St Neots & District Petanque League

The first match in the new winter league played this afternoon at the Barley Mow. A rather convincing win by Anchors Astray over Pheads, who were unfortunately missing their captain. Not a drop of snow in sight!

Congratulations to Phil Sargeant and Ray Curtin from the Barley Mow who won the Doubles Knockout Competition, beating Val Sellick and Matt Smith (the Anchor) in the final last night. Phil Sargeant then went on to win the Captains Cup, defeating Dave Sellick (the Anchor) in the final.
Well done to everyone who participated in this years' competitions, they have been good fun with a lot of high class play. Many thanks to the Anchor pub for hosting the last of the finals and the presentation evening and providing a very nice buffet.

Congratulations to Matt Warren (North Anchor) who beat Toni Scrivener (Anchor) to win a very competitive singles knockout competition last night.
The triples competition saw some very tight games with Mark, Tim and Alex (North Anchor) eventually overcoming the Crown trio of Phil, Peter and Neil.
It was a very enjoyable evening of petanque. Many thanks to the Barley Mow for hosting the event and laying on a very nice buffet. The final of the doubles competition along with the Captains Cup will be played next Wednesday at the Anchor. This will be followed by the presentation of trophies to this year's league and competition winners.

Christine Parry recently contacted us on Facebook to say they were holidaying in the area and would like to watch a Pétanque match each week whilst they were away. We gladly pointed her to the web site to choose a suitable fixture to spectate and, not being local, advised her to go to the Information page to get the venue location details.
This is what Christine said after their visit:

“Just a note to say that as visitors to your page. This is a great site, very informative with details of venues and match fixtures. Last evening was brilliant. North Anchor vs Crown at The Bell. Great venue and great play. My photos came out much better than expected so I’ll post them here (Facebook) in case anyone would like to save a copy. Thank you for making us feel welcome.”
Christine, we look forward to seeing you again in the future.

Mark Underwood (captain of the North Anchor) asked us to publicise a pétanque event taking place at his local pub, the Addison Arms in the village of Glatton just off the A1 between Sawtry and Stilton.
They are holding a melee doubles tournament in September which is open to everyone. The melee format is a double competition where everyone gets a new random partner drawn each game. If any team members are interested in taking part, see the flyer image for details and how to register.

Well done to everyone who played in the triples competition last night. Despite the appalling conditions there were some really good, tight games. Unfortunately though, the weather got the better of us and it was decided to call a halt before the competition could be completed. As a result, 4 rather than 2 teams will go through to finals night on 27th September:
Anchor - Toni, Dave & Cliff
Bell - Sam, Ian & Mack
Crown - Peter, Neil & Phil
North Anchor - Tim, Alex & Mark
This means that some changes will be made to the fixture list with the Captains Cup and Presentation Night being put back a week to the 4th October (venue tbc).

This year we are encouraging individuals to participate in our league who want to try out pétanque for the first time, play socially on a regular basis or consider joining a competitive team. Players may be experienced, absolute beginners or have simply had fun with boules on the beach. This group of players will be known as the ‘Newcomers’, will be managed by Steve Holton and play in new ‘Mixed Friendlies’ games. People can join anytime before or during the season.
An odd number of league teams this season means each has three BYE weeks with no competitive fixture. The ‘Mixed Friendlies’ fixture replaces those BYE weeks giving team players an opportunity to still throw some boules in a relaxed knockabout with the Newcomers.
In future seasons, it is hoped that we can form new experienced teams from this pool of Newcomers and thus grow the league beyond our current five teams.

Five teams will each play 12 matches over three legs in the league competition: at home, away and at a neutral venue. There are also the usual knockout competitions plus a new fixture called ‘Mixed Friendlies’ when teams that would normally have a BYE are pooled with league newcomers to play mixed friendly games.
Newcomers are individuals who want to give Pétanque a try, play on a regular basis but maybe not in a competitive team or would like to join a team in the future. We’ll explain more in a separate news post.
Visit Fixtures Page
Good luck to all teams and players!

A few weeks ago we tried to give Facebook users visiting our league page the ability to create their own posts. Unfortunately that didn't work out as expected so, to achieve our goal of creating a vibrant and engaged online community around our Petanque league, we have now created a Facebook group. Ultimately the group will become our new permanent home on Facebook so please visit and join the group to keep up to date with everything going on in, and around, our league.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/st.neots.petanque

With the new season starting in April, now is a good time to enquire about joining one of our league teams or even starting one of your own. Whether you are someone who has played in a league before or someone who has only played on holiday but would like to progress into a more competitive but friendly format, feel free to contact us to find out what is available.
Although we lost some pistes during the pandemic, at least three of the current venues are happy to host two teams each on a Wednesday evening which means that we have the capacity to get back to the sort of numbers we had prior to lock down.
If you want to find out more, contact us at sndpetanque@gmail.com or come to the AGM on Wednesday 22nd February 7.30pm at
The Anchor in Little Paxton.

We want to create a more vibrant online community around our Petanque league. So, instead of limiting you to just commenting on Facebook posts created by the committee, players and friends are now invited to contribute to our page by writing your own posts. It might be team or player news, things that happen on match nights, a question about our league or an interesting Petanque related story. Whatever it is, get out your phone, take a photo or video and write a few words.
We look forward to your contributions but please, no third party adverts!

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