Southsea welcomed Worthing Simpsons a week early due to holidays etc.  As always with home games it was ‘turn up and you will play’, and 8 players made an appearance.

Triples chosen were Peter/Maureen/Col and Andy/Trevor/Ray.

P/M/C went ahead then unfortunately dropped a ‘six’. However, they showed typical Southsea resolve not letting it upset them and running out 13-7 winners.  A/T/R just had the edge on their opponents, a nice point in by Ray closing a 13-3 win. The score here not really reflecting that Worthing had fought hard every end.

So 2-0 after the triples, a nice situation to be in but still needing a win in the doubles to bag the important extra point for a match win.

Doubles chosen were Andy/Dawn, Trevor/Brian, Peter/Maureen. Worthing took a long time choosing their doubles with lots of discussion between their team.

Peter/Maureen lost 13-8 at the swimming pool end in a game where I would have favoured them as the strongest pairing.  The opposition picked the middle terrain for Trev/Brian, a choice which favoured Brians pointing style, and Trev/Brian sealed the extra bonus point with a nice 13-4 victory. This left Andy/Dawn to try and get an extra point. 5 missed shots in a row allowed Worthing to spring ahead 5-0, and it ended up a looong drawn out battle to overcome that lead and secure a 13-10 win with lights eventually required on the longest day of the year.

End result:    Southsea 4    Worthing Simpsons 1

Southsea now top of the table awaiting Cranleigh and Handcross results next week to see if that position will hold out.

There have been a number of challenges on the Treend singles ladder over the last few weeks.

Ray pulled out a couple of surprises beating challengers Peter and Dawn.

Maureen had a successful defence against Bruce.

Rod made a brief appearance at the top of the board after beating Maureen, but was then knocked back down after she challenged back.

Name currently in pink is Andy who survived a last point decider against Peter after working his way to the top through Ray, Rod and Maureen.

Time is running out, so best get those challenges in, those currently at the lower end need to start working their way up now if they are to have a chance.

The Treend Ladder

There was team entry comprising fully of Southsea players at the recent Inter-regional qualifiers. Matt/Dawn/Andy and Peter traded as ‘Southsea Pink Power’. Trevor also entered along with Bernie, Allan and Bob from other clubs.

Unfortunately there wasn’t lots of Power to be seen eventually ending up 16th of 18.

After an initial good start on the first day, keeping things tight to 8-8 against Glen Floyd/Sammy Thatcher/Karen Lombard, things went downhill losing the next game to a fanny, with two more losses until an eventual first win in the last game. First choice shooter Peter was missing though so there was hope for better on the second session a few weeks later.

All games on the second day went close. 2 out of 5 were wins coming against Daena Vincent’s ‘Southern Discomfort’ and what must have been a nailbiter for Mike Porter’s ‘Cobb-on’ who needed a decent point score if not a win to qualify vs a team by then playing for fun.

Southsea also had a rather unusual bit of bad luck vs Malcolm Mackenzie’s ‘Renegade’ in their third match. It was 12-12 and game on the ground for Southsea with jack at 9.5m (Southsea out of boule).  A missed shot by Malcolm sprayed stones into the edgeboard which then rebounded and moved the jack to Renegade boule sealing the match. With two boule in hand for Renegade it might not have mattered but who knows at 9.5m with boule on boule shooting required.

Meanwhile, Trevor’s ‘Meerkats’ had a fantastic first day resulting in 4 wins out of 5.  The second day was comparatively disappointing with only 2 wins, but the first days result meant Meerkats qualifying 6th best team out of 18.

2nd placed Southsea made the trip to 3rd placed Cranleigh on the same day 4th placed Handcross played top dogs Worthing Simpsons with all four teams having a chance of being top of the league after the evenings play.

Southsea’s triples were Andy/Maureen/Peter and Dawn/Trevor/Matt.  A/M/P won with reasonable ease, with an electric hit rate for Peter and Andy shooting on a forgiving terrain. On the other side of the piste things didn’t go down quite as planned with the Cougars roaring to a 13-0 fanny.

So 1-1 at half time. Doubles selected were Andy/Peter, Dawn/Matt, and Maureen/Trevor.  Dawn/Matt finished first in a tight game with Jeff shooting the bouchon for 3 to seal the game for Cranleigh 13-8.  Andy and Peter finished next winning comfortably 13-3, spectators generously clapping away shots as well as home during the game. Everyone then gathered round Maureen and Trevor vs Gina and Lesley of Cranleigh. The match was 7-7 at this stage and inched forwards tentatively, both teams still striving for a big end after a raft of singles.  It could have gone either way, but in the end home advantage worked out on the sloping end of the terrain with Gina nailing a curving point to seal the game and match.

Overall score Cranleigh 3 Southsea 2

What was enjoyable was having a nice ‘mix’ on the tables for the after match refreshments when it can easily end up a team at each end.

Handcross beat Worthing, and league positions are now Worthing Simpsons 19, Cranleigh 19, Southsea 18, Handcross 18 with Southsea having played 4 of 5 games away from home. So, still hopeful for Southsea.

On Saturday 9th June Southsea Petanque Club’s terrain hosted the annual region-wide SCPA Adult/Junior competition.  The entry was disappointingly low at 5 teams, however the grapevine suggested the presence of the English Junior singles champion and three others from the English junior A squad had scared off some possible opposition.

Ready to go…

Being low entry the competition was run as a round robin. Unfortunately, the odd number of entrants meant a bye in each round.  Luckily, there were enough Southsea club spectators willing to step in and provide practice opposition so there was no sitting around if it wasn’t wanted.

Mark and Will tackle ‘stones corner’

The way the round robin worked out meant that in the end the two top pairs played each other in the last round giving what was in effect a final.

Jamie takes a shot at David/Liam’s boule..

Congratulations to Jamie Brooks(Jnr) and adult partner Glen Floyd who overcame Liam Floyd(Jnr) and adult partner David Franco Cruz in the last game to win the competition.

Winners- Jamie Brooks (jnr) and Glen Floyd

Liam Floyd (jnr) and David Franco Cruz

Marc Franco Llado (jnr) and Steve Lombard

Sally Sin (jnr) and Tom Wilson

Will Read (jnr) and Mark Duncan

The Southsea ‘Pinks’ battled rush hour traffic to make the 7pm start time at Adur so after an hour and a half it was straight to the loo after a brief hello.

Triples were Col/Rod/Matt and Dawn/Andy/Peter.  The first triple did the business, however a combination of missed points, missed shots and bad luck caused a narrow loss for the other.

So 1-1 after the triples.

Doubles were Col/Maureen, Andy/Peter, and Rod/Matt.  Col/Maureen narrowly lost to 10 whilst Andy/Peter completed a quick win, so we had a cliff-hanger at 2-2 with everything resting on the last match.  Unfortunately Rod/Matt couldn’t overcome the Adur duo.

Final result Adur 3  Southsea 2

So with 2 points we will creep back to top of the table for now by 1 point, but Worthing Simpsons have the opportunity to slip above us, in fact 2 winning whitewashes would see them 4 points clear. Hopefully their postponed match vs Worthing Warriors will be played soon to allow everyone a better view of league table positions .