Bryan Kimberley Charity Melee
The Bryan Kimberley Charity Melee attracted 15 players and for the first time that I can remember there were more female players than male, including two juniors. The numbers were slightly depleted by the clash of a EuroCup round between Les Nomades and Whitnash Windmill, as several of those involved in that would otherwise have been at Coventry. The weather was cloudy and overcast all day but remained reasonably mild and most importantly dry. A new computer spreadsheet was used for keeping tally of the scores and worked well despite some teathing difficulties, which can be sorted out for next time. Thanks to Jim Patrick for keeping the scores for us.
I was pleased to see six players, including two juniors, from West Haddon support us, as well as having representation from Les Nomades and Stockton Half Crown. Overall winner was our very own John Baxter, who was the only player to win all his games, second place went to Arthur Watts (4 wins +18) with Stockton's Ian Brittain (4 wins + 15) taking third prize. I would also like to mention Elianne for her particularly strong performance as a Junior, winning 3 of her 5 games and to Abigail, the other Junior, who won one game in only her second attempt at playing pétanque.
Thirty one pounds was raised from the raffle and when added to the proceeds from the entry fees once expenses had been deducted a very satisfactory £50.00 was raised for Cancer Research.
This concludes the 2015 season at Coventry Pétanque Club and I would like to thank all who have taken part during the season and look forward to seeing you on the terrain in 2016.
Tony Thompson
EuroCup
The club faced a strong Nomades team in the second round of the EuroCup on Friday evening, 2nd. Oct. Playing at the Castle Farm home of Nomades a weakened Coventry side struggled to overcome some very strong opposition and ended up losing all five games. The two best results both involved Brian and Rita who made a strong come-back in the mixed pairs to lose by a single point and playing with Alf lost to 11 in the Mixed triples. Nomades now go on to compete against Whitnash Windmill in the next round following a very good 5-0 victory over Stockton Half Crown for the Windmill team.
Tony Thompson
Open Triples
The Open Triples competition took place on Sunday 9th. August. A perfect number of 12 triples teams took part, with entries from all the clubs in the Eastern half of the region. The day started bright with developing sunny spells and the terrain looked great with so many players there and the new gazebo and the picnic benches adding to the atmosphere. The competition was spread over three rounds before lunch and two afterwards however with two of the morning rounds taking well over an hour the lunch break was somewhat curtailed for some. A raffle was held during the lunch break and £54.00 was raised for Cancer Research. My thanks to the ladies who sold the tickets and supervised the draw.
An earlier request for raffle prizes produced a surfeit of prizes (thank you everybody who donated them), so some have been kept back for a second raffle at the annual Charity Bryan Kimberley Melee 18th. October, where I hope to see you all again.
Tony Thompson
An evening with Coventry Leofric Lions
The club hosted an evening of pétanque for the Coventry Leofric Lions Club on Saturday 25th. July. More than 30 "Lions" enjoyed an event, which started with a buffet in the Burnt Post and finished with a 3-round melee competition. Some playing styles were interesting, shall we say, but I did note a considerable improvement during the evenings play.
The competition did not finish until after 10pm and the organiser was having some difficulty seeing the paperwork and the laptop keyboard but David Chandler was declared winner of the men's competition and Jen Brown the ladies winner, having won all three games. They went home with a well deserved bottle of french wine. Dougie Squires was the only other one to win all his games and he left with happy memories of the occasion. Surprisingly, when checking the results sheets at home later, I found that all scores were in order and everything tallied despite the late finish. Photographs are on the gallery page.
Tony Thompson
Alexandra Open Mixed pairs
The club was pleased to welcome David and Maryon Beer from Alexandra New Zealand to Coventry and for them to compete in this second Alexandra Open Mixed pairs competition. David had brought a couple of bottles of wine, made from grapes off his own vinyard, which were given to the winners. Also travelling some distance to join us were Phil Bradshaw and Rose, from Cardiff.
Twelve teams, 4 short of the maximum we can accommodate, took part in the competition, which was played in good humour and friendly rivalry, all be it on a day which started a little wet but the weather cleared up to leave just a few lingering showers.
Timed games were the order of the day as there were fixed times for the informal buffet lunch and also for David and Maryon to catch their train to London. We played 5 rounds and although timed at 45 minutes plus 2 ends, with an extra end if the teams were tied, only 14 of the 30 games failed to reach 13 points. There were 4 "Fannies" inflicted in the day and no team won all five games so the final result was decided on points difference. I will not embarrass those who were "Fannied" but you can find that out from the results page!!
First place was taken by Tony and Eileen Sollis, second, for the second year in succession, were Brian Stote and Meri Young with Phil and Rose third. Full results can be found on the results page and there are photographs on the gallery page.
Following the formal presentation of the trophy and other prizes the club presented David and Maryon with Coventry PC Polo shirts as a thank you for travelling half way round the world to join us.
Tony Thompson
Open Day
The Club held an open day on bank Holiday Monday May 4th. We had distributed posters to various libraries, Sports Clubs etc as well as several other sites around the city. Organisations which had previously shown an interest in pétanque for a corporate event were also invited, these included the likes of Jaguar/ Land Rover, Broad Street Rugby Fotball Club, as well as Coventry Leofric Lions and the Old Coventrians of King Henry Viii school and Woodlands school. We also secured a 20 minute slot on BBC CWR's Vic Minett show shortly before 1pm. The only visitors we had were two families who were visiting the pub and saw the banners around the car park and a PE teacher from Stoke Park School. All three have been contacted since and we now await any response.
Thanks to all the club members and also members of other clubs who turned out to help and even if responses were low at least we got some useful practice during the day.
Tony Thompson
To hear the interview go to
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02pr5y7
and set your slider to 2hrs 29.
Coventry Over 60's Pairs
The annual Over 60's Pairs competition took place on a fine but windy Tuesday May 12th. a team from Nottingham in the East Midlnds Region and several Heart of England clubs joined local players to make the entry up to a very good 12 teams. Competition was fierce and two teams managed to win all 5 games eith Barry and Carol Cox pipping Tony and Betty on points difference. Just to see Carol's face when she was presented with her first competition trophy made the day worth while.
The full results are below..
Barry & Carol Cox 5 wins plus 40
Tony & Betty Thompson 5 wins plus 27
Brian Stote & Nigel Ashby 4 wins plus 26
Charles & Chris Caruana 4 wins plus 23
Brian & Zena Forbes 3 wins plus 14
David & Lyn Roberts 3 wins plus 14
John Baxter & Alex Watkins 3 wins plus 7
Dave Kimpton & Natalie Turner 2 wins plus 1
Eileen Sollis and Ian Dyson 2 wins -7
Carol Woodward & Reg Gregory 2 wins -14
John & Diane Emberton 1 win -18
John & Barbara Newton 1 win -31
Reg & Sheila Eburne 0 wins -31
Stephen & Pauline Horsefall 0 wins -51
Tony Thompson
The Bryan Kimberley Charity Melee attracted 15 players and for the first time that I can remember there were more female players than male, including two juniors. The numbers were slightly depleted by the clash of a EuroCup round between Les Nomades and Whitnash Windmill, as several of those involved in that would otherwise have been at Coventry. The weather was cloudy and overcast all day but remained reasonably mild and most importantly dry. A new computer spreadsheet was used for keeping tally of the scores and worked well despite some teathing difficulties, which can be sorted out for next time. Thanks to Jim Patrick for keeping the scores for us.
I was pleased to see six players, including two juniors, from West Haddon support us, as well as having representation from Les Nomades and Stockton Half Crown. Overall winner was our very own John Baxter, who was the only player to win all his games, second place went to Arthur Watts (4 wins +18) with Stockton's Ian Brittain (4 wins + 15) taking third prize. I would also like to mention Elianne for her particularly strong performance as a Junior, winning 3 of her 5 games and to Abigail, the other Junior, who won one game in only her second attempt at playing pétanque.
Thirty one pounds was raised from the raffle and when added to the proceeds from the entry fees once expenses had been deducted a very satisfactory £50.00 was raised for Cancer Research.
This concludes the 2015 season at Coventry Pétanque Club and I would like to thank all who have taken part during the season and look forward to seeing you on the terrain in 2016.
Tony Thompson
EuroCup
The club faced a strong Nomades team in the second round of the EuroCup on Friday evening, 2nd. Oct. Playing at the Castle Farm home of Nomades a weakened Coventry side struggled to overcome some very strong opposition and ended up losing all five games. The two best results both involved Brian and Rita who made a strong come-back in the mixed pairs to lose by a single point and playing with Alf lost to 11 in the Mixed triples. Nomades now go on to compete against Whitnash Windmill in the next round following a very good 5-0 victory over Stockton Half Crown for the Windmill team.
Tony Thompson
Open Triples
The Open Triples competition took place on Sunday 9th. August. A perfect number of 12 triples teams took part, with entries from all the clubs in the Eastern half of the region. The day started bright with developing sunny spells and the terrain looked great with so many players there and the new gazebo and the picnic benches adding to the atmosphere. The competition was spread over three rounds before lunch and two afterwards however with two of the morning rounds taking well over an hour the lunch break was somewhat curtailed for some. A raffle was held during the lunch break and £54.00 was raised for Cancer Research. My thanks to the ladies who sold the tickets and supervised the draw.
An earlier request for raffle prizes produced a surfeit of prizes (thank you everybody who donated them), so some have been kept back for a second raffle at the annual Charity Bryan Kimberley Melee 18th. October, where I hope to see you all again.
Tony Thompson
An evening with Coventry Leofric Lions
The club hosted an evening of pétanque for the Coventry Leofric Lions Club on Saturday 25th. July. More than 30 "Lions" enjoyed an event, which started with a buffet in the Burnt Post and finished with a 3-round melee competition. Some playing styles were interesting, shall we say, but I did note a considerable improvement during the evenings play.
The competition did not finish until after 10pm and the organiser was having some difficulty seeing the paperwork and the laptop keyboard but David Chandler was declared winner of the men's competition and Jen Brown the ladies winner, having won all three games. They went home with a well deserved bottle of french wine. Dougie Squires was the only other one to win all his games and he left with happy memories of the occasion. Surprisingly, when checking the results sheets at home later, I found that all scores were in order and everything tallied despite the late finish. Photographs are on the gallery page.
Tony Thompson
Alexandra Open Mixed pairs
The club was pleased to welcome David and Maryon Beer from Alexandra New Zealand to Coventry and for them to compete in this second Alexandra Open Mixed pairs competition. David had brought a couple of bottles of wine, made from grapes off his own vinyard, which were given to the winners. Also travelling some distance to join us were Phil Bradshaw and Rose, from Cardiff.
Twelve teams, 4 short of the maximum we can accommodate, took part in the competition, which was played in good humour and friendly rivalry, all be it on a day which started a little wet but the weather cleared up to leave just a few lingering showers.
Timed games were the order of the day as there were fixed times for the informal buffet lunch and also for David and Maryon to catch their train to London. We played 5 rounds and although timed at 45 minutes plus 2 ends, with an extra end if the teams were tied, only 14 of the 30 games failed to reach 13 points. There were 4 "Fannies" inflicted in the day and no team won all five games so the final result was decided on points difference. I will not embarrass those who were "Fannied" but you can find that out from the results page!!
First place was taken by Tony and Eileen Sollis, second, for the second year in succession, were Brian Stote and Meri Young with Phil and Rose third. Full results can be found on the results page and there are photographs on the gallery page.
Following the formal presentation of the trophy and other prizes the club presented David and Maryon with Coventry PC Polo shirts as a thank you for travelling half way round the world to join us.
Tony Thompson
Open Day
The Club held an open day on bank Holiday Monday May 4th. We had distributed posters to various libraries, Sports Clubs etc as well as several other sites around the city. Organisations which had previously shown an interest in pétanque for a corporate event were also invited, these included the likes of Jaguar/ Land Rover, Broad Street Rugby Fotball Club, as well as Coventry Leofric Lions and the Old Coventrians of King Henry Viii school and Woodlands school. We also secured a 20 minute slot on BBC CWR's Vic Minett show shortly before 1pm. The only visitors we had were two families who were visiting the pub and saw the banners around the car park and a PE teacher from Stoke Park School. All three have been contacted since and we now await any response.
Thanks to all the club members and also members of other clubs who turned out to help and even if responses were low at least we got some useful practice during the day.
Tony Thompson
To hear the interview go to
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02pr5y7
and set your slider to 2hrs 29.
Coventry Over 60's Pairs
The annual Over 60's Pairs competition took place on a fine but windy Tuesday May 12th. a team from Nottingham in the East Midlnds Region and several Heart of England clubs joined local players to make the entry up to a very good 12 teams. Competition was fierce and two teams managed to win all 5 games eith Barry and Carol Cox pipping Tony and Betty on points difference. Just to see Carol's face when she was presented with her first competition trophy made the day worth while.
The full results are below..
Barry & Carol Cox 5 wins plus 40
Tony & Betty Thompson 5 wins plus 27
Brian Stote & Nigel Ashby 4 wins plus 26
Charles & Chris Caruana 4 wins plus 23
Brian & Zena Forbes 3 wins plus 14
David & Lyn Roberts 3 wins plus 14
John Baxter & Alex Watkins 3 wins plus 7
Dave Kimpton & Natalie Turner 2 wins plus 1
Eileen Sollis and Ian Dyson 2 wins -7
Carol Woodward & Reg Gregory 2 wins -14
John & Diane Emberton 1 win -18
John & Barbara Newton 1 win -31
Reg & Sheila Eburne 0 wins -31
Stephen & Pauline Horsefall 0 wins -51
Tony Thompson
Annual Dinner
The delayed 2014 presentation dinner took place at Raffles Restaurant Kenilworth on Thursday January 15th. This year the meal was served piping hot to everyone and there were plenty of vegitables as well so the restaurant management had clearly taken note of our comments last year when there was some disquiet on both these issues. Well done Raffles.
Following the meal the 20 club members and guests witnessed the presentation of trophies to the successful players from last year by our principle guest Hayley Goodrick, Manager of the Burnt Post. later Hayley said that she had enjoyed the evening and offered us a facility to promote the club within the Burnt Post, something for the new committee to consider. Photographs of the evening are posted on the 2015 Gallery tab above.
Tony Thompson
The delayed 2014 presentation dinner took place at Raffles Restaurant Kenilworth on Thursday January 15th. This year the meal was served piping hot to everyone and there were plenty of vegitables as well so the restaurant management had clearly taken note of our comments last year when there was some disquiet on both these issues. Well done Raffles.
Following the meal the 20 club members and guests witnessed the presentation of trophies to the successful players from last year by our principle guest Hayley Goodrick, Manager of the Burnt Post. later Hayley said that she had enjoyed the evening and offered us a facility to promote the club within the Burnt Post, something for the new committee to consider. Photographs of the evening are posted on the 2015 Gallery tab above.
Tony Thompson
Coventry Tournament Alexandra New Zealand.
We have just completed a very successful Coventry Doubles / Robbie Burns Birthday weekend. 19 teams participated in the trophy competition on Saturday and about the same in the Robbie Burns Birthday Bash on Sunday. We started at midday on Saturday to give those travelling time to get here. Unfortunately Starting at midday meant that we were playing through the hottest part of the day with temperatures in the mid 30's. Rather too hot for some of the less fit members playing. Five random draw games were played, then we stopped for a meal (whitebait patties, salads etc) prepared by the local Lions Club, then it was planned to play semis and finals. The meal took a little longer to prepare than was anticipated so the semis were played before dinner and the finals afterwards. Slightly cooler temperatures, but still about 30 deg; at least there was some shade by then. Eventual winners were John Hudson and Josie Parkin who lost only one game all day and that was to Maryon and me!. We finished 8th overall (ahead of the Bunces and Hays!). John and Josie had travelled from Tauranga, so it made their journey worthwhile.
Sunday morning was an earlier start at 8.30 am, planning to finish around 1.00 pm. At least we were playing in the cooler part of the day although by midday we were in the 30s again. Different partners for each game made for lots of fun and challenges. The tournament was completed with a haggis ceremony, masterfully compared by John Hudson, assisted by Bernie O'Meara (Alexandra president) and Jim Forrest, both appropriately attired, but realising the deficiencies of a kilt on a very hot day! A lad from the local high school made an excellent job of piping the haggis in.
Altogether a very successful weekend and Maryon and I are looking forward to participating in your tournament in May.
Many thanks to David Beer for this report. Photographs are posted on the 2015 Gallery tab above.
We have just completed a very successful Coventry Doubles / Robbie Burns Birthday weekend. 19 teams participated in the trophy competition on Saturday and about the same in the Robbie Burns Birthday Bash on Sunday. We started at midday on Saturday to give those travelling time to get here. Unfortunately Starting at midday meant that we were playing through the hottest part of the day with temperatures in the mid 30's. Rather too hot for some of the less fit members playing. Five random draw games were played, then we stopped for a meal (whitebait patties, salads etc) prepared by the local Lions Club, then it was planned to play semis and finals. The meal took a little longer to prepare than was anticipated so the semis were played before dinner and the finals afterwards. Slightly cooler temperatures, but still about 30 deg; at least there was some shade by then. Eventual winners were John Hudson and Josie Parkin who lost only one game all day and that was to Maryon and me!. We finished 8th overall (ahead of the Bunces and Hays!). John and Josie had travelled from Tauranga, so it made their journey worthwhile.
Sunday morning was an earlier start at 8.30 am, planning to finish around 1.00 pm. At least we were playing in the cooler part of the day although by midday we were in the 30s again. Different partners for each game made for lots of fun and challenges. The tournament was completed with a haggis ceremony, masterfully compared by John Hudson, assisted by Bernie O'Meara (Alexandra president) and Jim Forrest, both appropriately attired, but realising the deficiencies of a kilt on a very hot day! A lad from the local high school made an excellent job of piping the haggis in.
Altogether a very successful weekend and Maryon and I are looking forward to participating in your tournament in May.
Many thanks to David Beer for this report. Photographs are posted on the 2015 Gallery tab above.