Celebrating International Women’s Day – Southern Counties Petanque

This year’s Regional IWD competition was held at Worthing PC on possibly one of the hottest days in July as 30 ladies gathered from clubs across the region. The day was rescheduled due to lockdown rules earlier in the year and it was great to see a number of teams who return every year to support this popular event along with several new players who were welcomed into the fold.

Format for the day was leagues and knockout and unfortunately there was an unavoidable bye as a team had to withdraw the day before due to illness. Eight teams secured their positions in the Gold with the remaining 6 in the Silver (the heat proved too much for one team who left at lunchtime). Semi-finals saw hard fought battles with the Portchester duo Wendy Hall & Trudy Bishop defeating the formidable team of Daena Vincent & Sue McAleese from Fareham and Angela Brookes & Kath Knight beating Frankie Bennett & Maureen Lee.

The Gold final brought some home advantage to local Worthing lass Angela and partner Kath as they proved a strong team and beat Wendy & Trudy who put up a pretty good fight.

The hard fought battles also continued in the Silver Final which was the last game to finish (around 7pm) and saw Jackie Corp & Diane Slater beat Hassi Leverett & Janet Dalton.

Thank you to Hilary for running another well organised competition and always smiling despite the heat and a very very long day!

Thanks to Bob Ainsworth, Martin Gordon and the team at Worthing PC for preparing the terrains and their hospitality throughout the day and to Dennis Slark for taking photos. It was also great to have a number of spectators there, cheering and supporting the ladies and helping out with the occasional measure!

Till our next IWD in 2022 … sayonara