Tactics, tactics, tactics - some things to think about

Petanque is a complex game.

This post is really to give some idea for those just starting out about how complicated a game it can be, and some things you really must think about. If you want to be serious and want to improve, then, aside from practising your technique, you need to think about becoming tactically aware.

So where do we start?

Well a good place to begin is 3 fundamental points. 

1. Know how many boules both your team and your opponents have left to play at all times.

Have you ever asked your opponents how many they have left, or even worse, your teammates?  That tells your opponent one of two things - you're either inexperienced or you're not concentrating.  You may have unwittingly given them an advantage without even realising it.

An end of petanque has a maximum of 12 boules.  Keeping count in your head of how many your team have played and how many your opponents have played shouldn't be too hard if you are concentrating.  If you really get stuck, you can see from the boules on the ground how many have been played by each team, which in turn tells you how many are still to be played respectively.  

Why is this so important?  Well, it helps, when it is your team's turn to play to know if:

• you have one or more boules left to play than your opponent (an advantage)
• the same or fewer boules left to play than them (a disadvantage)

Bear in mind, the objective is to try an make your opponents play all of their boules as early as possible in the end.  Having more boules to play than your opponents means you have more chances of scoring than they do, at a simple level.  If we think about risk and reward for a minute, your risks are reduced if you have more boules because, even if your opponents play the perfect shot with every one of their boules, you have more than them to score or change things. 

2. Know the positions of all played boules relative to the jack at all times.

You can't possibly decide what is the right shot to play before first knowing what you are up against.  It can't be stated often enough.  But this is an area where inexperienced players can get themselves in a knot and it's just handing your opposition an advantage.

'Are they holding one or two?' - 'Who's is the one at the back?' - 'How close do I need to be to get the shot?'

I hear these kind of cries all the time from people standing in the circle ready to play a shot.  Often, it's because, quite unbelievably, they haven't looked at the head, perhaps for some considerable time.  

The rules allow you to stand beyond the jack and 2m to the side of the direction of play while your opponents are playing.  So use that rule to watch the end unfold standing next to your teammates - you'll have a much better understanding of how the end is developing if you are at the sharp end, rather than guessing from behind the circle.  When it's your turn, walk up to the head and converse with teammates if you need to.  Know what you are up against before you stand in the circle.

3. Know your strengths and limitations (and those of your opponents).

The key is really to understand what you and your opponents can do well or cannot.  

For example, if the team you are playing are all good shooters, but a bit dodgy when it comes to pointing,  should you perhaps be pointing your boules further away from the jack to try and lure them into pointing, rather than giving them the opportunity to play their favourite shot?  

Are you regularly leaving your pointer (who can't shoot) with the last boules and he or she has to shoot with them?  Should you perhaps have foreseen this?  You might find your team having or even planning to shoot with 6 boules in an end, but the whole thing crashes if the last link in the chain is unlikely to be successful.

Do your opponents struggle to shoot at 6 meters?  Do you struggle to point at 10?

Are you contemplating playing a shot that you know has a low probability of success (probably because you haven't practised it)?  If so, it is really the best option?

An extension of knowing how many boules each team has to play is also knowing which players will play them.  Think about these things:

• How have the players who are yet to play boules been playing?    
• Are they in a good frame of mind?  
• Do they struggle to shoot over another boule?
• Are they good at high lob pointing?

This could all influence your decision on which shot to play next and these things apply equally to your own team as your opponents.  

In short, play to your strengths and exploit their weaknesses. Or, if you prefer, play within your comfort zone and outside theirs, if you can.  

Knowing why will help you decide what

That's quite a lot to think about before playing a shot and we've hardly touched on what is actually the right shot to play.  The important thing to remember is that all of these things will give you information to help you understand why you should play a certain shot, which in turn leads you to understand the risks and potential rewards for your shot selection.  

If you can answer the why and the what, then you will be a long way down the road of becoming tactically aware.

Season Review

So, in the end our team finished 3rd in one of the tightest Masters competitions I've ever known.  Any one of 3 teams could have won the event in the final round, with 1st-3rd place decided on points difference after each had achieved 9 wins.  We missed out on 2nd by a single point. We rode our luck for much of the competition it has to be said, winning four games 13-11 (which could have gone either way to be honest).

Disappointing end to our season.  Looking back, personally it was quite a good season - 2nd in Singles, 1st in Doubles, 2nd in Triples and 3rd in the Masters.  I'll take that although that illusive Masters win still eludes me.....

Masters This Weekend

It's that time of year again when the top 12 ranked teams in Scotland compete over 2 days for the Scottish Masters title.  This is by far Scotland's best and most hotly contested competition.  It serves as selection for international representation next year for the Men's Worlds (assuming we are given a place by the FIPJP), Women's Europeans, Veterans' Europeans and the Celtic Challenge.

This year Fochabers PC are hosts who always put on a warm welcome for us all.  I am looking forward to it! Maybe we might improve on 2nd this year - we have finished 2nd more times than I care to remember but never quite managed top spot. Maybe.

Repairing Pitch Marks

We have an interesting little debate going on locally about what is and isn't acceptable as far as repairing pitch marks are concerned and I'd like to share my views for what its worth.

As most will know, Petanque can be played on any ground surface.  This loose definition means that a variety of surfaces are acceptable, from the very smooth, sandy and flat surfaces to those which resemble a building site.  This isn't an article about what constitutes a good, bad or authentic surface by the way (there are no right or wrong answers).  Many surfaces are constructed with a loose top dressing and a firm base - often the base is a compacted layer of dust which acts as a 'blind' for a drainage layer below (certainly in Scotland we need the drainage).  When a boule lands on the top dressing it leaves a crater or pitch mark on the surface like this:

We have all come across the situation where one of these pitch marks coincides with the point you want to land your boule in with your next shot and the rules therefore allow you to repair one pitch mark before each shot.  Personally I'd prefer that the rules did not permit any ground repairs at all but we have to play within the rules we are given.  The rule is as follows:

Article 10........ the player who is about to play, or one of his partners, may fill in a hole which would have been made by one boule played previously. 

What the rule does not tell us is how the hole repair may be done.  Well here's how to do it - move the dressing layer to fill it, but don't 'sweep' your foot or stamp it flat - that's not allowed.

How to turn into 10 to 13

As if to prove my points about the importance of shooting I'd like to share with you a shot from a real game I was involved with on Wednesday.  I don't like boasting about amazing shots, particularly in print as its all a bit narcissistic to me, but in the context of my last post it does go to prove a point and therefore I am going to share it with you anyway.

The game situation is 6-10 to red.  All blue players have thrown all of their boules and red have one still to play. The situation in the head looked like this...

To put this into a bit more context, the leading boule is 40cms from the jack, the jack is 6.20 cms and the 3rd and 4th boules are approximately 1m beyond the jack.

In this situation, with one ball left you have a few options to try and score - shoot the leading boule - point to beat the leading boule (and perhaps drag the coche) but there is only one way of dealing with this situation if you want to close the game now.... "What, get 3 points out of this scenario? Kidding right?"  Many players might settle for scoring one or two in the scenario, but there is a way....

To score 3 points is tough, but it can be done (and was).  First and foremost I hope it is obvious that you need to shoot the leading boule.  If removed this would give you at least a point (the 2nd boule now counts), or two with a carreau.  Look at how the 1st and 3rd boules are aligned compared to the direction of play.  The are not quite in direct line with each other (important).  If you got a good contact on the leading boule (with spot carreau) where does the hit boule go?  Yes, towards the 3rd boule. Because they are not directly in line the shot boule might hit the 3rd boule on its left side....And, if it does the 3rd boule on the left side where does it go next?  Yes, towards the 4th boule.

The player about to play noted all this and, with a wee smile, knowing it would be unlikely that all of that would happen and that he would settle for a hit on the first boule for one or two points, played the shot.  It was perfect, one of those once in a blue moon shots which hardly ever pay off.  A spot carreau on boule 1 caused it to crash onto the left side of the 3rd boule and the resulting deflection caused it then to hit the right side of boule 4.  And the result - 3 points to red - game over and much amazement from everyone.

As I say I don't like to boast, but it does illustrate the point that you should examine the head carefully and try to identify all of the options available to you to score AND if there is an opportunity for you to close the game you should strongly consider taking it (provided you also understand any risk).

Shooting is fundamental

I often get asked why you should learn to shoot, after-all to the beginner it can be quite frustrating early on to keep trying to shoot when they feel they could do better if they just pointed all the time.  All too often we see players elect to point (because they think it is easier or safer to) when a shoot would make things a lot better.

First and foremost, the objective of shooting is to change things, to remove opponents boules from the possibility of counting. The fewer boules your opponent has in play the fewer points they can score - it's that straightforward.  OK, you may say, I understand that but I think I can get closer.  This mentality often leads to lots of boules in the head especially if both teams have similar views.  Often the opportunity to shoot to improve the situation in favour can be overlooked if the focus is always on 'just get closer than them'.

We have all witnessed the game where pointing dominates and scores tick over slowly. One team get one close one end, the next is the same etc etc.  Petanque, we must remember, is about being closest to the jack at the end of an end - this is very different than always being close to the jack.  I have a small saying which I try to stick by when I can - "I don't want to slowly lose this game".  Slowly losing is a symptom of a pointing mentality - oh well, I didn't get close this end, but I might the next and so on.  Failure to shoot at the right time is a recipe for losing slowly.  You may have boules tightly packed in the head, but if you never shoot your opponents are also likely to have a few boules hanging around the head.  You might (slowly) win games just pointing, you may even win the odd competition, but those teams who are more balanced in their play (shooting at the right time) are more successful in the long term.

Many a time I have played games where, in deciding which shot to play, I have found myself thinking "well my opponents are unlikely to shoot that boule, even though I can see how in doing so they might score heavily".  I am exploiting the fact that I think they should shoot but probably wont - which is fine for my team but a shame for my opponents who unknowingly missed a golden opportunity.

So, where does this propensity to prefer pointing come from?  When we learn the game we are shown how to hold a boule, how to stand/squat, how to throw.  And, as coaches, what is the first thing we do?  We put a jack on the ground and tell the student to try and get close... Why?  Because that is instantly rewarding - the student might get a boule very close and we (rightly) congratulate them - "You're a natural", "sign her up!" etc etc.

What would happen if we placed a boule at 5.5m and asked the student to shoot it before introducing them to a jack?  They might miss several times before getting a hit.  Is that demoralising?  Perhaps it is. But the objective is to show them the importance of shooting.  Tell them if they can do it they will win more, win bigger and have one up on players who don't shoot.

Now I'm going to put forward a potentially controversial statement.  Shooting practice makes you a better pointer....  There, I said it.  You might think I am bonkers but think about it for a minute.  A pointer aims to land their boule in a certain spot (or at least they should if they want to be any good).  A shooter aims to land their boule in a certain spot too (the target).  There may be differences in trajectory and desired outcome, but the objective is fundamentally the same.  Consistently landing your boule in the right place.  This is about repetition and building muscle memory. Our body eventually remembers what it feels like to land a boule in a certain place.  Over time, the time spent shooting at various distances then allows us to ask our body "Ok, you know what it feels like to land there, now what adjustments do we need to make to that feeling to make our boule rest in the place we want after it has landed".  If you can shoot a boule at 10m you should also be able to lob a point to 10m too - it just makes sense to me.

It would be remiss of me not to mention pointing practice at this point.  But by pointing practice I do not mean endlessly rolling boules towards a jack - pointless in my opinion.  If you consistently roll your boules at a low trajectory with no regard for where your boule lands before it rolls you might get lucky if the competition is played on a flat terrain.  But time and again I hear complaints about more challenging pistes from pointers who think the world is against them.  Just think about this for a minute - why would you deliberately limit your ability to win by only specialising in one type of playing surface?  It might mean you do very well at your home club but what if you get drawn to play on a piste you don't know how to play - what then?  

Let's be clear here - pointing is hard - consistently putting your boule precisely where you mean to is not easy.  So pointing practice must focus on the landing spot.  Pick a point on the ground and aim to land on it again and again and again, this will help you on rough ground conditions or those with a soft or thick topping.  Now think about what might happen if you put a boule in that spot....  It's no surprise to me that the best players can point and shoot.

Challenge Match - Penicuik vs Tweed Valley

Our petanque club received a challenge from Tweed Valley PC and we hosted them on Sunday 7th July - the same day as Andy Murray would try and win Wimbledon... bad timing or what!?

In the end, with the help of 3 players which we pinched from Tweed Valley, we won the match 8 games to 1 and we all managed to catch the final set of Andy Murray's match too! Result.

I have been practicing shooting mercilessly all summer (the weather has been very kind to us) and I will often spend an hour or two in the evenings shooting - setting up game situations and trying to test myself with tricky shoots (over the tops, directly behind the jack, side-by-side, double take outs etc).  There is some definite progress but practice is all very well, it's more important to be able to do it in the pressure of a tough game.  I have had to abandon a few evening sessions when the midges were biting - keep forgetting the repellent!

Our piste is very much a shooters piste (which is the way it was supposed to be).  Pointers find it tricky as it is quite unpredictable - shooters of course are not worried about these things! The surface now has a number of humps and bumps which are inevitable as it beds in.  It was laid and compacted in the snow in March and so was totally soaked at installation. Now it has been baked the base is rock hard and the top dressing floats on it in a very pleasing way.  In the barer parts it is almost impossible to draw a circle on the ground and so we often use plastic circles instead.  I think all our players like the surface - I certainly feel it will make them better players as there are only a few genuinely challenging pistes in Scotland.  I am looking forward to welcoming players from all over Scotland to Penicuik for the Scottish Triples on 1st September.

Next up for me is the Scottish Singles & Shooting on 27th July and my defence of the Scottish Pairs on 28th July.  Being both an organiser and a player in SPA competitions has its problems - lack of the ability to warm up being the biggest.  I have never been good at singles play, it can expose any weakness quite easily and singles competitions always seem to coincide with 'a bad day'.  Maybe that will change this year...

2013 - a busy year so far

Any regular readers of this blog have probably disappeared through inertia on my part so for that I apologise.  With so much going on recently my own blog has suffered a bit but that should change from now on.

In October 2012 I was elected President of the Scottish Petanque Association, a real honour but it is not without its challenges either.  I have to say the SPA has a great team at its helm - some real 'do-ers' - which does make the job a pleasure.  We have the task of promoting what is very much a minority sport and this can be a thankless task.  However I am pleased to say that we are gradually making in-roads where budgets and time will allow.

Our biggest task  is to increase take up of our sport in Scotland.  Much of my activity this year has been focused on meeting people who are interested in introducing petanque to their community.  This typically involves arranging open days with petanque 'come and try' sessions or competitions.  Enquries from new groups have been strong this year (a total of 4 groups dotted around the country) and we are in regular contact with all of them.

At my own club this year has been very busy, not least because we built our own piste in Penicuik Park.  The new piste took around 6 weeks to complete and was finished on Good Friday, just in time for us to host an Easter Day fun afternoon.  Since then we have built our membership and now have a regular core of players attending on Sundays.  We have also started junior coaching sessions on Wednesday evenings during the summer - we are hopeful that a few youngsters will take up the sport regularly and join our club. We coached almost 230 high school pupils in May and we are planning to make that a regular event.

Penicuik Piste mid-construction

Back to national matters and the season is in full swing with the Grand Prix Series now decided - won by my good friends from Inverleith. The national Singles, Doubles and Shooting are at the end of July and Triples at my home club on 1st September.  In May the SPA travelled to Wales to defend the Celtic Challenge - sadly we didn't quite manage it despite clocking up an impressive haul of 32 wins.  Scotland will host in 2014 and we'll be looking for revenge!

Scotland Squad - 2013 Celtic Challenge - Wales

On 10th & 11th August Inverleith Petanque Club are hosting the Home Nations.  It looks like its going to be a cracker, seeing that it coincides with the Edinburgh Festival.  I wish Inverleith PC the very best of luck!

New Balls Please

I got some new boules for Christmas.  Gave them a try last Sunday and I'm very pleased with them.  Sometimes a new set of boules feel strange in the hand due to the smooth finish which takes a while to wear.  These have microgrooves machined onto the surface, so there is better grip from the outset.

Anyway, I hit quite a lot and interestingly got more carreaux than usual.

Very pleased, thanks Unibloc!http://www.petanqueshop.com/unibloc-bronze-pi-403.html?image=0&osCsid=ccb76ac5078e845211bf140935e95bba

Penicuik Progress

So, Penicuik is up and running and we are now in discussions with the local council about building a purpose built terrain in a park there.  Hopefully this will come to fruition which will give us a great facility to allow us to develop our activities and grow.

The Scottish Singles, Shooting and Pairs competitions are the weekend after next.  It's been a while since I played in a competition and I'm really looking forward to it.  Better get in some practice!

The Home Nations in Nottingham is looming in August and, after first thinking I wasn't able to play I got a nice surprise of some sponsorship from Midlothian Council which means I can.  I am really looking forward to a challenging weekend there.  For the first time in years there is a feeling that Scotland could take something from the competition following our success at the Celtic Challenge in May.  Hopefully we will be able to wrestle the trophy from England, who have won it every year. 

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!

Victory at last!

Bit late this post, but I've been busy!

Sunday 11 October was our last open competition of the year, the Inverleith Cash Pairs.  Unlike our other open's, this competition is cash only prizes. This is the second year we have tried this.  The club don't make a profit from the competition at all - entry fees, raffle and catering proceeds all go into the prize pot. We also add in a little sponsorship money to bolster the fund.  It's our way of thanking all those who support our opens during the year.

Reminds me, must make a concerted effort to support Perth's opens from now on - they are huge supporters of ours and it's about time we reciprocated. I digress.

12 teams turned out on what proved to be a lovely autumn day.  It was a shame the entry was so low, may consider shifting to the height of the season next year.  Would also be great to attract teams from England, but we'll need to advertise a reasonable cash prize for that, to make it worth their while coming up here!

Ben and I played together again, me back to shooting which I much prefer.  We were placed 2nd in this competition last year and were determined to, again, play well.

Morning was 4 leagues of 3.  Much better than the 'league of 5' debacle of last year - we've learned our lesson.  Top 8 teams from the morning leagues to go into the afternoon swiss for the title, those who failed to qualify to play in a 4 team round robin for the plate.

We were unfortunately drawn in an all Inverleith league - Mags and Monty, and Emma and her pal who's name I've forgotten.  A big win against Emma's team virtually assured us of qualification after our first game.  We then beat Mags and Monty to finish top of the group (although with a random draw for the afternoon's play it made no odds whether we finished 1st or 2nd).  The other 2 formidable teams, Johnny/Robbie and Byron/Stephane made it through too (despite being drawn in the same league).

In the afternoon we were drawn against Douglas and Stuart in the first round.  We won the toss and took them to our newly built piste.  We had the option of being really nasty and taking them onto 'The Hill' which can make pointing a real challenge, but opted instead for the more flat area, which I think is actually a better piste as although it appears flat, it in fact has a large amount of variable swing, soft parts and some very firm parts.  It can make pointing difficult and is often unforgiving to the shooter who lands short. It was a good decision.  Familiarity with the piste was proving to be the difference between the teams and we won comfortably, our opponents having no luck at all.

On to the semi-final.  Byron and Stephane won their first game and so were our opponents.  We knew it was likely that they, being reigning Scottish Pairs Champions, would be tough to beat and we'd need to be on our game.  We won the toss and elected for the same new piste as the first round.  The first few ends we exchanged a handful of points.

With us leading 3-2 we faced our most challenging end of the afternoon.  Byron's pointing was canny, not too close to tempt me into shooting, but close enough to make Ben have to work hard.  A combination of poor pointing and a couple of missed tirs left us with a severe boule disadvantage, B&S lying two shots and three still to play, against our two in hand, one for Ben and one for me. Worst still our nearest boule was now 2 metres behind the coche. The natural instinct was to defend our position, but with the boules left in hand I feared we'd simply be shot off the piste, leaving us likely to lose at least 4 shots, but maybe a full house of 6.  So I stopped Ben pointing, and decided to try and kill the end by shooting the coche either dead, or towards the 3 boules which were lying near the back of the piste (my 2 missed tirs and one of Ben's tir casualties).   My shot felt perfect in the air and I moved the coche......an inch sideways.  So it looked like we were set for a disaster.  The perfect shot for Ben to play was to point directly at the coche in the hope that it lay directly on it.  That was a shoot from the other team would either kill the end (maximum points lost restricted to 2) or for the coche to go towards our back boules.

In the end Ben's point didn't quite hit the spot, lying second.  Two missed shoots (one each from Byron and Stephane) saved our bacon and we ended up losing only 2 points.  3-4.  And they were the last points we lost.  Electing to use longer coche lengths than we would normally do caused problems for their pointing.  By contrast our game peaked, pointing 4 shots to a 9.5 metre coche within a two feet radius on the most difficult surface, uphill with right to left swing.  So 13-4 it was, we had some good fortune, but we were pretty much untouchable for the second half of the game.

On to the final, where we fully expected to play Johnny and Robbie.  But no, Alice and Ed had managed to beat them in their semi.   We were again fortunate to win the toss and again select the nasty piste we'd got so used to by now.  Ed and Alice couldn't come to grips with the surface and we won 13-3.

So, it had to wait to the final competition of the year to record my first proper win of the season.  What a relief, and to go home with £50 in my back pocket was very welcome!

The final fling of the season is the Central League Cup, hosted at Inverleith Park on 1st November.  Bovril all round for that one I think, it'll be chilly.

Thanks for reading!

Frustration!

Sunday wasn't a practice, totally forgot about our club competition.  A 4 round snake of triples, teams drawn randomly from a hat.  Won this last year and therefore pressure was on to retain it, but it would all depend on the draw....

The draw wasn't bad, drawn with a realtive novice club player and Mags (who can shoot and point) so it looked like we'd be in with a chance. 

We had a tight first game against Sandy, Howard and his son James, who at just 9 years old looks to be a star in the making.  The game was tight, we won 13-11 in the end and we were relieved to get a win.  We won the next 2 games 13-9 and 13-0 respectively to set up a final match against the only other team to win 3 games so far, in the shape of Henry (a ringer from Perth), Mari (in her first season) and old Monty. 

Henry and Mari pointed very well, despite there being a tirade of swearing in Finnish from Mari, most of her shots were on the money - will have to Google these swear words as she will not tell us what they mean!  Monty hit everything which left us in tatters to be honest, we consistently wasted 3 or more boules each end and were therefore on the back foot for the whole match.  Giving up 7 points in the first 2 ends proved to be too big a hurdle to overcome and we lost 13-6 in the end in front of a crowd, the other matches having finished well before ours.

A frustrating afternoon, whilst finishing 2nd is no disgrace, it's been the story of my season.  Inconsistent play is my biggest problem at the moment, which I guess can only be solved by practice.  It's true I have not practiced as much as I should have this year.  With the season drawing to a close rapidly I'll have to be regimented about practice in the winter months to ensure, come April, I can hit the ground running to avoid the usual slow start to the year.

Off to Stirling next weekend for their Open competition.  Hopefully a few of the strong teams will turn out and make it a competitive day.

Thanks for reading.