News from around the petanque world

Charity Doubles

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It was a double celebration for David Randall on Saturday - not only did his team win the Charity Doubles Tournament with a fantastic score of 5 wins and no losses, but David also celebrated his birthday on the same day!

David, and son Andrew, proved a formidable pairing and the last game of the day truly was a decider since they were up against Jeff and Trish - the only other team to go into their final game undefeated. But the Birthday Boy won in the end and donated the prize fund of £99 to a sponsored bike ride in aid of the Brighton Argus Charity Appeal.

Congratulations, Davd and Andrew, and good luck, John, with the cycle from Brighton to Paris!

Charity Doubles June 2010 Team Won Points for Against Difference David Randall + Andrew Randall 5 65 31 34 Tony Mann + Fergal Hogan 4 62 35 27 Jeff Taylor + Trish Taylor 4 59 49 10 Bob White + Ray Ager 3 54 42 12 Chris Holden + Nick Rowlands 2 56 46 10 David Alfred + Ian Maynard 2 49 44 5 Alan Issler + Terry Gibbons 2 48 53 -5 Barbara Randall + Ann Wordsworth 1 44 64 -20 Jill Gebbett + David Miller 1 35 57 -22 Chris Vincent + Di Vincent 1 25 64 -39 Photos kindly provided by Tony Mann

Mixed Doubles washout

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Another Bank Holiday Weekend, another rain-soaked washout!
We had a relatively healthy turnout and a weather forecast that suggested thick black clouds in the afternoon. Who would have guessed that the met office would get it right for a change?!

The Mixed Double Match had to be abandoned after just two rounds of playing, due to heavy rain.
Like the Welcome Doubles before it, the Mixed Doubles will be rescheduled to be played again, later in the year (when hopefully the weather is a little more settled, and predictable!)


Melee Doubles Competition

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The May Doubles Melee was well attended with no less than 18 players turning up, including one of our newest members, Derek Williamson. This made a total of 9 teams which made organising the tournament interesting - particularly when it came to the knockout tournament!

A recent amendment to club competitions is the ability for players to turn up and join in for the afternoon session - this means that dedicated players can play the full day, from 10am, while more social players can just dip in for a few hours in the afternoon! This has worked well in the past, and we decided on a similar format.

The game would be played as a series of league games in the morning, with the top 8 teams qualifying for the "Main Prize".
In the afternoon, a "Plate Knockout" tournament would be played, with anyone who turned up for the afternoon, plus the elimiated team from the morning session, plus each of the losing teams from the first round of the Main Game proper.

Nothing is ever as simple as it sounds - at the end of the morning session, despite a disasterous few games, we had two teams exactly tied in last place!. This meant that we had no team automatically elimated, so a single end, sudden-death play off between Fergal+Ayse and Margi+Derek took place, to decide who would qualify for the afternoon knockout.

Sadly Ayse+Fergal missed out after some spectacular pointing by Margi+Derek.

Teams that made it to the Main Game were:

• Trish T + Jay M
• David A + Ray A
• David R + Jill G
• Barbara R + Jeff T
• Nick R + Marcus H
• Chris H + Bob W
• Margi H + Derek W
• Ayse + Fergal
• Pat C + Ian M

Click here for Melee results and league positions




Welcome Doubles

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After an interesting Come and Try Day the day before, we were all looking forward to the Welcome Doubles, where new club members are paired up with some of our "old hands". This has been a very enjoyable event in the past, but unfortunately the curse of the British Bank Holiday once again played havoc with our plans. Sadly, turnout was quite low and the event had to be called off due to torrential rain before mid-afternoon.

We hope to reschedule the Welcome Doubles for later in the year and will invite all members, new and old alike, to take part!