Saturday 15.6.24 – The London, the biggest petanque tournament on Britain.
There were certainly a plethora of entries from throughout the World and our own fair land. A showcase for our sport with four World Champions, a host of national team players, many of the very top players in England and in amongst it all we had three juniors teams – pow wow.
Starting with the girls, they had some tough matches but performed fantastically.
Tegan, Amy and Aimee opened their program playing Sarah Huntley, Vince Wills, and Jack Blows, did I say tough?
Perhaps super tough would be better. Our girls went down to three but did not look out of place in this exulted company. They lost the next to ten and then as they dodged the thunder storms and rain they found their winning ways.
A marathon against Charles, Remi and Adbul brought their first victory, 13-11. They then faced Alex Spillet, Steve Slade and Matt Warren, formidable, but with a great display of pointing and shooting the juniors pulled off a notable win, 13-7. It was good to see Alex S encouraging and advising the juniors on their overall play. Their final match was against a Guernsey team who beat them 6-13.
The two boy Alex’s and Matthew faced the Mauritius National Ladies team, Joelle, Devina and Sita and things looked good at 12-7 but suddenly the Ladies found their shooting length, a spot carreau and a couple of good hits at important moments, saw them claw their way back to win 12-13. Next came the Geddes team, John, Malcolm and interloper Ewan. Experienced and highly competent but the lads had their measure and really did not let them get started cruising to a 13-4 victory. Another victory followed taking out Bill and his London mates conceding just seven points and garnering loads of praise. Great progress. Finally they took on Nick Baxter and his shooting cohorts, more lessons learnt, the boys went down to five, they did Ok but as one of the lads said to me, ‘they were just better than us’ – there’s the challenge! Make sure next year they are not.
Our other boy’s team had an opening session of two halves. First game against some plucky locals who did not play that well. Our boys did and won 13-1. Next they faced a team of multiple German
Champions and this time we were the plucky losers, the lads put up a good display but went down 1-13. The joy of this event, first near beginners then national champs, one of the German’s achieved
third in the world shooting championships and still had those skills. Game three and they faced Carolyn Innocent and her team from Ongar. A team effort, Connor pointing beautifully, Alex shooting consistently and accurately, Ethan doing a bit of both, they won 13-1. Final game of the day against Chris Garrett, Jason Bradley and Dan, a good tussle but the more experienced team shaded it winning 13-8. Overall a great display from the lads who played well as a
team and showed off their considerable technical skills.
The weather played a part. Windy, frequent heavy showers, infrequent sunshine, do better next year London. The playing surface was demanding and challenging just what the juniors needed to make them think and adjust to what was in front of them. The one constant all day was praise for the technical skills, attitude and team work of our young players. Be proud Petanque England! Have just had the benefit of a chat with Monty Quaia who organized The London. He told me how during the day he was frequently approached by competitors who had either played the juniors or seen them playing, positive comments, their skills, the manner in which they conducted themselves,
their courtesy on the piste – Be Proud Petanque England, be proud.
On day two, Sunday, 16.6.24 were the doubles. We had no official teams entered but Alex and Matthew entered independently and again did well. In their first game they met a Swiss team that had been eliminated in the gold semi-finals of 2023. This year they went out to our juniors 13-9, great start. The next encounter was tough, a couple of guys from Brighton who had that magical combination of a pointer who could point and a shooter who shot – consistently and accurately. The boys scored eight and put up a good fight and we hope they learnt a lot. Next was pair from Essex. The lads had clearly learnt from the previous game and put on a great show winning to three. They were eliminated from the Silver by Hertfordshire’s best (?), nothing spectacular but consistently accurate, another lesson for the boys who lost to five.
Alex M also entered the doubles teamed with Christopher Leveau one of our visiting Frenchmen. They got through to the Silver Semi final where they lost to Jonathan Labure and Poire who went onto win the Silver.
Thankyou London and Monty for a great weekend. We, Petanque England Juniors and indeed Petanque England itself are proud to be associated with you.
Remember to keep up with all that is going on with the juniors follow us on Facebook: @PEJuniors and for all upcoming events checkout the juniors webpage here: Juniors (petanque-england.uk)