WELSH NATIONAL TRIPLES CHAMPIONSHIPS 

2019

 

The annual National Welsh Triples Championships 2019 was held at Maesteg Petanque Club on Sunday 4th August with the weather starting a bit grey in the morning but changing to bright sunshine for the afternoon and into the evening.

Maesteg being a relatively new club to the association was chosen to hold the event and a due to the enormous effort of their club members and Jean Yvse Robic transformed the playing area into a challenging 12 piste venue, one which I am sure the association will choose again for future events.

With two teams seeded which included players who will be representing Wales at this year’s European Triples and Veteran Championships in Bulgaria it was set to be a very competitive day of petanque.

The first round saw one of the seeded teams Smith –Howells – Robic – Spencer narrowly losing to local Maesteg Club triple of Edwards – Stevenson – Lewis  9 -7 which was a closely fought match throughout.

The other seeded team of Jones-Westall-Beresford and Field also had a hard fought first round game but managed to gain a win by 2 points (11-9) against a strong Monkstone Trio of Griffin-Adshead and Kensett 

Other first round results Tomczyk – Murray – Spencer – just gaining the winning point in the last end (10 – 9) over Smith – Mills – Howard 

Adshead – Dunn – Spencer gaining a win over Foster –Foster and Vaughan 

(11 – 8) in another closely competitive game.

As the day progressed to the semi – finals saw Tomczyk –Murray and Spencer top the table with 4 wins just edging out Jones – Westall –Beresford and Field also on 4 wins but slightly less points difference.

Smith – Robic –Howells and Spencer redeemed themselves after their shaky start winning their next 3 games to secure the 3rd semi-final spot with Griffin – Adshead and Kensett taking the 4th position.

 

Semi Finals 

Tomczyk – Murray – Spencer v Griffin – Adshead – Kensett 

The early part of the game saw some very good pointing and shooting from both teams which kept the game tight with each team only winning one point an end 

Jones – Westall – Beresford – Field v Smith – Robic – Howells – Spencer 

The two seeded teams meeting in the semi – final was not expected and had it not been for the loss in the first round by the Smith team  then this may well have been the final.

As imagined this again was a really competitive game with the Smith team going ahead albeit 1 point per end eventually the Jones team found their form and pegged back the deficit then forging ahead and winning (13 – 7 ).  

 

Final

Tomczyk – Murray – Spencer v Jones – Westall – Beresford – Field 

This was poised to be an exciting close match and the two seeded teams meeting in the semi – final could not have been more favourable for the team of Tomczyk – Murray and Spencer 

However it was plain to see from the first end that the Jones team was not about to give anything away taking 5 points.

They did not put a foot wrong throughout the game with some excellent pointing from Jones shooting from Westall, backed up by Beresford.

The form from the opposition which they had displayed throughout the day to get them to the final had seem to have eluded them and no matter how hard they tried the Jones team got the point in every end bar one making it a 13 – 1 win a disappointing result for the final but as said the Jones team made no mistakes and played to a very high standard throughout the match and not giving any opportunity to their opposition.

Well done to all members of the team and good luck in the European Championships 

Lastly the plate final saw Foster – Foster and Vaughan v Smith – Mills – Howard. 

Again another close match with good pointing and shooting from both sides however it was to be a Smith – Mills and Howard victory.(13 – 8)

Once again thanks to all the members who entered and made it a really enjoyable and competitive day of boules.

Also once again on behalf of WPA executive and its members thanks to Maesteg PC for the effort and hard work of their members to enable us to hold this event at their club.

Well Done. 

Kon Tomczyk
WPA Director of Development