Penicuik Petanque Club

See our new website www.penicuikpetanque.org.uk . We are recruiting new members in time for Spring 2011 so if you are interested please contact us and get involved.

Scottish Masters

So, the biggest competition of the year last weekend. This competition is the culmination of the year's international qualifiers. The 12 teams from the Grand Prix series play in a weekend long 'round robin. The top team from the Masters will represent Scotland in the European Men's Championship in Sweden next year. The top 8 teams will also form the Scotland Squad for next year's Celtic Challenge and Home Nations.

So, 12 teams descended upon Troon PC to contest this year's Masters. A lot to play for this year.

Our first game, against Les Champignons, aka John W, Mags and Monty. We just didn't get going at all and lost to 10. Not a good start, but with another 10 games left we would have an opportunity to pull it back.

We won the next 2 games, leaving us with 2 wins at lunch on Saturday. Our main rivals, The Sex Pisteols, were on top form, dropping only 6 points all morning. It would take something special for us to overtake them now.

By the close of play on the Saturday we were lying in second place overall. 5 wins from 6. The Pisteols won all of their games and had an obscene points difference. So, we'd realistically have to rely on them losing a game the following day and us winning all by a big margin, to even stand a chance.

By lunch on the Sunday, the Pisteols and ourselves were tied! We won all of our morning games convincingly (we dropped only 6 points all morning), meanwhile the Pisteols form dipped and they lost heavily to The Bears. We were tied on 8 wins and +64 points difference!

Second last game of the competition was the crunch. Us versus the Pisteols. The winner would most likely win the competition overall. It was a pretty open game to begin with, high scoring ends meant, after 4 ends the score was 7-7. So we were still tied.

2 bad ends from us, however, was enough to cause us to lost 13-7.

On to our last game. By this time we knew we had secured second place and we couldn't achieve 1st. So we just relaxed and had a bit of fun. We lost to 10.

So, second in the Masters. A good result, but I have to admit to being quite disappointed that we didn't win having put ourselves in contention on Sunday morning.

It's started!

Petanque may very well be on its way to Penicuik.  I wasn't aware that the Town is twinned with a town in Provence (Petanque's home).  I am hopeful that I will be able to find some willing people to help me develop a club which will benefit the Penicuik community, as well as give me some people to play with!

Grand Prix 2

18 teams showed up at Inverness PC for the second of the 3 round qualifier for the Scottish Masters title.  We had quite a hard draw, playing against 3 teams from Fochabers/Aberdeen who can all be a real challenge.

The day started quite well, winning our first two games (although we didn;t play that well in all honesty).  We lost our 3rd game 7-13 to the eventual winners - The Pisteols who won all of theirs.

On to the afternoon and after 3 close games, we came out with 5 wins overall, and third place.  Not at all bad and a real improvement compared to previous weekends!

We're now sitting 3rd in the overall rankings which is great.  Hopefully we can push on to get second or even first???

Thanks for reading.

Celtic Challenge

Hi all.  Just returned from the Vale of Glamorgan, the annual Celtic Challenge held at Wenvoe Petanque Club.  Had a great weekend socially, met up with old and new friends.  It's always nice to see the Welsh and Irish petanque players.

Unfortunately the petanque was poor.  12 games, 3 wins.  Very poor show, and especially frustrating as we know we can do much better.  The pistes were challenging which isn't an excuse, we should be able to play anywhere!

So back to the drawing board - need to have a serious think about where we went wrong.  I think it was just a case of 3 of us being in poor form at once.

Thanks for reading. Grrr!

Almost a perfect day

Last Sunday saw the first competition of the new season at Inverleith - the Francis Faber Memorial Pairs.  This year I paired with Emma Montgomery.  The weather was glorious and although the usual Inverleith breeze kept the temperature down, the sun shone all day.  Disappointingly only 9 teams turned out - may have been due to the school holidays I suppose but surely our club of 65 could raise more teams???

I was in charge of organising play.  The nine teams were drawn into 3 leagues of 3 in each, the top team from each league would qualify, plus the best second place team, would qualify for the afternoon's main competition, with the non-qualifiers playing in the plate.

We were drawn in an 'all Inverleith' league.  We first played John Porter and Allan Murray.  Having won the toss we elected to play on my favourite surface, the one on which Ben and I had so much success at the end of last year.  It looks pretty tame, but it is hard on the pointers with soft, firm and sloping areas.  And so it proved to be, John and Allan struggled to point consistently to be honest.  We won 13-10 in the end - our pointing was also not that great, but managed to make it count at critical points.  We then played Mari and Christine, who had been fannied by John and Allan in their previous game.  Again we won 13-10.  We took a pretty commanding lead, 12-4 if I recall, but we struggled to finish the game, and in the end had to rely on a bad end from Mari and Christine.

So we qualified for the main competition having won both games.  Into the afternoon, and our first game was against last year's winners, Johnny and Robbie.  This was to be our finest hour.  We challenged them throughout the game and managed to put quite a lot of pressure on their game.  They would have to be on their top form to keep up with us for a change!  We won 13-9 and I have to say it was one of the best games of Petanque I have played in a while.

Then, a total melt-down, the highs of the previous game disappeared very quickly indeed.  We were put onto a relatively easy piste by Jean & Henry.  In the first end we left 6 balls at least one metre short, and lost 4.  Second end was no better and therefore we were very much up against it.  Our chances of winning the competition were dissipating rapidly.  We managed to pull back 6 points but in the end Jean's pointing was just too good.

On to our final game - John and Allan again (as they had qualified as best second place in the morning).  We won the toss and didn't hesitate to go back to our favourite piste.  And what a game we played, winning 13-1.  A carreau with the last ball of the game scored us 4 points and put us within a good chance of winning the comp.  All we needed Jean & Henry to do was score 4 points against Johnny and Robbie.  Sadly, however, they could only manage 2 and so we finished second.

So, nearly a great day, but at least the signs are that this could be a good season for me.  I was very pleased with my shot selections and the shooting was pretty good throughout the day. Another 2nd place trophy for the mantlepiece!

So, on to Perth next Sunday.  I'm playing with Derek this time, who will be my regular partner for pairs this year.  And here's hoping the improvement continues!

Thanks for reading!

Nearly there

Went down to the club on Sunday for the first time this year.  I'm a bit rusty! Our lighter coloured pistes (the granite dust ones) are very soft at the moment - bit like playing on wet sand.  But it was like that last year, nothing a few days of warm sunshine wont cure.

Threw about 100 balls - not too bad. Six tirs in a row at one point.

Really looking forward to the season beginning again.  Got a lot on.  This Sunday is North v South at Perth (I'll not be there though).  The first open is Francis Faber Pairs on 11th April, a match against Tweed Valley Petanque Club in Peebles - good networking opportunity - and then Grand Prix 1 the week after.  Then off to Cardiff for the Celtic Challenge.

So it's all go - better practice.  Need to win more than just one competition this year (i'd quite like to win a few majors this year).

On a separate note, I've redone the club logo in preparation for ordering new polos and sweatshirts.

I think it's ok - but someone thinks it looks a bit like me!

Cheers for now!

Colin

Too chilly!!!

No boules since October - been too cold for me.  Will post here when I've got something to report!