The only unbeaten team, Southern 1, opened Day two with a defeat at the hands of Mercia; some might say the coaching of the young Mercia players for their White Awards played a part? I say nothing. The Southerners bounced back beating Chiltern and Kent to end the day with just one defeat and to take the Championship.
Mercia continued their great form ending day two unbeaten to take second place.
Heart of England finished strongly to end with 4 wins and take third place just ahead of Chiltern on point’s difference. Kent suffered an injury to Tegan overnight which impacted their performance, they were disappointed to finish with 3 wins in 5th place.
The final three teams Southern 2, Combined and Central all finished with a creditable two wins all of them taking at least one impressive scalp.
On behalf of the Juniors may I thank Christine, Syri, Alison, Claire, Dave, Jamie, Ian & Keith for the superb job you all did at the weekend. I know from experience it can be more tiring watching and managing than actually playing. You play every shot that every member of your team throws, you feel the elation when it is a good one and the disappointment when it is poor. Then you have to lift them when they are down, keep their feet on the ground when they are bouncing, feed them when they are hungry and so on.
THANK YOU
We finished the day with another challenge between the Girls and Boys Euro’s teams, a good workout for them, some doubles matches and more PE Skills White Awards passed by:
Megan and Alfie (Central)
Oscar (Southern)
Alfie and Ruby (Chiltern)
Alex D-S (GWR)
Theo and Reuben (Eastern)
Highlights of the weekend from Chris Chubb:
- The improvement In Megan’s play for Central, just ten-years-old and standing at 4ft something her pointing is now consistently accurate and played a big part in her teams winning matches. On day two team-mate Alfie also got his act together.
- The determination and skills of 11-year-old Ruby (Chiltern) playing for the combined team. Her focus was razor sharp and she laid the foundation for her team’s win over her own region.
- The 14m (it was certainly well over 10m) spot carreau from Alex R (Southern) prompting the opposition’s manager Syri to exclaim, ‘Aww mate, that must be the shot of the weekend’.
- The potential all over the place; Ruby (Chiltern) Alex D-S (GWR) & Theo (Eastern) in the Combined, Alfie, Hugo and Aaron (Chiltern), Oscar and Axel (Southern), Lisa, Quinn & Xander (Mercia),
- The friendship and togetherness of the juniors as a group, competing, supporting, consoling, laughing and having fun – great too see.
To find out more about the PE Skills awards sponsored by Samueljacks the details can be found here: Petanque England Skills Award (petanque-england.uk)
if you have any juniors doing their skills award in your club please let us know as we want to celebrate with them. Send all stories and any photos to Chris Chubb at juniors@petanque-england.uk
For those keen to stay updated on junior petanque activities, be sure to follow @PEJuniors on Facebook. Additionally, for information on upcoming events, visit the juniors webpage at Juniors (petanque-england.uk).