REGIONAL RANKINGS 2019 Final
Inter-Regional Championship 2019 -
|
Inter regional Challenge Division 1
|
|
Once again, another superb weekend of petanque from all the championship teams and another well-deserved victory for the mighty lions!
Not only did we win the first division title for the third year in a row but also the inaugural award of the Presidents Trophy which is for the region that wins the most games overall in all competitions (Championship, Challenge and Junior teams). For this, many congratulations to our challenge squad who won division 1 and to our superb Junior team. Thus, we won the triple! The weekends weather was predicted to be warm and sunny and it proved to be that with not a cloud in the sky. The Saturday morning started with the normal minutes silence for the players lost during the past year, this time with special significance as the death was announced of Peter Westall from Wales who died in Bulgaria whilst preparing for the European Veterans Championship. Peter was a well know figure on the petanque circuit and will be greatly missed. The competition started with matches against the two promoted sides from last season and wins against Thames Valley (6-2) and Sussex (7-1) set us on our way. In round 3 we faced our friends from East Midlands who gave us a close contest with Chiltern just squeaking it 5-3. We then faced the normally quite strong Northern Region and defeated them 8-0, conceding just 40 points in the round. With all due respect to the opposition in the first four games, the competition in earnest started after lunch on Saturday where we faced our biggest challengers. First of these were our old rivals Kent, perhaps not as strong as their halcyon days of a few years back when they were almost unbeatable, but still a formidable outfit, whom we defeated 6-2. We then came up against Southern Counties who we matched 4 games each with the points difference of 83 to 82 in our favour. The final game on Saturday was against last years runners up, London, and a 6-2 win. We finished the day on 41 wins, 5 ahead of Southern with Kent in third and London forth, a good lead but by no means a winning one. Sunday started with an 8-0 win over Sussex stretching our lead to 8 with only 4 rounds to go! But in round 9 we had another close encounter with East Midlands who held us to a 4-4 draw. East Midlands thus took 7 games of us, more than any other region! With London and Southern recording big wins in the round the lead was reduced back to 5. Two 4-4 draws with London and Kent meant that we just needed 1 win to beat Southern in the last round and a maximum of 3 wins to guarantee a third consecutive victory. No last-minute nerves this time as we won the first 3 games to be decided and eventually run out 7-1 winners in the round to win the competition by 9 clear games. We finished with 69 wins and a massive plus 335 points difference. All 8 of our teams contributed to the result with 3 winning 10 games, 1 winning 9, 2 on 8 and 2 on 7, a real team effort. For the stats geeks amongst you, as a region in all competitions we scored 1815 points in our 156 games, an average of 11.63 points per game! (thanks to Gareth Sullivan for that). I now have to decide who my top team is, perhaps the most difficult decision I have to make every year! Many congratulations to our Challenge team (and their manager Sarah) who won division 1 (and to team 1 who won ‘top team’) and to our great Junior team, expertly managed by Sharon, who won 9 out of their 12 games. All in all, a fantastic weekend for the region! |
Sept 14th to 16th 2019 at Mill Rythe, Hayling Island.
Day 1 Saturday The sun was shining gloriously and no this wasn’t a dream... For the first time I can recall ever the skies were totally blue over Mill Rythe for the start of the Inter regional. The normal early morning address took place and the manager’s went off for their meeting to get those all important sheets. Neil Stephenson then provided 4 Chiltern Coches for our teams ... 1 per team...although 1 team didn’t get 1... and the saga of the missing coche continues.. 😂😂 Our first terrains were those on the bottom part of the car park, all challenging terrains and not an easy one amongst them. Our 1st opposition of the day were a strong line up from the East Midlands , former team mates of mine . Unfortunately although tight games we lost the 1st round 3 -1 with just Adrian ,Myra and Pete keeping us in there. It was time to bring out the sweets....😉😉😉 In all fairness this gave us the wake up call we needed.. Our next opponents were Kernow who also fielded a strong side, we beat them 3 – 1 , with the only loss being to 12., our push for the title had begun. Sussex followed with a 2 all draw also a hard fought round. Then came our friends from Anglia, I opted to play in this game myself having played them numerous times over the years and they had the very experienced and all round nice guy James Kirkbride at the helm another 2 -2 draw. Unfortunately our team went over the lunch time allocated and were informed we were only allowed a 20 min break...having had no breaks throughout the morning and playing in the hot sun with no fatigue breaks factored in I didn’t feel this was acceptable especially as those of you know David could not possibly make it to the toilet and cafe to get food in 20 mins, so went without food other than sweets. Something I feel needs to be looked at in future, in the manager’s meeting we were told allowances will be made for those disabled player’s and yet when it came down to making one nothing was allowed!!! After lunch it was time to face 1 of our biggest rivals that of Kent after 4 very close fought games we came out 3 -1 victors with the lowest points scored against us being 10. Next came the Isle of Wight, this time the team stamped their authority with a 4 -0 victory , I was certain that this 4-0 win had taken us into the lead but as ever PE were giving nothing away , with my own sleuthing I was confident. The final round of the day was against Southern another one of our great rivals we managed a convincing 3 – 1 victory against these. Eventually the day 1 standings were released, there we were sat at the top on equal games won with the East Midlands but ourselves with a much greater points difference. Day 2 Sunday Yet again sunshine, but today on the top car park on the fast terrains. Our 1st opposition of the day were Anglia again , with teams playing above and below their own squad numbers. Close fought games again with Daniel from Anglia proving what a superb shooter he really is shooting the coche 4 times running to save the win eventually getting them a win against Chiltern 3 to 12. We again beat them 3 -1 although this doesn’t show the closeness of the games. Having heard that Kernow had taken East Midlands to a draw this boosted the moral of the team we knew we had to keep going , we had Kernow next who were quite happy with themselves over their last game and so they should be. We beat them again 3 -1. Then came game 10 Southern again, this time they turned the tables on us and beat us 3 -1, I had heard that East Midlands had won theirs so knew they were snapping at our heals. The penultimate game was against Sussex, where there was the 2nd dispute of the tournament, which I’m sure Gareth with let you all know about 😆. We beat them drew 2 – 2 with them. Our final game was against the East Midlands, who had gone ahead of us, the team knew they needed to win this . Nothing short of 4 -0 would suffice, and what a demonstration of skill and perseverance they showed in all 4 games the points scored against us amounted to 11, with Chiltern 3 getting a great fanny. Chiltern 1 also got a fanny in the tournament. Myra, Adrian and Pete got top team of the division with Johnny, Gareth and Giles getting 3rd place overall. We knew we had done enough, although in the end we won by only 2 games. What a squad , each and every one of you gave your all and encouraged others when their heads were down. Thank you to David Griffiths, Alan Griffiths, Andy Stratford firstly for being in my team, Gareth Sullivan Johnny Bowden, Giles Beaumont, Myra Emson Adrian Emson, Pete Taylor, Neil Stevenson , Daventry Esperon and Paul Mepstead for making my job so easy. Thank you for your help and guidance Thank you to Alan and Sheila Roden for keeping us company during meal times and for the advice. Also a big thank you to Tony Blythe for his help and to Mandy Stratford for the help too and also your support. Inter regional Challenge Division 1 Champions for 2019 is Chiltern. .. 3 cheers to you all it was a pleasure to play alongside you all and to be your manager. Congratulations Champions. Chiltern Championship team also won the division 1 for the 3rd year running and the junior’s finished 3rd. Due to this we also collected the 1st ever Presidents Cup for the best overall region. A full list of standings was posted on the Chiltern Facebook page yesterday by myself alternatively go to the Petanque England Website. Here’s to 2020. |
REGIONAL QUALIFIERS 2019
2018 FINAL RANKING POINTS
| final_ranking_points_petanque_1.10.18.pdf |
Inter-Regional Championship 2018 - Chiltern Managers Report
In another fantastic performance from the team, Chiltern successfully defended their first division title despite have three of our players representing England in the world championships.
With no disrespect intended, the first few rounds on the Saturday are against some of the weaker teams in the division and it was essential that we got away to a good start. This we did with a first round win by 6 to 2 against newly promoted Anglia region. The second round was against our friends from East Midlands that resulted in a 7 – 1 win and the third round saw another 7 – 1 win, this time against Isle of Wight. The morning was completed with round four when we met a strong Northern team whom we defeated by 6 to 2.
Prior to the start of the tournament it was generally thought that the winners would come from Southern, Kent, London or Chiltern and the first round after lunch saw us square up to Southern region. They were clearly up for the challenge and we suffered our first round defeat by 3 games to 5.
London region were proving that last years strong challenge was no flash in the pan and we shared round six 4 – 4.
The final round of the day matched us up against our traditional rivals, Kent which resulted in a 5 – 3 win.
So, Saturday night saw us in a narrow lead on 38 wins with London second with 36 and Southern just 4 behind them.
The Sunday draw is dependent on the finishing position on the Saturday night and so it was vital that we got as many wins as possible from the first two rounds before we met our main rivals. I set a target of 13 wins from the first two rounds and the team duly obliged with 7 – 1 and 6 – 2 wins against East Midlands and Northern respectively.
After nine rounds we had a slender one game lead over London but the wheels fell off in round 10 as we suffered our second round defeat of the weekend, going down 2 – 6 to Kent. It could have been much worse as we lost the first 6 matches to finish and trailed in the other two but teams 3 and 7 dug in and managed to squeak home by 13 – 11 and 13 – 12 respectively in what proved to be vital wins for the region. We had some relief when we learned that London had gone down 3 – 5 to Southern which kept our hopes alive.
Going into Sunday afternoon we were tied with London on 53 wins (but ahead on points difference) with Southern just behind with 50 wins.
The penultimate round saw us avenge our defeat by Southern on Saturday with a fantastic display from the team and a 6 – 2 win. At the same time London were going down 3 – 5 to a resurgent Kent team.
As last year, only London stood in our way. Last year we needed 5 wins and this year only 3 but we lost the first 2 games to finish and were trailing in 3 others to set the nerves jangling before eventually winning 5 – 3.
So, in the end we had, which was on the face of it, a clear victory over London by 64 wins to 59 but it was by no means as comfortable as that!
Our team 6 (Paolo, Rob and Jean-Dennis) finished as second top team in the division with ten wins and we had two other teams with nine wins, team 2 (Phil, Matt, Jonathan and Les) and team 5 (Adrian, Myra and Peter).
The celebrations during the presentation ceremony and afterwards were boosted by Emma and Matthew announcing their engagement and a great time was had by all.
Could I express my congratulations to the Challenge team who finished runners up on points difference to winners Southern, to the teams in the Combined squad who finished runners up in division 2 and not forgetting the Junior team who just missed out on joint second place by 1 game.
Also, many congratulations to Sarah for becoming the national Shooting Champion.
It was, once again, a privilege to be involved with such a great group of players and it is now my almost impossible task to pick my team of the tournament.
I wonder where I should pitch my bribe level at this year?
Alan Roden
With no disrespect intended, the first few rounds on the Saturday are against some of the weaker teams in the division and it was essential that we got away to a good start. This we did with a first round win by 6 to 2 against newly promoted Anglia region. The second round was against our friends from East Midlands that resulted in a 7 – 1 win and the third round saw another 7 – 1 win, this time against Isle of Wight. The morning was completed with round four when we met a strong Northern team whom we defeated by 6 to 2.
Prior to the start of the tournament it was generally thought that the winners would come from Southern, Kent, London or Chiltern and the first round after lunch saw us square up to Southern region. They were clearly up for the challenge and we suffered our first round defeat by 3 games to 5.
London region were proving that last years strong challenge was no flash in the pan and we shared round six 4 – 4.
The final round of the day matched us up against our traditional rivals, Kent which resulted in a 5 – 3 win.
So, Saturday night saw us in a narrow lead on 38 wins with London second with 36 and Southern just 4 behind them.
The Sunday draw is dependent on the finishing position on the Saturday night and so it was vital that we got as many wins as possible from the first two rounds before we met our main rivals. I set a target of 13 wins from the first two rounds and the team duly obliged with 7 – 1 and 6 – 2 wins against East Midlands and Northern respectively.
After nine rounds we had a slender one game lead over London but the wheels fell off in round 10 as we suffered our second round defeat of the weekend, going down 2 – 6 to Kent. It could have been much worse as we lost the first 6 matches to finish and trailed in the other two but teams 3 and 7 dug in and managed to squeak home by 13 – 11 and 13 – 12 respectively in what proved to be vital wins for the region. We had some relief when we learned that London had gone down 3 – 5 to Southern which kept our hopes alive.
Going into Sunday afternoon we were tied with London on 53 wins (but ahead on points difference) with Southern just behind with 50 wins.
The penultimate round saw us avenge our defeat by Southern on Saturday with a fantastic display from the team and a 6 – 2 win. At the same time London were going down 3 – 5 to a resurgent Kent team.
As last year, only London stood in our way. Last year we needed 5 wins and this year only 3 but we lost the first 2 games to finish and were trailing in 3 others to set the nerves jangling before eventually winning 5 – 3.
So, in the end we had, which was on the face of it, a clear victory over London by 64 wins to 59 but it was by no means as comfortable as that!
Our team 6 (Paolo, Rob and Jean-Dennis) finished as second top team in the division with ten wins and we had two other teams with nine wins, team 2 (Phil, Matt, Jonathan and Les) and team 5 (Adrian, Myra and Peter).
The celebrations during the presentation ceremony and afterwards were boosted by Emma and Matthew announcing their engagement and a great time was had by all.
Could I express my congratulations to the Challenge team who finished runners up on points difference to winners Southern, to the teams in the Combined squad who finished runners up in division 2 and not forgetting the Junior team who just missed out on joint second place by 1 game.
Also, many congratulations to Sarah for becoming the national Shooting Champion.
It was, once again, a privilege to be involved with such a great group of players and it is now my almost impossible task to pick my team of the tournament.
I wonder where I should pitch my bribe level at this year?
Alan Roden
Regional GP Results
Ranking Points for 2018
Following feedback from members, changes have been made to the ranking points for the regional qualifiers. They will now more closely represent points achieved in other regional and league competitions. The points allocated will be as follows:
1 - 50 points
2 - 45
3 - 40
4 - 35
5 - 30
6 - 25
7 - 20
8 - 15
9 - 10
10 - 9
11 - 8
12 - 7
13 - 6
14 - 5
15 - 4
16 - 3
17 - 2
18 - 1
1 - 50 points
2 - 45
3 - 40
4 - 35
5 - 30
6 - 25
7 - 20
8 - 15
9 - 10
10 - 9
11 - 8
12 - 7
13 - 6
14 - 5
15 - 4
16 - 3
17 - 2
18 - 1
