Congratulations to the 4 teams that topped their Pools in the League Cup/Plate competition.
Pool A – Maesteg
Pool B – Monkstone Monarchs
Pool C – Monkstone Minotaurs
Pool D – Penarth Panthers
The tightest finish was in Pool D where 3 teams finished on 7 match points, each with 9 games won and Penarth Panthers clinching by a mere 3 game points.
The Semi-Finals and Finals will take place on Sunday 29 September 2019 – venue to be decided. The Semi Finals will be:
Maesteg v Monkstone Minotaurs
Monkstone Monarchs v Penarth Panthers
The two winners will than meet in the Final of the Cup and the two losers will meet in the Final of the Plate,
Another Home Nations is done and dusted – though the weather meant there wasn’t much dust in the air – and I’ve had a couple of days to reflect on the event and felt I should share my thoughts with the members.
Firstly, some thanks – I think I covered everyone on the weekend at the Presentation and there are too many people who’ve given their time and effort to make this event run well to name individually, with a few notable exceptions.
I think I spoke to most of the volunteers during the weekend and expressed my thanks on behalf of the Association for their efforts, but just to reiterate my sincere thanks to the Executive Committee and members of the Monkstone Petanque Club, the Penylan Club and the members of the other Clubs, including Pontyclun and Caerleon, who came and helped with lunches, teas, coffees, refreshments, piste preparation and maintenance and generally supporting the event. Anyone who has been involved in the organising and running of any competition knows only too well that these can’t go ahead without volunteers. Thank you all.
Secondly, I would like to thank the visitors who came along and lent their support to all Teams – I know it makes a difference to the players and especially so given the inclement weather throughout much of the weekend.
Thirdly, I know I said the volunteers were too-many to name, but I must call-out and thank a few people without whom the event simply wouldn’t have been as successful:
Our sponsors – Telent, CMS Teamwear, Ken Aston’s Catch and Despatch, Bailey’s DIY, Pen-y-Coed Petanque.
My colleagues on the WPA Executive Committee – Derek Jones, Kon Tomczyk and Tony Smith who worked tirelessly to get everything ready for the weekend. Food, gifts, awards, brochure-production to name a few tasks.
An additional thank you to Derek Jones for taking on the role of Umpire and making sure the event ran as smoothly as possible.
Michelle Spencer for being a fantastic Team Manager for Wales. We’ve been lucky to have some great Team Managers in the past and Michelle fitted in really well and kept everyone in line – it’s a huge help to the players.
Andrew Howard for supplying us with a portable PA system, which turned out to be not needed, and also for loaning us waterproof jackets, which absolutely WERE needed!
Steve Snudden deserves a special mention for developing and sharing the software we used for scoring the event. Not only were we able to keep everyone on-site up to date, but also allowed us to post results to the WPA Website as each game finished to let everyone at home keep as up to date as possible. It’s impossible to grasp the effort Steve has put into this and the other countries Heads of Delegation were very impressed and are hoping to use it for as many future competitions as possible. Already lined-up for the PE Inter-Regionals in September, Steve is also developing it for next-year’s Celtic Challenge.
Lastly I want to thank all the teams who came from England, Jersey and Scotland, along with their Heads of Delegation, Captains, Managers and supporters. Conditions were extremely difficult at times but everyone just got on with the play and did their best.
My congratulations to England on retaining the trophy again. I think this was the closest competition I’ve ben involved with – up to the end of Round 8, any of Wales, Jersey or England could’ve taken the lead.
As such, I need to finally thank all the players who represented Wales so well. You all contributed to a superb performance and should be very proud of your achievement. Particular congratulations to the top Welsh team; Wales 1 – Jeremy Clare, Len Field & Peter Westall.
Thinking ahead to next season, I think the EC need to look more closely at the order we play teams in these kinds of competitions. The WPA’s Competition Rules of Entry give the EC the authority to rank teams as they see-fit, and this year’s Celtic Challenge and Home Nations statistics show that we need to think much more about this. After the PE Inter-Regionals we will have a full-season’s statistics to review and look at the best way to move forward.
It only remains for me to thank everyone once again and say roll-on Troon, 8/9 August 2020.
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.
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
2019 National Triples Champions: Peter Beresford, Peter Westall, Lenny Field, Derek Jones (Kon Tomczyk presenting trophy)
Runners-Up: Kon Tomczyk, Gareth Spencer, Scott Murray
The Following teams have entered so far – if you thing you have submitted an entry but your name is not on this list, please contact me ASAP:
MEN:
Tony Smith, Jean-Yves Robic, Mathew Howells, Peter Beresford
Derek Jones, Len Field, Peter Westall, Stewart Spencer
Bernard Adshead, Roger Griffin, Peter Kensett
Kevin Edwards, Ian Stephenson, Nick Lewis
Kon Tomczyk, Gareth Spencer, Scott Murray WOMEN:
Jayne Dunn, Vickie Adshead, Michelle Spencer
Barbara Vaughan, Gemma Foster, Sue Foster
Valerie Falconer, Celia Scott, Pat McCarthy
Note
We still need a few more Teams to enter to reach the minimum number, otherwise this event may be cancelled.
Hosted by Caerleon RFC PC and played in sunny, if breezy, weather, 8 players entered this year’s competition: Peter Beresford, Len Field, Derek Jones, Tom Mills, Bob Pugh, Stewart Spencer, defending Champion Kon Tomczyk & Peter Westall. Although the overall numbers were disappointing, it was good to see all 5 players heading to the European Veterans and Mens Triples involved.
After the first-round, Pete Beresford & Bob Pugh went straight through to the Semi-Finals with the remaining players shooting again in a repechage, with the top two – Len Field & Pete Westall – joining Pete B and Bob in the Semi-Finals.
Semi-Final 1 saw Bob knocking out Len with only 5 points separating them, while Semi-Final 2 saw the two Peter battling hard with Pete B. emerging victorious by just 3 points.
With Pete B leading off in the Final and taking an early lead, Bob struggled to find any of the form he’d shown earlier in the day until the very last shot of the match where even picking up a 5 wasn’t enough, leaving Peter victorious by just 2 points.
Congratulations to Pete on his victory.
It was great to see every player taking turns on setting up the scenarios and marking.
Special thanks must go to Barbara Vaughan for recording the Scores throughout the day and to Diane Westall for making sure everyone kept their feet in the circles and for running the scoreboards in the Semi-Finals and Final. Also thanks to Derek Jones for videoing all the players heading to Bulgaria in September to help with their coaching and a final thanks to Kon Tomczyk for his excellent organising.
Director of Development (& 2018 Shooting Champion), Kon Tomczyk presenting Trophy to 2019 Champion, Peter Beresford.
Director of Development (& 2018 Shooting Champion), Kon Tomczyk presenting Trophy to 2019 Runner-Up Bob Pugh.
Good luck to the members of Monkstone Pétanque Club
The WPA wIshes the best of luck to the Monkstone Pétanque Club as they head to Belgium to compete in Pool C of the Euro-Cup.
Also in their Pool are:
Pachy PC Waterloo (Belgium)
Baldock Town PC (England)
Petanque Sport Club Järvenpää (Finland)
Sörbyängens BK (Sweden)
Wiener Trilogie (Austria)
Buddy Moscow (Russia)
After a tense climax to a very competitive competition played in great spirit and atmosphere, it was a win for the WPA to take back the trophy.
Congratulations to all the WPA players who took part.
Competition report (courtesy of Shun Price):
Report on BIG v WPA 2019 competitition
This year’s competition took place at Caerleon P.C. on Sunday 21st July.
The weather was with us as it was quite sunny in the afternoon.
This year the BIG team was supported for the first time by teams’ right across the 4 divisions with no one club dominating the team places. Very pleasing was the appearance of a number of new teams (clubs) playing their first representative games. Also some old faces reappeared in a competition outside the normal league matches.
It was a 10 team competition and the following players supported the BIG league.
Chris + Chris Greenlawn Sam and Tony White Hart
Stuart and Jeff Greenlawn Richard and Chris Talywain
Kay and Tania Caerleon Liz and Caz Isca Arms
Ian and Marc Caerleon Ryan and Steve Twyn y Ffrwd
Wally and Dave Caerleon Gail and Pat Wheatsheaf
We also lent the WPA team Nick and Rhys from Machen to make it 10 teams a side
There were 6 games to be played 3 before lunch and 3 after.
Games were keenly and friendly contested and the results went as follows
Rd 1 – WPA 2 up Rd 2 – WPA 4 up Rd 3 – Draw Rd 4 – Draw
Rd 5 – BIG 2 up Rd 6 – BIG 2 up
For the final round 6 BIG needed 4 games to draw and after a big effort only made 2 games up on the WPA with the last two results in this round being timed out at a draw (!) being the only draws of the whole competition.
So the WPA won 31 games to 29 games.
No team won 6 games and the best teams being Lyn and Marie WPA with 5 wins and The Greenlawn team of the two Chris’s. with 4 ½ wins.
Everybody after confirmed that it had been a great day and the BIG new converts are up for it for next year.
