Welsh Petanque Association National Triples Championships

Sunday 14 May 2017. Monkstone Petanque Club, Cardiff

The first National Titles day of the Welsh Petanque Association 2017 season was played on Sunday at the Monkstone Petanque Club in Cardiff.

Four women teams and ten men’s teams gathered for a bright and early start in Cardiff to compete for the 2017 Triples titles. Despite a slightly lower number of players on entry, the level of play was high and all games fiercely contested.

The four women teams played a double-round robin and after the first 3 rounds in the morning session, the Caerleon team of Tansy Mayfield, Gemma Foster and Barbara Vaughan had already put their mark on the competition by convincingly winning 3 out 3 games. The afternoon session confirmed the current form of the Caerleon trio. Tansy Mayfield and Gemma Foster confirmed their recent international form and with a solid lead pointing by Barbara Vaughan, they went on to win their next three games, realising a perfect 6 wins out of 6 games and securing the 2017 National Triples Title with a 100% record.

The mixed club team of Gay Evans (Cardiff Bay), Jayne Dunn (Penarth) and Barbara Kensett (Monkstone PC) finished the runner-up with 3 wins out of 6. The third place  went to Vickie Adshead, Rose Fiera and Carol Maroney (Monkstone PC) with Tania Howard, Janet Price, Kay Brussalis Davis and Marilyn Strangemore (Caerleon PC) claiming the 4th place.

Nine Senior teams and one junior team competed in the men section of the competition. After five qualifying rounds, only two teams recorded 4 wins out 5 with, Kon Tomczyk (Caerleon PC), Ian Bailey (Wenvoe PC), Jean-Yves Robic (Penarth PC) and Derek Jones (Pontyclun PC) finishing top with a better points difference (+42) ahead of the Monkstone PC team of Peter Kensett, Mike Wigg and Keith Nott.

They were joined in the semi-finals by mixed clubs team of Phil Bradshaw and Nai Kongchun (Monkstone PC), Dan Murphy (Cardiff Bay PC) and Steve Brace (Wheatsheaf PC) and by the Wenvoe team of Bob Pugh, Peter Westall, Peter Beresford and Ray Williams. In the first semi-final Peter Kensett’s Team easily beat Bob Pugh’s Team 13-3. In the other semi-final, the morning session’s leader captained by Kon Tomczyck were narrowly beaten  13-12 by Phil Bradshaw’s team. In the final Peter Kensett’s Monkstone team offered little resistance to Bradshaw’s team who won the 2017 National Triple Titles. In the 3rd and 4th place game Bob Pugh’s team edged Kon Tomczyk’s team 13-10 after nearly 2 hours.

A special mention for the Junior team composed of brothers Lewis and Harley Ellar (Wenvoe PC) and Matthew Clare (Maesteg PC) who finished in 10th position but showed great character and skills and will certainly be serious contestants in the future.