Welsh Petanque Association National Doubles Championships
Sunday 11th June 2017. Pentwyn Leisure Centre, Cardiff
On Sunday 11th June, the WPA hosted its annual National Double Championships in Pentwyn with ten teams entering the male competition and four teams entering the female competition. The doubles Championship was also the penultimate event of the European Championships qualifier.
Women’s Competition
The four women’s teams played a double-round robin and after the first three rounds in the morning session, the Caerleon team of Tansy Mayfield and Gemma Foster were leading with 3 wins from their 3 matches. The Gwent-based duo were closely followed by the Cardiff Bay PC / Penarth PC pair of Gay Evans and Jayne Dunn.
The afternoon session followed the same path, as Mayfield and Foster demonstrated their dominance to record a further three wins (13-3, 13-3, 13-1) to take the 2017 Title with a faultless 100% winning record.
Evans and Dunn claimed second place with three wins overall. In third place, a new pairing of Diane Hayes (Wenvoe PC) and Linda Hodges showed good potential for the future. The 4th place went to Monkstone PC duo Rose Fieira and Vickie Adshead. Despite the low level of entries in the women’s competition, there were some very good games played on a very challenging Pentwyn terrain.
Men’s Competition
Nine senior and one junior team competed in the men’s section of the competition. After five qualifying rounds in Pool 1, only one team recorded a 100% record of 5 wins from 5 matches as Kon Tomczyk (Caerleon PC) and Derek Jones (Pontyclun PC) finished just ahead of Ian Bailey (Wenvoe PC and Jean-Yves Robic (Penarth PC) who claimed 4 wins.
In Pool 2, the Monkstone PC pair of Phil Bradshaw and Nai Kongchung finished top with four wins ahead of the other Monstone PC pair of Bernard Adshead and Roger Griffin with 2 wins.
The first knock out round showed the surprising defeat of previously unbeaten Jones / Tomczyck pairing to the junior pair of Lewis and Harley Ellar (Wenvoe PC). Another shock followed as the Adshead / Griffin pair lost to Peter Beresford and Ray Hayes (Wenvoe PC) to the same tight scoreline of 13-10.
Bradshaw and Kongchung had to up their game to beat the Maesteg pair of Jeremy Clare and Len Field, while Bailey and Robic also needed to find their form against Steve Brace (Wheatsheaf PC) and Dan Murphy (Cardiff Bay PC), recording a 13-3 win.
In the Plate, after the two semi-finals, Jeremy Clare and Len Field had to dig deep to beat Steve Brace and Dan Murphy 13-12, whilst Adshead and Griffin took the 3rd place and Jones and Tomczyk finished in 4th place.
In the first semi-final of the main competition, Bradshaw and Kongchung overcame the young Ellar’s 13-9 and in the second semi final; Bailey and Robic convincingly beating Beresford and Hayes 13-2 to book their place in the final. In the 3rd and 4th place game the Ellar brothers offered a good resistance, but the experienced duo of Beresford and Hayes, prevailed to win 13-8.
The Main final and title decider saw Bailey and Robic face Bradshaw and Kongchung. Bailey and Robic took the lead and despite some excellent shooting and pointing by Bradshaw and Kongchun, they couldn’t stop an inform Bailey and Robic who took the Title, 13-1.