugby and Petanque Clubs Committees, and especially Richard Harris for making it happen.

The build-up to this event was, I think it’s safe to say, less than ideal. With more teams entered than the Welsh Government limit of 30 people allowed, it meant we unfortunately had to decline the entries of a few teams. It’s rare for us to run an oversubscribed event, and our sincerest apologies to these unlucky players. We were able to accommodate some more, when a few teams dropped out at the last minute, which left us with 12 teams fighting for the title.

There’s a clear risk to holding competitions mid-November, and today we found out enough weather to prove this, with sunshine, light showers, proper Welsh rain, winds and hail making it a challenge.

Four rounds of timed games including a short lunch break, led to the top four teams heading for the semi-finals, where Maesteg PC’s Julie & Ian Bailey defeated Wheatsheaf PC’s Gail Brooksbank and Robert White, and club-locals Tansy Mayfield and Richard Harris defeating Monkstone PC’s Jayne Dunn and Peredur John.

With the semis and final being untimed, the light was fading-fast as the finalists threw the first boule. Ironically, as the light faded, the clouds parted and the sky truned out be the clearest it had been all day!

Mayfield & Harris got off to a flying start with a 1 and 6 on the first 2 ends taking them into a strong lead – the 6, in particular, coming from some outstanding pointing.

Just at the point when many teams would crumble, former champions, the Baileys, dug deep and began their recovery, clawing their way back in 1s and 2s, till the edged ahead as the light went completely and we had to resort to using temporary floodlighting (thanks to Marie & Derek Jones for the inspirational decision to throw them into the bag of the car in the morning).

The next few ends saw the lead change hands until both teams were tied on 11 each, with Baileys taking the point on the next end, just missing out on the winning point, before finally closing the game out 13-11.

Huge congratulations to our 2020 National Mixed Doubles Champions, and, once again, our thanks to Caerleon RFC PC for hosting the event in a safe and sporting way.

Next-up is the National Precision Shooting for Women & Men, currently scheduled for November 22nd – venue still to be confirmed.

WPA National Mixed Doubles Champions 2020:
Julie & Ian Bailey

 

WPA National Mixed Doubles Runners-Up 2020:
Tansy Mayfield & Richard Harris

 

 

 

Semi-Finals under way as the light fades.

 

 

Bob Pugh
WPA National President

WPA ANNOUNCEMENT: WPA NATIONAL EVENTS POSTPONED

WPA NATIONAL EVENTS POSTPONED.

With the latest news from the Welsh Government (WG), and yesterday’s announcement of a further 4 areas of South Wales put into a lockdown state, the WPA EC feels it has no choice but to postpone the National events that were scheduled to be played in the next few weeks.

These were:
National Precision Shooting: Women & Men
National Mixed Doubles
National Singles: Women
National Singles: Men

Although this is regrettable, we hope our members understand that this decision was not taken lightly, but was done-so with everyone’s health, safety and well-being in the forefront of our minds.

We will continue to monitor the situation and we wish to assure our members that, when the circumstances allow we will look to reschedule as many of these events as we are able.

Although the WG advice continues to allow groups of up to 30 to meet outdoors for organised activities (subject to the same guidelines as we have published previously), and we would encourage all members to support their local clubs if they wish to continue to play, we must remind members that travel into or out of a lockdown area is only for essential purposes – and playing sports does not fall into that category.

We also understand that this is a difficult time for Clubs who may be missing out on some income that they rely on from hosting competitions, running open-days, etc.

If Clubs are struggling financially, we would like to remind you that, as we have previously briefed out, Sport Wales has a Be Active Wales Fund that clubs are encouraged to apply to for assistance.

Details can be found here: https://www.sport.wales/beactivewalesfund/

REMEMBER:

#KEEP WALES SAFE

Kind regards
Bob
Bob Pugh
National President

WPA National Doubles: Men – Report

Thrilling Final after Last-Minute Change of Venue

Pontyclun PC, based at Pontyclun RFC, once again played host to a National Championships – this time for the Men’s Doubles.

Originally due to be held at another venue, a last-minute issue meant that an 11th-hour change was needed and the WPA are very grateful to the Executive of Pontyclun PC, and Marie Jones in particular, for making the arrangements that allow this event to go ahead.

Shortly after the notification of venue change was sent to all the entrants, the PA weer advised that the local council, Rhondda Cynon Taf, had introduced a more rigid covid requirement to ensure face-covering were to be worn in any public indoor space. This necessitate another communication to ensure everyone was aware of these restrictions..

A total of 10 teams entered – not the best number for a competition – so the playing format followed one used previously, with teams divided into 2 pools of 5, with play following a round-robin pithing the group and teams in each pool that had a bye, playing the “bye-team” from the other pool, all played using timed games. .

Following the completion of the pool games, the top-2 sides from each pool were drawn into semi-finals to play full-length (i.e. untimed) games, so Winner-Pool-A v Runner-Up-Pool-B and Winner-Pool-B v Runner-Up-Pool-A.

The Semi- Finals started at 4pm, with Richard Harris & Kon Tomczyk playing Gareth & Stewart Spencer and Ian Bailey & Jean-Yves Robic playing father-&-son pairing, Huw & Matthew Morris.

Bailey & Robic dominated their semi, winning 13-3, whilst Harris & Tomczyk had to work hard for their victory, finally closing it out 13-11.

After a brief pause, the final got underway at 5pm, with Harris & Tomczyk making the best of starts by taking 5 points on the first end. Bailey & Robic clawed a couple back before Harris & Tomczyk pulled ahead again. But they were unable to close the game out, allowing Bailey & Robic to drag their way back to level the scores at 10-10, before easing ahead to 11-10 and finally coming out as victors 13-10 and claiming the title.

Once again, the pistes played their part, but there was still some fine and accurate play in the final.

Huge congratulations to our 2020 National Doubles for Men champions, and, once again, our thanks to Pontyclun PC and Pontyclun RFC for hosting the event in a safe and sporting way.

Standings after Pool Stages:

Pool A Pool B
1  Richard Harris & Kon Tomczyk 1  Ian Bailey & Jean-Yves Robic
2  Hugh Morris & Matthew Morris 2  Gareth Spencer & Stewart Spencer
3  Bernard Adshead & Roger Griffin 3  Jake Caston & Bob Pugh
4  John Attfield & Derek Jones 4  Roger Green & Sean Smith
5  Colin Sweet & Basil White 5  Jeremy Clare & Len Field

Next-up is the National Precision Shooting for Women & Men, currently scheduled for September 27th – venue still to be confirmed.

WPA National Doubles: Men 2020 Winners: Jean-Yves Robic & Ian Bailey

 

WPA National Doubles: Men 2020 Runners-Up: Kon Tomczyk & Richard Harris

 

Bob Pugh
WPA National President

WPA NATIONAL DOUBLES – MEN – CHANGE OF VENUE & FORMAT OF PLAY

WPA NATIONAL DOUBLES – MEN – CHANGE OF VENUE & FORMAT OF PLAY

Please note that due to circumstances outside the WPA’s control, we have been forced into a last-minute change of venue.

The competition will now be held at Pontyclun RFC.

Please also note that with immediate effect RCT County Borough Council have imposed the wearing of 3-layer face coverings where it is safe to do so, whilst in work, in supermarkets and other indoor or crowded public spaces.

Therefore, please ensure you have the appropriate face-overing with you for using the clubhouse and/or any shops when purchasing food/drinks, etc.

FURTHER DETAILS AT THE RCTCBC WEBSITE HERE.

All other details remain the same.

Please check with your playing partner to confirm that they are aware of this change.

My apologies for any inconvenience caused and my thanks for your patience and cooperation.

Bob Pugh
National President.


Further update:

The Director of Development has asked me to publish the following:

PLAYING FORMAT

Sunday’s playing format will replicate one previously used:

2 x Pools of 5 Teams (drawn at random).
Each pool will play a round-robin (byes will be played against the opposite pool team, e.g. the Team in Pool A with a bye will play the Team in Pool B with a bye in the same round).
All Pool games will be timed at 50mins plus 1-end. This will allow time in between rounds to clean scoreboards and circles.

After the Pool rounds, the top-2 Teams in each Pool will progress to Semi-Finals (Winner Pool A v R-U Pool B & Winner Pool B v R-U Pool A). These games MAY be timed – depending on time at their start.

The winners of the Semi Finals will progress to the Final, with the runners-up playing 3/4 play-off. These games will NOT be timed.

WPA National Doubles: Women – Report

SUPERB WIN FOR THE FIRST-TIMERS

The first National competition was finally held on Sunday 6th September at Pontyclun PC’s base at Pontyclun RFC.

It seemed like a very long time since the last WPA competition was held, way back in March, when the President’s Cup was held at the Wheatsheaf Inn.

After all the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and after the relaxation of the lockdown restrictions imposed by the Welsh Government, the WPA finally kicked its season into play, when 6 teams entered the National Doubles for Women.

A trial doubles competition had been held at Pontyclun and the lessons learned were used as the basis of the play for this competition.

For the vast majority of the players, this was their first competitive outing of the year, and a number of the teams were new to each other having not played together previously, as well as a few more familiar pairings. The competition was played under the WPA’s published guidelines, including the regulation 2m social-distancing requirements. These included enhanced hygiene, recording of everybody’s temperature, recording of personal contact details for compliance with the Welsh Government’s Track, Trace, Protect programme, 30-person-limit within the “activity bubble” and full 2m social distancing.

With 6 teams entered, the “round-robin” format was adopted so every team played the other 5.

September being what it is, we experienced hot sun, chilly winds, light rain – often all within a few minutes!

The pistes at Pontyclun are renowned for their unforgiving nature, but this didn’t deter any of the teams and the quality of play overall was of a very high standard. This was evident by the start of Round 5 where, despite one team having built an unassailable lead, 4 of the remaining teams were in with a chance of the runners-up spot.

This finally went to the “locals’, Kath Attfield (justifying her award of Most Improved Player of 2019) and Marie Jones, who won 3 of their games – 2 of which were extremely tense finishes of 13-12 & 13-11.

The honours of the day, with a clean-sweep of 5 wins out of 5 matches went to the Monkstone PC-based pairing of Gill Clarke and Gill Greenwell.

“The Gills'” victory is even more remarkable because, not only was it their first competitive pairing, it was Gill Greenwell’s first National competition, it was her first visit to Pontyclun and she only started playing pétanque in June of 2019.

FInal Standings:

Position
1  Gill Clarke & Gill Greenwell
2  Kath Attfield & Marie Jones
3  Chris McCaddon & Karen Robbins
4  Gemma Foster & Tansy Mayfield
5  Trudie Merry & Michelle Spencer
6  Vickie Adshead & Jayne Dunn

Huge congratulations to our 2020 National Doubles for Women champions, and our thanks to Pontyclun PC and Pontyclun RFC for hosting the event in a safe and sporting way.

WPA National Doubles: Women 2020 Champions: Gill Clark & Gill Greenwell

 

WPA National Doubles: Women 2020 Runners-Up: Kath Attfield & Marie Jones

 

 

Bob Pugh
WPA National President

WPA ANNOUNCEMENT: UDATED PLAYING CALENDAR PUBLISHED

We now feel in a position to resume a number of National Competitions.

As a result, we have now published an updated Playing Calendar on the WPA Website.

Earlier this week, we wrote to all Club Contacts asking if they could host any events and at the time of publication we are still awaiting some responses. As a result, all events are currently awaiting confirmation of Venue, so these will be updated as we know them.

ALL EVENTS WILL BE PLAYED UNDER THE WPA-PUBLISHED COVID GUIDELINES.

Please note that we have added an alternative arrangement for paying Competition Entries to the drop-down list in the on-line entry form. We now have the capability of paying “on the day” by card – either via chip & PIN or (preferably) via Contactless payment (including Apple & Google Pay). This will help us to minimise the amount of cash we need to handle – and with this in mind, we would ask that if you have to pay with cash on the day of the event, please make sure you have the correct money. NO CASH CHANGE WILL BE GIVEN.

The Cut-Off for each Competition will be 7 days before the date of the event. As you will know, this has always been the case, but due to the need to plan the piste-layouts and draw, we need to have the numbers of entries finalised in advance to enable this to happen. I would, therefore, ask you to not delay entering.

You will also see that we have separated most events into Women & Men’s events as this will help us with managing the event under the current COVID regulations. In addition, we have added 2 “qualifying” dates for the Men’s Doubles – this may be reduced to just the Sunday if entries permit.

If these events prove successful, and subject to further changes with the WG COVID Regulations, we hope to add further events in the coming weeks.

We hope you feel comfortable enough to consider entering these events and we look forward to welcoming you back and seeing you on the piste.

REMEMBER:

#KEEP WALES SAFE

Kind regards
Derek
Derek Jones
Director of Development

WELSH CUP FOR CLUBS – RESULT

WELSH CUP FOR CLUBS

RESULTS

2020

Full Results

20/10/2019
Club P W L Match Pts F Match Pts A Match   Pts Dif F A Dif Pts
1 Pontyclun PC 4 3 1 79 45 34 505 390 115 9
2 Monkstone PC 4 3 1 70 54 16 466 384 82 9
3 Caerleon PC 4 3 1 68 56 12 457 414 43 9
4 Wheatsheaf PC 4 1 3 46 78 -32 382 478 -96 3
5 Penarth PC 4 0 4 47 77 -30 361 484 -123 0
*Maesteg PC also entered, but were forced to pull out after Round 1.

As there were 3 Clubs that tied on 9 points in the overall results then, as the EuroCup rules criteria state, in the event of a draw on points then to determine the winning Club it will be the results of the tied Clubs, and only the tied Clubs’ matches, played against each other.

In the event that there is a draw on points, then the next criteria is match points between the tied Clubs, This scoring process was clarified with the CEP President before being published on the WPA Website and being emailed to all members on 16th October, prior to the final Round being played.

 

Tied-Clubs Results: FINAL STANDINGS

20/10/2019
  Club P W L Match Pts F Match Pts A Match Pts Dif F A Dif Pts
1 Caerleon PC 2 1 1 34 28 6 204 237 -33 3
2 Monkstone PC 2 1 1 32 30 2 224 222 2 3
3 Pontyclun PC 2 1 1 27 35 -8 247 216 31 3

 

Therefore it is congratulations to Caerleon RFC PC who are the 2020 Welsh Cup for Clubs champions and will be invited to compete in the EuroCup 2020.

 

To clarify this result, the CEP introduced the awarding of “Match Points”, awarding 3 for a “Win”, to overcome the situation where a Club narrowly lost 3 Matches 15-16 (thus gaining a total of 45 “Game-Points”, but ended up beating a Club that narrowly won 2 Matches 16-15 but lost heavily in their 3rd Match 10-21 (thus only gaining a total of 42 “Game-Points”).
The WPA has used this process previously.

The CEP EuroCup Qualifying Rules, Arts. 8.9, 8.10, 8.11 & 8.12 outline the criteria used to award points and decide the results.

In order to prevent any confusion about this in future, the EC has begun the process of updating our own Welsh Cup for Clubs Rules to provide better clarity.

Thanks to all Clubs and players who took part and also thanks to Abegavenny PC for hosting the event.

 

Robert Pugh
National President

National Singles 2019

This year’s National Men’s and Women’s Singles are being held at Caerleon PC on 23rd June.

Pre-entry is required and the closing date is Thursday 20th June.

Payment can be made on the day but if you would like to enter can you please email your entry to dev [at] welshpetanque [dot] org [dot] uk.

Registration will be 9:00 – 9:30am.

Even if you are not playing why not come along and watch, it will be an interesting day.

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