Muscliff Park Petanque Club

Two of our Juniors had a busy weekend.
Matthew and Aimee started on Friday at the Battle Abbey Doubles. Matthew got to the Gold with George but then exited; not sure about Aimee but will update when information available.
Then off to Kent for their Big Bang Weekend; It was a similar situation for Matthew with George. Made it to the Gold but there it finished.
Sunday saw the Kent Triples. Aimee joined members of the PE Junior Squad, they found themselves in the Silver and battled through to the final where they went down to a hugely experienced three from London and Brighton.
Matthew teamed up with Jayden and George, all in the PE Junior Squad. They won two matches in the morning and then fell to the eventual winners and England Internationals Jason White, Kai Sheffield and Rolly. That took them into the Gold where in their first match they faced Steve Daykin, David Plumhoff and Matt amongst the favourites for the title.
It looked like the tie would go with form and reputation as the seniors swept to a 12-0 lead but then relaxed. The boys came back taking single points from the next four ends, this lifted their confidence and they played superbly coming back to 11-12 and then taking the two points required to win.
Moral of the story, The game is not over ‘till you score 13 - and - never give up, whatever the score you can recover.
Next round the lads faced another top player in Ameen Miah and his team, they continued their good form to win it to seven.
In the final, again they faced the International combo of Jason, Kai and Rolly, the result was as in the morning session the Internationals stormed to victory leaving the boys with the runners up prize.
So, Aimee runner up in the Silver and Matthew in the Gold, this in a top competition attracting the best players in the land. A great result from two fantastic young players.

2026 ANNUAL MELEE

Hi folks

The 2026 Annual Melee will be held at the terrain on Saturday 12 September, commencing at 10.00. RegistrationMUST take place by 0945.

Entries to Boyd at [email protected].

Closing date Thursday 10th September.

Thank you

Boyd

The Maniacs are in the groove.
Last evening they took on the Seahorses who had beaten them twice in the league, this time in the Plate semi final at Muscliff.
As so often is the case the triples ended up 1-1. Skipper Claire, Keith and David were hospitable to our visitors letting them win to 8; the Juniors, Aimee Matthew and the ever young Paula levelled things up with a 13-4 victory.
The doubles. Claire was in ‘revenge’ mode; she and Jim won in no time conceding a single point; they were followed by Matthew and Paula who won by the same score; Aimee and Chris allowed their opponents a bit more time on the piste but after a struggle came home to 10.
A good 4-1 win on the night, now have to finish the job in the second leg.
An interesting statistic. Paula and Matthew have played together five times this season, they lost once, in the other four games they conceded just three points! A match made in heaven.

Highlight of the match: Aimee having shot and missed twice took out our opponents boule with her third to win the doubles, cool heads win matches.

MONARCHS V LOBSTERS

The Monarchs played their postponed and last match of the season against Lobsters at home. A win would take us from 4th to 2nd position in Div 2.

In the Triples, Ian, Carron and Brian M won their match 13 - 6. It took 90 minutes for Geoff, Jennie and Ray to win theirs, 13 - 8. In the Doubles, Ian and Carron again took the first win 13 - 3 giving us the match. Jennie and Geoff then won theirs 13 - 2 followed by Brian M and Ray winning 13 - 5. So a good 5 - 0 win with a + 41 points, which takes us into a plus points difference.

Geoff kept us 'entertained' - fortune certainly rewarded the brave. Three risky shots delivered incredible results with a 3 in our triples and a 3 & 4 in our doubles! I am still recovering and fortunately don't have heart problems!

Jennie

Winners of the Brunel Challenge weekend competition run by Petanque Events.
Teams of 4 play doubles, triples and a single in each Round, my team was Timothy Jervis (Captain), Jason Clough, Mike Mathias and Stuart Brown.

Don’t they make you PROUD!!
Eight Muscliffites travelled to Parley last night to contest the New Forest Petanque League shooting competition and guess who took the first three places? You got it - our juniors!
In the first phase Matthew scored 10; Alex 9; and Aimee 8. A good start.
In the second phase Alex came into his own culminating in taking 10 points shooting the jack. That gave the young man a total score of 30 points - a record for this competition, fantastical.
Matthew started well in phase two but could not finish off, he ended up with 19, and Aimee was just behind with 17, good scores from both. In 2024 Alex was runner up in this event, taking the top spot is so much sweeter.
What about the rest of us, Stuart got 10; Claire - 6, she won last year with 24! Trevor scored 6, and two of us did not trouble the scorer.
We were pleased to see David S, Lawrence, Vic and Marion, and Steve supporting. Anita was there score keeping, thanks to you all.
Thankyou also to Parley and in particular John Nurser for organising and running the event.
PS - The boys also had their GCSE results earlier in the day, suffice to say they are both happy - well done.

Stuart Brown was runners up in the Gold Petanque England National Veterans Mixed Doubles at Mansfield playing with Jill Butt losing 13-11 against Kath Brooks and Stone Williams.

The following day Stuart, Jill Butt and Roy Clark were runners up in the Silver Veterans Triples National Championships at Mansfield.

RAIDERS V OXSHOTT

After a disappointing 4-1 loss last Monday to fellow Club Team Musketeers. On Saturday Raiders traveled to Porchester for their back to back match against Oxshott.

In the morning session Raiders were the home team and after the triples everything was even. Keith, Simon and Paula winning 13-7 against Peter, Thomas and Celia. Jim, Margaret and Sean losing 8-13 to Ann, John and Ash.

Now for the doubles with everything to play for. However things didn't quite go as planned. Simon and Marilyn were the first to go, losing 0-13 to John and Ash, they were soon followed by Keith and Jim losing 4-13 to Peter and Ann. Sean and Paula battled on against Thomas and Simon but eventually lost 9-13. So a 4-1 win to Oxshott.

The afternoon session started with Raiders as the away team and determined for revenge. In the triples the first to succeed were Sean, Margaret and Jim beating Ann, Ash and John 13-2. Simon, Paula and Keith took a little bit longer but eventually beat Celia, Peter and Thomas 13-9.

Two up to Raiders, now for the doubles.

Keith and Simon were very quickly beaten by John and Ash losing 2-13. That left the two remaining doubles to save the day. Sean and Paula are the next to finish beating Thomas and Simon 13-8. That left Jim and Margaret going point for point against Celia and Peter reaching 8 all, but our duo gradually crept ahead winning 13.8.

Match over 4-1 to Raiders.

A very enjoyable day against strong opponents and all the games were played in the true spirit of Petanque.

Keith

WIZARDS V SEALIONS

First of all congratulations to MANIACS, well done.

We fought our way through the traffic jams to play at New Milton last night.

After the trebles all square, J P and Roger lost their doubles to some incredible pointing from Celia, 2-1 to Sealions.

The two Steve’s pulled it back to 2-2.

Only the ever reliable Gilles and Derrick to go. They went into a 8-3 lead, we thought we were on the way to a win in our last game of the season! Unfortunately you have to get to 13, and our couple were overhauled to go down 13-10. Sealions used all their local knowledge of that most difficult terrain in the right hand corner.

So close, but we went down yet again 3-2!!

Only blight on the night was poor Jean Read, coming to support with Keith. She slipped in the car park, and instead of watching the Wizards she spent the evening watching the clock in A & E in Bournemouth, sadly a broken wrist, get mended soon Jean,
Steve W

MAGIC V MANIACS

The evening was hot for more than one reason - the weather and whether Maniacs could secure the NFPL Division 1 title.

The triples finished all square. Trevor, Debs and Sean going down 8-13 to Matthew, Alex and David. Carole, Stuart and Neil winning 13-10 against Aimee, Claire and Chris.

All to play for.

The doubles were hard fought Trevor and Debs fought hard against Jim and Claire, Maniacs winning 3-13. Carole and Neil took an early lead against Alex and Keith who came back strongly to win 12-13. Sean and Stuart battled against Matthew and Aimee and went down 11-13, the score reflecting the standard of play from both sides.

The scores show how close this match was.

A close eye was kept on the adjacent terrain where Marauders were playing Falcons. The result of this would determine the outcome of the fight for top spot in Division 1.

Maniacs win and Marauders 4-1 loss secured the title for Maniacs - what an excellent achievement!

Well done Maniacs!

So the league season draws to a close. It’s now on to the Cup Semifinals. Magic face Falcons in two weeks time. Maniacs face Seahorses in their semifinal. Will we get a repeat of last night’s match in the Final?

Neil Ryder