Cobbetts Boules Club have been running a Winter Indoor League for the last 7 years now and this year saw the largest ever entry of 18 teams battling it out once a month at Quob Equestrian Centre. It was fantastic to see over 100 pétanque players playing in the indoor arena on the very challenging surface. We are so grateful to Quob for allowing us to play and providing bar facilities throughout the evening.
The competition was run one night a month from November to March with the first three matches being leagues and then seeded into the knockout stage. There were four knockout competitions this year: Gold, Silver, Bronze and Wooden Spoon. Each month there were prizes for the three best scoring pairs of the evening as shown on the attached table. The best pairs result was in February with an amazing score of 3 wins, +34 from Lee Redfern & Pete Tomlin. Lee also managed 3 wins, +33 in November, playing with Steve Brickell.
Having seen many highly competitive matches played over the winter there was a great deal of anticipation as the finals in March approached. Unfortunately, the Beast from the East had other ideas and the snow made it too dangerous to ask people to travel. Quob Stables kindly offered us another date two weeks later which we were glad to accept enabling the competition to reach its climax. The downside was that one of the teams in the final was unable to raise a team for the rearranged night. After much debate is was agreed to move the final to about 10 days later to be played at Cobbetts Boules Club.
On finals night at the stables there were a number of tight games fought in really good spirits. This really seems to be ‘the friendly games’; players just seem to welcome the opportunity to keep playing through the winter months without getting wet. It proved not to be Shedfield’s night; represented in Silver & Bronze finals but not going home with the silverware.
Results
- Silver Final: Southsea beat Shedfield A 7 – 2
- Bronze Final: Fareham Oaks beat Shedfield B 6 -3
- Wooden Spoon Winners: Cobb@Quob
- Best Pairs: Alison Choulerton & Keith Barber (Portchester Panthers), 3 wins +27
Full results can be found here: Indoor-League-2017-18-Final-Placings.pdf
Gold Final
The Gold Final was played at Burridge between Cobbetts Leftovers and Salmon Leap on Tuesday 27 March. To try to negate some of the home advantage, Salmon Leap were given the opportunity to choose the competition pistes from the range of surfaces available. This was the first time that Salmon Leap have played in the Indoor League, in fact none of the players had played at any of the Southern Regions clubs before.
The match got off to a good start with Leftovers going into the lead 2-1 in the first round. In the second round Salmon Leap found the form they had been displaying earlier in the competition to claw it back to 3-3. The last round was hard-fought however finished up with Leftovers winning all three games to take the trophy 6-3. The players then went into the clubhouse for the presentation and some well-earned supper and sustenance from the bar.
Cobbetts would like to thank everyone who took part for doing so in such great spirit. We look forward to seeing you all (& more?) when we start it all again in November.
There are photos of all the winners on our website cobbettsboules.org.uk and if you want a copy, please contact me or Dave Stubbs.
Mike Porter
