News

7 HPC members played in this event at Hollicarrs near Selby. It was 5 rounds starting about 0945 and finishing as the light gradually disappeared and the rain began. Best result for our club was Roy who was playing with a non HPC member. They won 4 games with +22 and came 3rd out of 18 teams. Paul & Christine also had 4 wins and +9 and finished 5th, Mike,.Moira, Brendan & Nell also won some games. The cumulative winter league table makes interesting reading. There are 79 players listed, Here’s the top 15.

Commentary:-

The uncertain weather and a clash of fixtures reduced the playing numbers for today’s Club Monthly Melee.  Nevertheless despite the light showers the playing commenced on time and the early leaders Yvonne and Robin both posted 1st round results of 1 +12. Round 2 was more evenly contested with Reg, Jane P, Nigel, Sue W and Amanda chasing Yvonne. 

The final positions were 1st Sue Weston, 2nd Yvonne & 3rd Reg.  Cumulative scores below

On Monday a group of 22 students and staff from Greenhead College (Modern Languages Dept) came to try pétanque. They hadn’t been able to arrange cultural trips to France recently because of Covid and Brexit so earlier in summer they contacted the club and after site visits where Robin met their staff and talked through the options they arrived at 1330 on a nice sunny but windy afternoon and played for 2 hours. There were 2 staff, 2 french assistants and 18 sixth form students.

After a brief introduction (in french) they were split into 5 groups and they practised the game for half an hour then played a 2 round competition with random draw for each round. When it was all over at 1525 there were 3 people tied for first place with 2 wins and +13. A one boule shoot out took place where Matty came 3rd and Scarlett knocked out the Paul (the french teacher’s) boule to win the gold medal.

Everyone had a good time and we hope to repeat the event next year. One of the french teachers in the group said she would return on Sunday to play again so we might have a new member and everyone there went home with a business card to spread the word.

A great afternoon and special thanks to Paul, Robin, Rita, Fred, Ian, Amanda and Jane who did the organising, coaching, umpiring and clearing up. They left us some chocolates which are on the table in the clubhouse for members to enjoy.

Fine weather and a good turnout undoubtably helped this very successful men v women event but the positive and competitive spirit of all the competitors definitely made it a fun and enjoyable day. I’m pleased to say despite the obvious difficulties in organising this Grail Challenge competition it went smoothly and without any problems and was very well received by all players both new and long standing. 

The communication via AMiP, notice board posters and WhatsApp seems to have worked well.

28 players in total were put into 6 teams a side both with a mixture of doubles and triples.

Round 1 shows the Ladies to be in aggressively good form gaining a 4 game lead of 5-1 with the men narrowly avoiding a whitewash. In round 2 the men fight back with 3 – 3 to bring the cumulative score to 8-4. In round 3 with 2 games to play the men are just 2 games off a draw but the ladies hold them off for a 10 – 8 victory.