The 2019 WPA League Cup/Plate Finals were held on 29 September at Ystradowen PC. The competing teams were Maesteg, Monkstone Minotaurs, Monkstone Monarchs & Penarth Panthers.

Before the competition commenced a period of silence was observed in memory of our good friend Peter Westall who died recently and was a member of Maesteg PC.

The semi- finals featured Maesteg v Minotaurs and Monarchs v Panthers. Moments after play started the rain started and continued for the whole of the semi-finals, with only a couple of short breaks, until lunchtime.

The Minotaurs got off to a poor start when Bernard Adshead & Peredur John never really got into the game and lost 3 -13 in very short order against Jeremy Clare and Len Field. In the other game Vickie Adshead and Peter Kensett kept the Minotaurs in the tie with a 13–7 win against Kevin Edwards and Matthew Clare. In the reverse games, Bernard & Pred came good and ran out comfortable winners by 13-2. This meant that Vickie & Peter needed only 6 points to draw the tie and 7 to win. After a poor start and then a slight recovery by the Minotaurs, Jeremy & Len regrouped and Maesteg finally secured the win to 5 and won the tie on countback by 35-34.

In the other semi-final, represented by Rogers Griffin & Green, Sean Smith & Mike Jones, the Monarchs ran out comfortable winners 4-0 and 52-31 against Penarth, represented by Valérie & Rob Falconer, Celia Scott & Pat McCarthy, although the Monarchs were pushed to concede 9 points in 2 of the games by the 2nd Division team.

After the lunch break, the weather cleared and only a couple of light showers spoiled the fine weather. In the Cup final, the Monarchs struggled against Maesteg. In their best game they took 11 points but eventually went down 0-4 and 37-52.

The Minotaurs went into the Plate final knowing that the pistes suited Penarth who generally play a pointing game. In the event the Minotaurs prove too strong for their opponents and ran out winners by 3-1 and 47-28.

So congratulations to Maesteg and Monkstone Minotaurs who took the Cup and Plate respectively.

All the teams agreed that new club Ystradowen had  developed a superb facility and their hospitality was second to none – bacon rolls will always win over a petanquer! Seriously. on behalf of the WPA many thanks to Ystradowen who were hosting their first WPA competition in their first season.

CUP WINNERS – MAESTEG PC

Kevin Edwards, Jeremy Clare, Len Field & Matthew Clare

PLATE WINNERS – MONKSTONE MINOTAURS

Peter Kensett, Vickie Adshead, Bernard Adshead & Peredur John