The weather was beautiful. And then it hail stoned. And then there was sunshine. And then it rained and was sunny and rained again… and that was all before we started the matches! The changeable weather meant several outfit changes for our players and the mixed bag of overhead conditions was perhaps a metaphor for the results down below…
The Triples
With a match day group of 8 to choose from (and a couple of other great players not playing today) it shows how strong we are on numbers especially with some other clubs struggling to raise teams! Today Kath, Clive and Myself renewed a familiar treble while Ian, Alan and Tony made up the other trio.
Our match, against a strong Wetherby side of Alan Swift, Alec and Sue got us off to a great start…
We opened with a 3 and when Wetherby replied with a slightly fortuitous 2 in the next, despite some good boules from us, it looked like it might be the close game you might expect on paper. But it wasn’t and we managed to get the match won 13-2 in just 6 ends!
I put them under a ton of pressure with some really strong first boules and Kath pointed fantastically well in the middle.
Clive hit everything he needed to (bar one end) and even moved a couple of coches for us in the process. Even in the end where he missed his shots I managed to then come in and tap their shot boule back and rest on it to turn the end and Kath then added a second to take the lead to 8-2.
We only threw 12 boules each and all but 3 went exactly where we wanted them to. I don’t always blow my own trumpet but we would have taken some beating by anyone today!
A great win over a strong team and we enjoyed our cuppas whilst watching the other much closer match…
The boys on the other track didn’t start so well. They found themselves down early in the match, 9-4 quickly becoming 12-4 and the writing looked like it was on the wall.
It seemed this now or never situation brought the best out of them though and they found some momentum and rallied well. On separate occasions Tony and Alan both had last couple of boules with big shots to keep the game alive, which they did.
At 12-8 our boys engineered a good situation to get 3 which could have even been more but for a half ball roll and an unfavourable measure but they got it back to 12-11 and a victory looked likely again.
Alas, they fell at the final comeback fence with the Wetherby team, led by Jo who played well throughout, pointing in and even when we cleared it out they found a shot which ran through the head and nudged out our shot boule for a 13-11 Wetherby win.
A good comeback which helps for the points difference so well done for battling back!
The Doubles
The doubles matches saw some changes in personnel with Roger and Anita coming in and Kath and myself dropping out to enjoy more hot drinks and gloating (that was mainly me!)
Roger coming in to partner Clive but unfortunately Alan and Sue from Wetherby found some form which we starved them of in the triples and the won the match 13-4. Our boys tried and put in some good stuff but they were beaten on the day by a strong pair.
Anita also came into the line up, teaming up with Alan and defending what I think is an unbeaten record for that pair in the league. They did so with relative ease and ran out 13-5 winners, Anita pointing especially well and Alan backing up with more pointing than shooting, which always signals your pointer has been doing the business. Well done you two!
So down to the final game and it was close all the way through the early stages. A single point scored in each of the first half dozen ends before out boys, Tony and Ian managed to find an 8-6 lead before losing one for 8-7.
Then in an end that probably proved pivotal Ian worked a good situation, with a some help from the opposition of lying two with 3 boules in hand. Unfortunately Tony planted one of their front boules into a scoring position with his first boule and an opportunity for 10-7 or even more quickly became 8-8.
That did seem to bring on further bad luck and our pair went down 13-8!
A couple of chances we perhaps let go which resulted in a 2-3 defeat but an overall points difference win shows how close it was.
That sets the league up for a good finish. We are top but there to be shot at with the teams who have games in hand. Let’s see what happens in the game next week, another tough match away at Leeds!
Heckmondwike Petanque Club 