The Wales squad have been given a fantastic boost as they depart Welsh shores for France this week for the 2018 European Triples (Women) Championship.

The team consisting of Caerleon Petanque Club’s trio; Barbara Vaughan, Gemma Foster and Tansy Mayfield as well as Monkstone Petanque Club’s Jayne Dunn travelled to the seaside resort of Palavas les Flots, some 6km south of Montpellier for the biennial event on Wednesday. And the team will certainly look the part when play starts on Thursday, in their brand-new Welsh kit

The Welsh Petanque Association and the squad are extremely grateful for Wenvoe Petanque Club member Ken Aston who has pulled the strings to provide sponsorship for the Ladies’ new kit.

The new sponsor ‘Catch and Despatch Delivery Services’ are based in Barry and Ken boasts over 30 years’ experience as an HGV driver.

With a modern and reliable fleet of courier vehicles, Catch and Despatch Delivery Services’ travel all around the UK and offer a personal service, delivering items on a same day basis, seven days a week, 24 hours a day including bank holidays.

For more information on the company and to book your delivery, contact Ken at the following email – info [at] catchanddespatch [dot] co [dot] uk.

Under the watchful eye of National Shooting Champion and coach Kon Tomczyk, the Welsh team will compete in the qualifications and repechages for the precision shooting event on Thursday. The Championship commences on Friday morning at 08:30 (07:30 BST) and continues through the Sunday evening.

The event will be streamed here and the WPA Website will aim to keep you up to date over the coming days.

There are 33 teams competing in the Championships, all hoping to claim the Title, which was won two years ago by the current hosts France, in Bratislava.

Good Luck to Barbara, Gemma, Jayne and Tansy over the coming days.

Today our ladies team travel to the Women’s European Championships in Palavas Les Flots, France.

Good luck to our team: Jayne Dunn, Gemma Foster, Tansy Mayfield and Barbara Vaughan

We wish them well in the Championship. Play well and enjoy.

The WPA League Cup and Plate finals took on Sunday 23 September 2018 at Creigiau PC on a dry mainly sunny day despite all the forecasts of a very wet morning. Maesteg, Monkstone Minotaurs, Isca Romans & Penarth Pendragons were contesting the Cup semi-finals whilst in the Plate, 2 teams had withdrawn leaving Wenvoe Dragons and Monkstone Mystics to contest the final.

In the semi-finals of the Cup competition the Minotaurs were drawn against Maesteg and had a bad start when Kensett and Adshead (B) were fannied by Clare & Field. It seemed the Minotaurs pair didn’t realise the game had started. Fortunately the other pair, Maroney (J) and Adshead (V), kept the Minotaurs in the tie with a 13-2 win against Edwards & Stevenson so at the changeover the deficit was only 2 points. Kensett & Adshead bucked their ideas up in the second game and ran out 13-6 winners against Edwards & Stevenson leaving Maroney & Adshead needing 9 points against Clare & Field to secure a Minotaurs win. From the start of the game Maesteg always had their noses in front and at 12-6 things weren’t looking good for the Minotaurs. Both sides were aware of the situation but Maroney & Adshead proved to have the stronger nerves taking 2 points on the next end. This left the scores exactly level but when they took another point on the next end, the Minotaurs were home and dry. The game finally ended in a Maesteg win by 13-10 for a 2-2 draw but the Minotaurs had won 36-34 on countback. This result seemed most unlikely after the opening game.

In the other semi-final Isca Romans got of to a flying start against Penarth Pendragons with a fanny by Mayfield (T) & Tomczyk and ran out comfortable 3-1 winners with a points score of 50-29.

The Plate competition was disappointing in, that with only 2 teams, it left Monkstone Mystics to go directly into the Final against Wenvoe Dragons. The First Division team with pairs Cannan & Jellings and Westall & Coleman proved too strong for the Mystics pairs of Clarke & Baildon-Smith and Dunn & Smith (J) and ran out winners by 3-1 and 47-25.

The line-up for the Final

Adshead B&V, Mayfield, Foster, Gregory, Tomczyk, Kensett & Maroney

After lunch there was only the Cup Final to contest between the Minotaurs and Isca Romans to whom the Minotaurs had suffered two 4-0 defeats in the League. The Minotaurs left themselves with a mountain to climb when Kensett & Adshead and Maroney & Adshead both went down 2-13 to Mayfied & Tomczyk and Foster & Gregory (P) respectively. Team captain Adshead (B) tried to rally his team by reminding them that they could still win with two fannies! This battle cry obviously had some effect as Kensett & Adshead ran out easy winners by 13-4 against Foster & Gregory followed by Maroney & Adshead having a comfortable 13-6 win against Mayfied & Tomczyk. Unfortunately for the Minotaurs, despite the 2-2 draw, is was not quite enough with Isca Romans winning 36-30 on countback. At least the Minotaurs had salvaged some pride after the opening 2 games.

The Winning Isca Romans Team

Congratulations to Isca Romans on their deserved win and a big thank-you to Harry Drake and all the members of Creigiau PC who worked hard to host the day and make it a great success.

Reminder

A WPA OGM is being held at Caerleon RFC this Monday the 24th September starting at 7.30pm.

All members welcome

Congratulations to players and teams who represented Wales at this years Petanque Enqland, Inter Regionals.

Day 1, we had some good results which left us in fourth place and only one game behind Thames in third and five wins behind Sussex and Eastern and still with a chance to gain promotion to division 1. A special mention must go to Wales 4 who won all 7 games on day one and were in the running for top team.

Day 2, some more good play by the Wales teams, but unfortunately in the first round of the day Wales 4 lost their winning streak. In the end Wales came a creditable 5^th winning half their games and Wales 4 were the 3^rd best team in the division winning 9 of their 12 games.

Thank you to all the teams and players for making the weekend a great success. We look forward to meeting up with oue friends old and new next year.

Creigiau PC

Sunday 23 September 2018

Semi-finals commence at 11:00am. This will be deemed to be the latest start time for the purposes of Rules 4.3 & 4.4.

After lunch (bring your own), the Finals will commence at 2:00pm and this will be deemed to be the latest start time for the purposes of Rules 4.3 & 4.4. If all teams are present the games may start at the earlier time of 1:30 pm depending on the finishing time of the semi-finals.

Creigiau PC have kindly offered to provide tea & coffee but you are advised to bring your own chairs as seating is very limited near the piste.

The matches will proceed regardless of weather conditions unless of course the pistes are unplayable.

SEMI-FINALS

CUP

Maesteg v Monkstone Minotaurs

Penarth Pendragons v Isca Romans

PLATE

Wenvoe Warriors v Monkstone Inn Un

Wenvoe Dragons v Monkstone Mystics

Wenvoe Warriors are unable to field a team, Monkstone Inn Un will, therefore, have a bye into the Final.

Welsh Cup for Clubs

The 2018 Welsh Cup for Clubs is to be held at Abergavenny Petanque Club on the 7th & 14th October 2018

Closing date for entries is: 26th September 2018

Entry is £60 per Club

Pre Entry is required

Please email your entry to: dev [at] welshpetanque [dot] org [dot] uk

Registration is 9.00 – 9.30

NOTE: The Successful Club will be invited to take part in the European Cup for Clubs

WELSH NATIONAL MIXED DOUBLES 2018

At last the National Welsh Mixed Doubles 2018 were held at Caerleon PC after being
cancelled due to bad weather on two occasions.
The weather was better than expected and with intervals of cloud and sunshine (no
rain) which put the players in good spirits for the games ahead in this prestigious
event.

Winners for the last 2yrs Foster and Westall (Caerleon / Wenvoe PC’s) were hot
favourites to make it 3 in a row and started their campaign with a win over Vaughan
and Tomczyk who had been runners up in this competition several times a close game
with only 2 points between the teams with one end to go however they showed there
determination as champions and took 4 points on the last end 13-7.
New paring of Brooksbank and Smith (Wheatsheaf / Monkstone PC’s) started with a
convincing win over Gregory and Gregory (Caerleon PC ) who had taken part and won
the BIG Cup for Caerleon A’s the day before.
Monkstone’s Adshead and Griffin started their campaign against Mayfield (Caerleon)
and Spencer (Monkstone) a close game 13-9 with the win going to Mayfield and
Spencer.
Howard and Wheeler (Caerleon) started their day off with a win against Davies and
Morris (Wheatsheaf) 13-8
In the second round Brooksbank and Smith notched up their second win over Howard
and Wheeler, Gregory and Gregory lost their second game to Adshead and Griffin,
Vaughan and Tomczyk gained their first win over Mayfield and Spencer in a tight
game throughout and Foster and Westall took a convincing win over Davies and
Morris.
Third round saw Foster and Westall take on Brooksbank and Smith and taking their 3 rd
win 13-9 in a tight game, Vaughan and Tomczyk had their 2 nd win over the Gregory’s
who still had not performed to their normal standard, Adshead and Griffin also had
their second win 13-5 over Howard and Wheeler and lastly Davies and Morris got off
the mark with a win over Mayfield and Spencer.
Last round before the semi-finals Foster and Westall make it 4 wins in a row,
Brooksbank and Smith take their 3 rd win over Mayfield and Spencer in a very tight
game 13-11, Vaughan and Tomczyk take their 3 rd win, Davies and Morris
Take their 2 nd win.
The Cup semi – final in the cup saw Foster and Westall take on Adshead and Griffin
with a win to the defending champions

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The other semi-final Vaughan and Tomczyk finally ended Brooksbank and Smith’s
challenge with the crowd cheering every boule throw by either team.
The Plate Semi-final saw the Gregory’s go through with a win over Davies and Morris
and a place in the final for Mayfield and Spencer over Howard and Wheeler.
The plate final was a closely contested match between the two teams the Gregory’s
finally displaying their experience and took the game (Well done to both teams)
The Cup final between Foster – Westall and Vaughan – Tomczyk was a tense affair
with Vaughan and Tomczyk taking the first 2 points only to be pegged back in the
next end by the reigning champions however the game opened up considerably with
Vaughan and Tomczyk taking a commanding lead 11-4 through some excellent
pointing and shooting from the pair.
It looked like it now was only a formality for the challengers for the title to take 2
more points to win the game, but showing the skill of the true champions they are,
Foster and Westall fought back to make it 10 – 11 much to the dismay of the
challengers.
Game on, the penultimate end was very tight with Vaughan putting a boule within 10
cm of the cosh only to see Foster put her boule on it to take the point 11 – 11 on the
floor with 2 boules left Tomczyk tried to bump Fosters boule off only to narrowly miss
ending up 30cm past the boule, last boule Tomczyk tried the same shot this time with
a little less weight resulting in nestling on Fosters boule but not taking the point,
Westall with 2 boules in had could win the game but it looked virtually impossible to
make another point however he released a high boule which came in and with perfect
accuracy made another point 12-11 could he win the game with his last boule with
the head being so tight and hardly enough room, Westall played the same shot but
more cautiously only to see it stop 30 cm short.
12-11 to the reigning champions, last end
Foster puts the cosh at 9 meters and with several boules around it saw the
challengers holding the point some 30cm to the side, with one boule left foster put
her boule exactly between the cosh and Vaughan’s boule 13-11 on the floor but no
boules left, 3 in hand for Vaughan and Tomczyk, as they were holding 2 nd the
challengers decide to play into the holding boule with a heavy point which would give
them game if Fosters boule was moved back far enough, Vaughan threw her boule
and just narrowly missed but gave the challenges 2 nd and 3 rd boule, minds made up
with 2 boules in hand and game on the floor the only option was for Tomczyk to
shoot, he released his boule and with the accuracy he had displayed throughout the
game hit the holding boule back enough to take the game.
Well done to both teams for exciting final
Thanks to Caerleon PC for their hospitality and hosting the event and all participants
for their support which made for a very exciting competition.