Inviting all WPA Affiliated Clubs and Members to attend this important meeting.
Date: Tuesday, 21 December 2021
Time: Commencing at 7:30 p.m.
Venue: This will be an online Zoom meeting. Pre-Registration will be required.
There will only be one item on the agenda, which will be to vote on the proposed New Membership and Club Affiliation Fee Structure.
Tony Smith
President
This week the Welsh Squad will travel to Santa Susanna, Barcelona, to represent Wales in the Petanque World Championships Triples between 19th and 21st November.
The Welsh Squad is:
Kon Tomczyk (Caerleon RFC PC), Ian Bailey (SWBRC), Roger Green (Monkstone PC) and Len Field (SWBRC).
Coach and Head of Delegation: Jean-Yves Robic.
We are sure our members, together with the Executive, wish the Squad the best of luck in their encounters with the best teams from around the world coming together in Spain.
The event is being televised live by LaLiga Sports TV and can be accessed online or by downloading their app to your smartphone.
Tony Smith
President
To support the SWBRC Petanque Team’s travel costs representing Wales at the forthcoming European Cub for Clubs in Saint Yrieix, France, the club is hosting a French Dinner Night on Saturday 27th November at 19h00.
The evening will begin with a complimentary drink, followed by Onion Soup, Coq au Vin, Tarte au Citron, or a Cheese Plate.
There will also be a raffle.
The cost is £25.00/person.
The meal will be at the South Wales Bowls and Recreation Centre, South Road, Sully, CF64 5SP.
For further information or to reserve tickets, please email the Club Secretary by clicking here.
The Monkstone PC hosted the 2021 NC Singles: Men in variable weather conditions to say the least. Sixteen members came together to battle it out for the title of Singles Champion; however, this being the last championship of the calendar year, it was pleasing to see a good number taking part from the following clubs:
The Men’s World Championship team were seeded, and it was good to see them finishing in the top four places after the ranking rounds. SWBRC had four players in the top 8, followed by Pontyclun with 2, Caerleon and the Monkstone with one apiece.
Players in the three qualifying rounds recorded no 13/0 wins, and all the games were played in good spirits, but as always, competitively fought.
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The following clubs were represented in the Plate competition:
The quarter-finals was a closely fought affair, where it was only decided in the last few ends who would go through to the semi-finals. By this time, the weather had changed, and the sun came out, allowing the playing surface to begin to dry out and ultimately acting several players out.
In a competitive match, the final was between Tom Mills (Monkstone PC) and David Sharratt (Wheatsheaf PC). Tom took a healthy lead against David and had the opportunity to close the game and take the title early. However, David began to fight back and slowly closed the gap to 12/12. With some consistent pointing and shooting, Tom was able to take the last point required to win the match and win the Plate Competition.
Congratulations to all our members taking part in the Plate Competition.
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The quarter-finals again was a closely fought round with the four members of the World Championship team pitched against experienced players. The result of the match between Kon Tomczyk (Caerleon RFC PC) and Ken Agius (SWBRC) was the exception. Ken took an early lead and looked to be coasting towards victory. However, Kon is an experienced player, and he fought back to bring the scores level, but a loose point left Ken the opportunity to close the game.
The semi-final draw had Ian Bailey (SWBRC) drawn against Roger Green (Monkstone) and Len Field (SWBRC) against Ken Agius (SWBRC).
Both semi-finals were closely fought, but consistent pointing and shooting took Ian Bailey and Ken Agius to the final.
The final was an all SWBRC affair, with Ian Bailey slowly gaining a good lead over Ken Agius. With Ian’s consistent point and shooting, he took the match and title 13/6. Congratulations to Ian Bailey for becoming the National Single’s Champion for 2021.
Congratulations to all our members taking part in the championship.
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Finally, the WPA Executive would like to thank the Membership and Executive of the Monkstone PC for hosting the championship and allowing their facilities to be used to make the event run smoothly.
Tony Smith.
President.
The qualification competition was to see which club will represent Wales at the 23rd European Cup for Clubs – 2021 at Saint Yrieix, FRANCE, in early December.
The qualification competition was held on Saturday 9th October between Monkstone PC and South Wales Bowls & Recreation Centre Pétanque Section – Sully (formerly Penarth PC).
The first encounter occurred at Sully’s playing area in perfect conditions; the order of play was six singles, three doubles and finally two triples games.
Sully took the lead, winning 5 out of the six singles matches and followed up by winning all the doubles and triples to win the encounter 26 points to 5, which put them in a strong position for the second encounter at Monkstone’s PC.
The order of play was the same. Sully won 4 out of the six single matches; however, Monkstone PC came back and won 2 of the doubles games closing the gap. To win the encounter, Monkstone PC had to win the final two triples games.
The triples games were both won by Sully, winning the encounter 21 points to 10 and winning the competition 2/0, allowing the Sully to represent Wales at the finals weekend and 29 other clubs representing their countries from across Europe.
| Encounter One – Monkstone PC: | Encounter One – Sully: |
| Sean Smith | Ian Bailey |
| Roger Green | Len Field |
| Roger Griffin | Geoff Jones |
| Tony Smith | Jake Caston |
| Peredur John | Scott Murray |
| Jayne Dunn | Ken Agius |
| Gill Greenwell | Julie Bailey |
| Pat McCarthy | |
| Encounter Two – Monkstone PC: | Encounter Two – Sully: |
| Sean Smith | Ian Bailey |
| Roger Green | Len Field |
| Roger Griffin | Geoff Jones |
| Tony Smith | Jake Caston |
| Tom Mills | Scott Murray |
| Bernard Adshead | Ken Agius |
| Gill Greenwell | Julie Bailey |
| Vicki Adshead | Pat McCarthy |
Next year the Welsh Cup for Clubs will be on the calendar, and we hope that as many clubs as possible will take part to make this an actual inter-club competition.
WPA Executive.
A big thank you to all the players who turned out over last weekend to compete for a place to represent Wales at the 2022 Celtic Challenge, being held in Scotland.
Thanks also to Monkstone PC for hosting the event over both days.
It’s fair to say the conditions all weekend was “challenging” – reminiscent of the 2019 Home Nations, held at the same venue.
The pistes needed draining several times throughout the weekend. Still, we managed to get all games played (using a slight change to the original format, brought about because of the weather forecast, which meant a halving of the games played on Saturday).
The final ranking for all ten teams is here:
Sunday 24th October – NC Singles: Men
Due to the lack of entries the NC Singles: Women has been cancelled.
The following members have registered for the men’s event, which is to be held at Monkstone PC.
| Singles – Men | |||
| Sean Smith – Withdrawn |
Roger Green |
Len Field |
Tom Mills |
| Steve Snudden |
Jake Caston |
David Elston |
Jeff Jones |
| Hugh Morris |
David Sharratt |
Gareth Spencer |
Lynn Babbage – Withdrawn |
| Kenneth Agius |
Stewart Spencer |
Robert Pugh |
Ian Stevenson |
| Jean-Yves Robic |
Kon Tomczyk |
Ian Bailey |
Phil Roberts |
There were 20 registered players; however, due to players withdrawing there are now 18.
Based upon the above entries the following competition format will be used and can be accessed by clicking here.
This page will be regularly updated with the latest competition information.
WPA Executive.
updated: 23/10/2021
This Sunday (12th), the National Triples Championship for Men & Women. Currently, the following teams have registered for the two events to be held at Caerleon PC.
Men:
| Bernard Adshead | Roger Griffin | Peredur John | |
| Kon Tomczyk | Derek Jones | Stuart Spencer | |
| Jean-Yves Robic | Ian Bailey | Nai Kongchung | Team Withdrawn |
| Jake Caston | Len Field | Matthew Howells | Team Withdrawn |
| Scott Murray | Ken Angus | Geoff Jones |
We require three more men’s teams to achieve the required number of entries.
Women:
| Valerie Falconer | Gail Brooksbank | Linda Hutchinson | |
| Jayne Dunn | Rose Fiera | Gill Greenwell | Vickie Adshead |
We require six more women’s teams to achieve the required number of entries.
We are sure that several more members are thinking about taking part, take the plunge, and registering.
Online entries can be made by clicking here.
WPA Executive.
After a nail-biting last round, the Welsh PA team emerged as Champions of the Challenge Division 2, with 29 wins to Anglia’s 28.
Congratulations to Wales 4 (Gemma Foster, Tansy Mayfield, Barbara Vaughan & Kon Tomczyk) on winning the Top Team award with 9 wins.
(More details to follow)
The WPA would like to thank Petanque England for an excellent competition, held in a great new venue.
The 2021 WPA League Cup & Plate Finals were held today at Ystradowen PC under glorious blue (sometimes a bit cloudy) skies. The ladies of Ystradowen PC had provided excellent bacon rolls, tea and coffee to sustain the competitors before play began at 11:00. Proceedings were opened by Vickie Adshead, WPA League Secretary, who explained the competition format and rules, and Chris Howard of Ystradowen PC who gave a health & safety briefing. Chris and his team of helpers were later thanked by Vickie on behalf of the WPA and the competitors.
Before the games commenced, WPA President, Tony Smith, called for a minute’s silence to remember Mike Coleman of Wenvoe PC, a very popular member of the pétanque community, who had passed away recently.
The teams that had qualified for Finals Day and their players were:
| Isca Romans | Wenvoe Dragons | SWBRC Sea Hawks | Monkstone Monarchs |
| Kon Tomczyk | Bob Pugh | Len Field | Roger Griffin |
| Barbara Vaughan | Gloria Davies | Geoff Jones | Mike Jones |
| Gemma Foster | Dai Cannan | Ian Bailey | Tony Smith |
| Steve Snuddon | Ken Aston | Julie Bailey | Sean Smith |
Semi-Final 1 between Romans and Dragons got under way with Kon & Barbara facing Dai & Ken and Bob & Gloria and Gemma & Steve as the other paring. In the first game Kon & Barbara raced into an early lead with 6 points to nil on the board but Ken & Dai fought back with a 4 and a 2 to level at 6-6. The revival was short lived as Dragons only took 2 further points and Romans took the game 13-8.
Dragons second pairing of Bob & Gloria were the first to the half way mark leading Gemma & Steve 7-4. Bob & Gloria continued their strong start only conceding 1 more point to record a 13-5 win. This left Romans and Dragons at 1-1 in games with a slight points advantage to Dragons, 21-18.
In the reverse games, there was a cagey start to the game between Kon & Barbara and Bob & Gloria when with score at 3-4 to Dragons, Romans took a 5 and a 4 to lead 12-4. Bob & Gloria staged a mini comeback but at 12-7, Romans secured the extra point for a 13-7 win.
The final game of this Semi-Final pitted Gemma & Steve against Dai & Ken and proved to be nail biting encounter. The score had reached 7-7 when Dragons took a 3 and although Romans hung onto their coat-tails they never managed to catch up and Dragons ran out 13-12 winners. This left the match at 2-2 but thanks to the 12 points gained by Romans in the last game they took the match by a slender 2 points at 43-41.
Semi-Final 2 between Sea Hawks and Monarchs saw Len & Geoff take on Roger & Mike. Monarchs were holding their own up to 4-4 but then Sea Hawks turned up the heat and allowed Monarchs only 1 more point to run out 13-5 winners.
The other Monarchs pair of Tony & Sean took an early 4-0 lead against Ian & Julie but were soon pegged back to 4-5. Sea Hawks now had the momentum and although Monarchs picked up 3 more points they eventually went down 7-13. This left Sea Hawks in a commanding position for the reverse games with a lead of 2-0 and 26-12 in points.
In the third game of this Semi-Final, Ian & Julie raced into a commanding 7-0 lead for Sea Hawks. Monarchs, Roger & Mike, staged a recovery taking 5 on the next end and holding Sea Hawks to a 2 point lead at 8-6. Ian & Julie took the next three ends to put Sea Hawks into a unbeatable 3-1 lead in games with a 13-6 win.
This left the final game of the Semi-Finals as a dead rubber and nothing for Monarchs to play for but pride. Sea Hawks, Len & Geoff, took 4 on the first end but Monarchs fought back with Tony & Sean taking a narrow lead at 8-6. The second half of the game was a tight affair with neither team leading by more than 1 point until, with Monarchs leading 12-11, Len & Geoff took 2 to close out the game at 13-12 giving Sea Hawks a 4-0 whitewash and points of 52-30.
Lunch was taken with some competitors availing themselves of even more bacon rolls and teas/coffees provided by the hard working ladies of Ystradowen PC.
Following the morning’s Semi-Finals, the Cup Final was to be contested by the Sea Hawks and Isca Romans while the fight for the Plate was to be Monarchs v Dragons. All of the teams fielded the same personnel with the same pairings as had played in the Semi-Finals.
The Cup Final proved to be a surprisingly one sided affair with Romans not putting up much resistance against the rampant Sea Hawks. The best Romans could manage was 5 points in the game between Kon & Barbara and Ian & Julie and Sea Hawks won the Cup with a comfortable 4-0 win in games and 52-16 in points.
The Plate Final turned out to be a much more exciting match. In the first game Roger & Mike took on Dai & Ken. After 7 ends, Dragons were up 6-2 but in the next 6 ends Monarchs slowly clawed back the lead and overtook Dragons to lead 11-6, finally taking the game 13-7.
In the next game, Monarchs, Tony & Sean, established a commanding 10-1 lead which looked to be setting Monarchs up well for the reverse fixtures. Dragons, Bob & Gloria had other ideas and started a fight back. At 10-5, Monarchs took another 2 points for 12-5 and it looked as if the game was up for Dragons. With nothing to loose, Dragons loosened up and in 3 ends they had remarkably taken the game 13-12. Instead of what had looked like a nailed on 2-0 lead in games, Monarchs had to settle for 1-1 but had a points advantage of 5.
So the last 2 games of the day got under way with Monarchs, Roger & Mike, up against Dragons, Bob & Gloria fresh from their spectacular win in the first game. Would the momentum be with them to give Dragons a 2-1 lead? Monarchs had a nervy start with Dragons going 3-1 up but Monarchs soon recovered their poise with Dragons gaining only 1 more point to give Monarchs a 13-4 win. Monarchs had a 14 point lead which again made the final game a dead rubber.
Monarchs, Tony & Sean, established a 10-3 lead after 7 ends – surely they couldn’t throw it away again. Dragons, Dai & Ken are canny pair and pulled the lead back to 3 points before Monarchs took 2 points to lead 12-7. Their was a certain amount of déjà vu about the game and so it proved to be with, for the second game in a row and the third game of the day, Tony & Sean unable to get over the line and going down by the same score, 12-13. This was a valiant effort by Dragons but it was impossible to overturn Monarchs 14 point advantage and, with games at 2-2, Monarchs took the Plate by 50-37.
It had proved to be an excellent day’s pétanque in beautiful weather and CONGRATULATIONS go to SWBRC SEA HAWKS, 2021 winners of the WPA League Cup
and also to MONKSTONE MONARCHS, 2021 winners of the WPA League Plate.
And a final thank-you goes to Ystradowen PC for hosting today’s event and to the unsung heroes of the kitchen for the well received bacon rolls and tea/coffee. All competitors agreed that it was an excellent venue with the pistes being a lot more challenging than they first appear.
The gallant losers:
ISCA ROMANS
WENVOE DRAGONS
All the competitors:
