Author: huddersfieldpetanque

Nine hardy members braved the cold and rain to play the February melee. Room was found to play between the puddles on the lower terrain. After the first game and subsequent coffee and biscuit break players went out for the next game. It didn’t last long as the wind and sleet arrived. After looking at the state of the terrain and continuing rain and sleet it was unanimously agreed to abandon the game.

Hopefully March will provide the first completed melee of the season.

The photo shoot with all members wearing their HPC shirt tomorrow is cancelled. The melee will still go ahead but expect wind and rain. Bring waterproofs.

It’s been a long autumn and winter with covid complications but in the next few weeks we have some pairs competitions coming up.

With quite a few new members who may have played in a melee but not a pairs competition here’s an explainer to give you some idea of what it’s like.

Melees have a draw for partners every round and social sessions and club melees use this system. When we play a pairs, triples or even singles competition ideally we should have all teams play all other teams but numbers preclude this so teams play a selection of the other teams. We call this a snake.

Snakes mean that you can choose your partner (or take pot luck on the day if you don’t have one) and stay with them for the 3 rounds. The games are the same – first to 13 – and the winners are determined by total number of games won followed by points difference if there’s a tie. Each team is allocated a number and a pre-drawn sheet shows who you are playing and has space for the results.

February 15th is Valentines Pairs. Members only and no entry fee with chocolates for the winners.

March 20th is Beau’s Charity Pairs where we open this to other local clubs and charge £10 per team. No prize money and all money goes to Beau’s campaign.

There will be other snakes during the year. You can see the playing calendar by clicking in the menu bar and we hope you try out a snake soon. They don’t bite.

First game just about completed then it threw it down. A majority of players in the clubhouse decided to go home. Consequently it was all abandoned and no points were awarded in the Spring Melee competition. We had enough time to take a picture of some of the players.

The Xmas lights were switched on with a genuine elf from Golcar. Being as it was early afternoon the lights didn’t shine very brightly but the Xmas elf shortly afterwards collected her prize for winning the Autumn melee.

The second presentation was for the Champion of Champions Trophy. This is calculated from 7 of the major club events with points allocated for top 5 and added up to produce what is effectively the “player of the year” result. 2021 winner is Robin.

More Christmas elves appeared.

After the first round there were mince pies and mulled wine inside the clubhouse and the raffle for Xmas baskets was drawn. Winners were Maureen, Kathy & Margaret and the final amount raised this year for our chosen charity – Age UK – was over £350.

The raffles were organised by the social committee and two of them were at the draw. A huge thank you to the team who put on great events and raised a substantial amount. Next year they’ll do it again and we’re looking to choose a new charity for 2022. Give us your suggestions.

Finally as the sleigh of a sozzled Santa cruises past the Castle Hill of destiny HPC wishes you all a merry Christmas and looks forward to a full year of playing petanque.