I hope you and you families are continuing to stay safe and well.
You will, no doubt, have seen the Welsh Government’s (WG) announcement today of the introduction of the “Alert Level 4” restrictions covering the whole of Wales from Monday 28th December.
The Government’s Coronavirus Control Plan: Alert Levels in Wales, shows how the different Levels affect Outdoor Activities and Sport. Level 4 means that organised outdoor activities and sports are NOT permitted.
This means that all Clubs MUST NOT meet for organised play while we remain at Alert Level 4.
Organised Activities and Sports
The WG advice can be found here (and there is a link to this on our COVID-19 page.
We will issue a further update as soon as we have it.
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.
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
I hope you and you families are continuing to stay safe and well.
You may have seen in yesterday’s announcement from the First Minister that outdoor gatherings of up to 30 people will be allowed again from Monday 9th November.
Coupled with the lifting of travel restrictions WITHIN Wales, this means we have decided to commence competitive play, as we’d previously said we would do if possible.
The WPA Playing Calendar has now been updated with the addition of 2 National events – the National Mixed Doubles has been scheduled for 15 November, and the National Precision Shooting (Men and Ladies) for the weekend after, 22nd.
Please note – the Venues for all these events are still under review and will be confirmed as soon as possible.
In addition, we are intending to run the first 2 Assessment events, as we’ve done in previous years, to find Teams to compete in the 2021 World and European Championships. Initially, this will be for the Men’s teams, with the Ladies teams to follow (this is because the Men’s competitions are earlier in the 2021 Calendar than the Ladies – so there’s a little more “breathing space” for them). It is still our intention to run these as early as possible in order to give the qualifying teams as much chance as possible to play together in 2021.
The WPA 2021 Playing Calendar is currently being drafted and we hope to have that published in the coming days.
Entries to the National competitions are welcomed using the appropriate online form here.
Entries to the Men’s Assessment Qualifying Series are welcomed using the appropriate online form here.
PLEASE NOTE THAT ENTRIES MUST NOW BE PAID EITHER BY BANK TRANSFER OR CHEQUE IN ADVANCE OR BY CONTACTLESS/CARD PAYMENT ON THE DAY. CASH PAYMENT WILL NO LONGER BE ACCEPTED.
In the meantime, we appreciate your ongoing patience, and hope you and your families stay healthy.
I hope you and you families are continuing to stay safe and well.
You will, no doubt, have now seen the Welsh Government’s (WG) announcement of a “firebreak” lockdown covering the whole of Wales from 6pm on Friday 23rd October until Monday 9th November 2020.
We have been advised by Sport Wales (SW) that during this period, all organised sport and facilities will be paused. This means that ALL our affiliated Clubs MUST remain closed.
In addition, the WG advice is very clear that, although exercise is permitted, and even encouraged, it MUST be local – starting and ending at home, and there must be NO gatherings between households. This means that, even if you live within walking-distance of a nearby playing area, you MUST NOT meet with anyone from outside your household.
The WG advice states:
People must stay at home, except for very limited purposes, such as for exercise.
People must not visit other households or meet other people they do not live with either indoors and outdoors
No gatherings will be allowed outdoors, such as Halloween or fireworks/Bonfire night or other organised activities
The First Minister has announced a firebreak lockdown to take place between Friday 23rd October (from 6pm) and Monday 9th November.
The rules which impact sport:
You should exercise locally
Exercise should be undertaken locally – from home or as close as possible to the home. In general this should not involve people driving to a location away from home for this purpose.
Pause on organised sport and facilities
All organised sport and facilities will be paused during the Welsh circuit breaker, including golf and tennis clubs.
No limits to frequency or length of exercise
You can leave home as often as you like to exercise as long as you do so from home and alone or with members of your household (and/or a carer).
The WG FAQ page relating to the “firebreak” can be found here.
The EC will continue to monitor the WG and SW advice and will provide an update as soon as we are able.
In the meantime, we appreciate your ongoing patience, and hope you and your families stay healthy.
I hope you and you families are continuing to stay safe and well.
You may have seen in today’s news that the UK Government has now launched it’s long-awaited NHS COVID-19 track and trace app for England & Wales for mobile phones.
Amongst other features, this allows the user to scan a QR code at any premises/venue/event they may be attending.
The UK Government has also released details of downloading, printing and using QR codes. These can be downloaded by Clubs or event organisers to allow people to scan using the NHS app.
The WPA Exec would encourage all its members who are able to download and use the mobile phone app.
In addition, we would encourage all Clubs and event organisers to download and use a QR Code for players to scan when they arrive at the venue/event.
When WPA-organised competitions return, we intend to make use of this facility and will produce a new QR code for each event (this will leave host Clubs free to use their own QR code for their own members.
Our Guidelines for Clubs and Players have been updated to reflect this, and can be found on our COVID-19 Webpage. The link to the UK Government website to obtain a QR code is in the Guidance for Clubs and on the COVID-19 webpage.
In the meantime, we appreciate your ongoing patience, and hope you and your families stay healthy.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
