Did you know that the International Women’s Day (IWD) movement is celebrating its 115th birthday this year?
For over a century, IWD, celebrated annually on March 8th, has provided an important opportunity for groups worldwide advocating for gender equality.
Our very own Hassi Leverett was one of the prime movers in developing the first petanque event to mark IWD, with the first Southern event held at Fareham in 2018, attracting 23 ladies’ doubles teams.
The event has grown nationally with many regions holding their own events, culminating in a Champion of Champions (CoC) event later in the year at Whitnash, plus a national IWD triples event held the same weekend.
This year’s Southern event was hosted on 8 March by Clymping PC and again attracted 23 teams, with many of the region’s clubs represented, including a good number of ‘home’ teams. Despite the weather being a little colder than we’d all hoped, our spirits weren’t dampened at all.
With playing experience varying from very experienced players to players’ dipping their toes’ in competition outside their club, there were lots of very tight games.
A special mention must go to Jean and Julie, with a combined age of 170, for whom it was their first competition outside of club events. And they played a blinder, unbeaten until the gold semifinals and qualifying in the top four to represent the Southern later this year.
Reigning champions Angela Brooks and Kerry Thompson pulled off an amazing feat by winning the trophy for the fourth year in succession! They played consistently well all day, although for a little while it looked as if they might be in a spot of bother in the gold QF against Carrie and Carolyn, who took a strong lead, but a loose end was punished and the defending champions forged their way into the final, where they overcame Julie and Janet, who had beaten Claire and Aimee in the gold semis.
Many congratulations to the top four pairs who now go on to represent Southern at the CoC event at Whitnash in June and to all the other prize winners.
This event demonstrates once again that any team can be beaten on the day, whether experienced or not, and there is everything to play for. We hope that we will attract even more ladies next year to have a go.
And for all the gents who might be thinking, ‘what about us?’, we will be holding another International Men’s Day event in November at Fareham. The brainchild of Dave Kilshaw, last year’s inaugural IMD event proved a great success and also raised money for Prostate Cancer.
Many thanks to Keith and Clymping PC, Hassi, Mark, Will and Hilary for their organisation and support and to everyone who took part or came along as cheerleaders. The whole day was played in a really supportive, friendly but competitive spirit and was great fun!
