It was a first* for the club. After 6 months of melees on the first Sunday of the month two players tied for the title of Spring Melee Champion. Both Robin and Yvonne had scored 39 points (which is the maximum possible) so to decide the winner a one end tie break was played and Robin won it. It was his second victory in this competition which started in 2014.
This is one of the longest running competitions at HPC. The trophy was donated by Daniel Mawdesley who just happened to be the first winner. Since then 14 names have been added (Robin and Daniel have won it twice) and there’s room for a few more. To start with it was 6 events and the scoring system was players received a point for everyone they beat. In the first competition there were 21 players so 1st place took 20 points and the 21st player received none. It meant that on days with a large attendance the top players recorded significant scores and that those who turned up for every event scored the most.
Things changed in 2020 when covid arrived and the club shut down for months on end. In the enforced shutdown the club changed the way it was played. Only 13 points would be awarded to the winner down to 1 point for 13th place. Anyone lower than 13th didn’t get any points. Also it was decided to count a player’s best 3 results to allow for holidays or other reasons. It was also changed to run from Jan to Jun and Jul to Dec. Most of the early seasons were run by Paul & Roy but over time members have learned how to run a melee and spreadsheet solution has been developed to manage the “best of 3 games” concept. Phil took over scoring for a while and Jane is currently keeping the scores.
Previous winners are 2015 Daniel & Roy, 2016 Robin & Marie, 2017 Daniel & Sue, 2018 Pete & Paul, 2019 Brendan & Richard, 2020 covid, Spring 2021 Maureen, Autumn 2021 Christine, Spring 2022 Kevin, Autumn 2022 Jane P and finally Spring 2023 Robin.
*Other notable firsts include an abandoned melee when a sudden winter gale forced most players off the terrain in the middle of the second game and who refused to play on, winter days when the terrain was covered in snow and a day in 2022 when the temperature rose close to 40 degrees C. Next season starts July 2nd. In Spring 2023 there were 45 members taking part. Let’s get to 50 in the next 6 monthly melees..
Mathematicians may spot that Robin and Yvonne were both given 13 points in June. It should have been 12.5 but didn’t affect the result. Here’s another picture from 2019 which shows the trophy better and also shows a picture of Richard who is no longer with us but is greatly missed.
Huddersfield Pétanque 