Welsh Petanque Association

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2011 Presentation Evening

In readiness for this years presentation evening in early December, the Executive would like to receive nominations from members for the following categories:

Most Improved Player - Follow this link to download the nomination form |
Junior Player of the Year - Follow this link to download the nomination form |
Senior Player of the Year - Follow this link to download the nomination form |

Please download the the required form and return completed to a member of the executive, the closing date is Wednesday 30th November 2011.

National Doubles Championship

The 2011 National Doubles Championship took place at the home of Wenvoe Pétanque Club on Sunday 3rd July in glorious sunshine, typically found in the South of France.

Fourteen teams battled it out in the morning session to win one of the eight places to challenge for the National Doubles title. The standard of play was very high, with all the teams playing very competitively, the quickest game of the morning taking only 15 minutes, which saw the Monkstone Musketeers (Monkstone PC, Keith Nott and Bernard Adshead) beating Brecon RFC PC 13-0 (William Davis and Gareth Smart). Another tight game saw the Cardiff Bay Boule Club (Karen MacLoud and Dan Murphy) almost beat the favourites Sir Henry Morgan PC (Phil Bradshaw and Ian Bailey), but were unable to take the game and finally loosing 12-13.

The first afternoon session (¼ finals) saw the top 8 teams play off in seeded knock out competition, which produced some interesting draws with the two qualifying teams each from the Wheatsheaf Boule Club and the Monkstone PC playing each other in a ‘home derby’.

The other two ¼ finals saw the Sir Henry Morgan PC play Wenvoe PC (Gay Murphy and Julie Bailey) and Penarth PC (Valerie Falconer and Laurent Mirbelle) take on the Barn PC (Graham Attfield and Derek Jones).

The semi-finals saw a epic match between the Wheatsheaf Boule Club (Roger Morgan and Steve Brace) and the Barn PC, taking over 1 ½ hours with the game advantage swing from one team to another, but finally it saw the Barn PC (Attfield and Jones) take the game 13-12 to take them in to the finals. The second team to win a place in the finals were the Sir Henry Morgan PC (Bradshaw and Bailey) winning their place 13-6.

The final was a tense affair with the Barn PC coming from a long game and the opposition having a relatively easy run. Attfield and Jones took an early lead, after four ends they were 4-2 ahead. However, Bradshaw and Bailey pulled back with near perfect displays of pointing and shooting to take the lead 4-6. The next three ends were critical for Attfield and Jones to bring the score-line back, but two critical misses by Jones on the 8th end saw Bradshaw and Bailey, who kept up their exceptional play, pull away to finally win the match and the title 13-4.

The Plate competition saw the Wheatsheaf Boule Club (Caston and Murray) play Penarth (Robic and Lipetz-Robic) in a very tight match with Penarth finally loosing 13-12. The second match saw Brecon RC PC (Roberts and Charles) playing Wenvoe PC (Brice and Cannan) with Brecon taking the win 13-5. The final of the Plate competition saw the Wheatsheaf winning the game 13-1 against Brecon.

EPA Inter-Regional Chamionship

The WPA Executive has now received the formal invitation from the EPA to take part in this years Inter-Regional Championship & Challenge Tournament at Pontins Holiday Centre, Brean Sands, Burnham on Sea, Somerset.

A major condition for this years competition is that:

"...all participants must be registered with Pontins and resident on the site, our umpires are instructed to disqualify any player or team failing to meet this contractual requirement".

Unlike previous years when team members have been registered in rooms, but not actually resident on-site, this is not allowed this year and anybody found not abiding by this condition will result in a team member or possibly the team being disqualified.

Any WPA member finding themselves being disqualified will also be further sanctioned by the WPA Executive.

Monmouth Petanque Club Officially Up and Running.

As reported in this weeks Monmouth Brecon newspaper, Monmouth Petanque Club officially opened their terrain last Sunday, 8th May. The Executive would like to congratulate the club on all the hard work that has gone into getting the project to a satisfactory conclusion.

The newspaper reported the event in their issue on 11th May and the following was posted on their web site:

"A little bit of French culture has been brought to Monmouth with the opening of the first Pétanque terrain.

Graham Pritchard, chairman of the Monmouth Pétanque Club, welcomed members and the public to the “wonderful facility” that took only 13 months to create from inception to completion.

The club is close to its target of 35 members, set by the Sports Council, who also contributed half the cost of the terrain and gave two grants for equipment and coaches.

He thanked the various sponsors involved in the project as well as Rockfield Community Centre and Monmouthshire County Council for giving permission for the terrain to be built next to the Community Centre."

The club has affiliated to the WPA with an initial 21 members, this is set to rise, also two members of the club have already undertaken Part 1 of their Club Coaching qualification, with further interest from more members. As our newest affiliated club, they are certainly making their presence felt.

We look forward to seeing Monmouth members taking part in the up and coming competitions.

A copy of the newspaper article can be downloaded by following this link.

Community Chest - What is it?

Some of you may have here me speak about Community Chest, you may have wondered what it's all about, so here is a brief description related to the Vale of Glamorgan where I sit on the panel which assesses the applications and approves them.

The Community Chest scheme is an exciting funding stream funded via Sport Wales and managed by the Council's Sports & Play Development Team. The Vale of Glamorgan have been allocated £77,000 of Community Chest funding for this financial year. The scheme aims to increase participation in sports and active recreation as well as increase standards of delivery by offering organisations up to £1500 of funding towards new developments. The funding can be used for areas such as purchase of equipment (not replacement items); coach/umpire education including sports specific courses, first aid and child protection; and initial start up costs such as marketing, initial hall hire and initial coach costs (up to 20 weeks).

All applications must demonstrate sustainability once the initial start up funding has ceased.

Any organisation can apply for the funding as long as they have a bank account in the name of the organisation and meet the project meets the aims of the scheme.

This structure will be mirrored in all the local authorities where we have clubs, so to help your club with those projects and ultimately the associated get your applications in. You do not have to apply for the full amount in one go, you can apply for several requests for money provided together they do not exceed the £1500.

For further information follow this link to access the Sports Wales web site.

Tony Smith
National Executive

Caerleon IRTP win the 2011 Presidents Cup.

The 2011 Presidents Cup took place at Pentwyn Leisure Centre on Sunday 6th March with 7 teams taking part. As with the Stuart Clarke Cup held the week before the Presidents Cup was a triples rather than a doubles competition and again brought forward to the beginning of the season.

The teams were divided into two pools playing a qualifying round-robin, the conditions were dry but cold.... However, it didn't stop two teams winning all of their morning games. They were the Monkstone Marauders and Caerleon IRTP, they were joined in the main competition by Caerleon Helmets and the Wheatsheaf. Three teams were relagated to the Plate, they were Caerleon Kitty's, Wheatsheaf LDC and Penarth Plus.

The afternoon session saw Caerleon IRTP continue their winning ways by winning their opening game together with the Wheatsheaf. This lead the way to a important match between Caerleon IRTP and the Wheatsheaf, with Caerleon IRTP winning 13/4, thereby opening the door for them to win the title. Their final match against the Caerleon Helmets again ended in a victory with a 13/5 win and the 2011 title.

The Plate competition saw the Caerleon Kittys win over the Wheatsheaf LDC and Penarth Plus. A good day for Caerleon RFC PC.

The WPA Executive would like to thank all the members who turned up to take part.

Wenvoe Raiders win the 2011 Stuart Clarke Cup.

On 27th February saw this years Stuart Clarke Cup take place at the Wheatsheaf Petanque Club, not only was it earlier in the year but it was also a triples rather than a doubles competition.

Fourteen teams entered, a good turnout for the first official competition of the new playing year. The morning qualifying round comprised three pools playing a round-robin. The resulting byes in pools B and C played each other, so that by lunchtime all 14 teams had played three games.

The top eight teams were entered in to the Stuart Clarke Cup and the bottom 6 teams into the plate. In the main 'knock out' competition saw teams from Caerleon, Monkstone, Sir Henry Morgan's, Wenvoe and the Wheatsheaf play each other. The main upset of the competition saw the Sir Henry Morgan's team comprising Julie and Ian Bailey and Rod Dobbins defeated by the Caerleon team of Mike North, Neil Wilkinson and Dave Bevin.

All the games in the afternoon session were extremely well fought, as no team wanted to finish early. The Wenvoe Raiders were well behind against the Wheatsheaf, but dug deep and fought back to take the game. The semi-finals were again extremely competitive and saw the Wenvoe Raiders play against the Wheatsheaf (Leftfluenza) and the Wheatsheaf Washouts play Caerleon.

The final was played in good spirits with some exceptional pointing on a difficult surface. However, The Wenvoe Raiders (Jeff Ball, Dave Cannon & Mike Jacques) beat the Wheatsheaf Washouts (Roger Morgan, Kevin Hughes & Steve Brace) 13/9.

In the plate competition teams from Brecon, Penarth, Wenvoe and the Wheatsheaf took part. As it was a 'knock-out' competition all matches were keenly fought but the two top seeded teams fought through to play the final with Penarth Plus (Graham Attfield, Derek Jones & Tony Smith) taking game 13/12 from Wenvoe One (Karen McCloud, Trevor Lloyd and Mike Coleman).

The WPA Executive would like to thank all the members who turned up to take part, The Wheatsheaf PC for hosting the event and finally Marge for her hospitality and providing hot food.

Club Transfers

The following members have requested and been granted club transfers prior to the start of this years competitions on 16th January 2011, they are:

Kevin Hughes from Panteg Phoenix Petanque Club to the Wheatsheaf Petanque Club.
Judith Smith from Penarth Petanque Club to The Monkstone Petanque Club.
The following members are moving from The Monkstone Petanque Club to the new Sir Henry Morgan's Petanque Club:
Matthew Franks, Neil Dobbins, Phil Bradshaw, Cryil Royer, Diane Westall and Peter Westall.

The following members have requested club transfers and are awaiting approval from the WPA Executive:
Julie Bailey from Abergavenny Petanque Club to Sir Henry Morgan's Petanque Club.
Ian Bailey from Abergavenny Petanque Club to Sir Henry Morgan's Petanque Club.
Rod Dobbins from Wenvoe Petanque Club to Sir Henry Morgan's Petanque Club.

Should any other WPA member require a club transfer, please can you contact the WPA Executive before 16th January 2011.

Redundant Boule

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