Half Crown Petanque Club

Highlights of AGM held on 21st January 2012

The new committee for 2012 is:
- Chairman - John Emberton
- Secretary - Richard Powell
- Treasurer - Vacant
- Club Captain - Jerome Rousseau
- Coach - Dave Hancox
- Public Relations Officer - Caroline Powell
- Ex-officio Members - Bill Bentley, Geraldine Gardiner.
Other appointments were:
- Auditor - Garth Fletcher
- Webmaster - John Emberton

Club Member of the year
Dave Hancox was awarded the accolade of Club Member of the Year in recognition of his work in developing the club-house and patio facilities. In addition, Dave spent his spare time whilst recovering from his hernia operation trimming the trees and hedges, and he has also been doing regular coaching for those few members prepared to turn out on Tuesday evenings.

Club Champion
Jerome Rousseau was awarded the accolade of Club Champion. Jerome is WMPA pairs, singles and shooting champion, he made a valuable contribution to our Knights squad as top performer in the WMPA Summer League, led our victorious Inter-Club team and our Euro Cup for Clubs team and had great success at Brean Sands in the Inter-Regional Championship and Gothenburg in the European Championships.

Chairman's Report for 2011

Sadly yet again I have to report the passing of two former club members during the year - Brian Turner and Tom Powell.
Brian Turner passed away on 27th April after a long illness. He was a member of 'The Headbangers' triple who played as West Midlands 1 in the Inter-Regional Competition in the 90s, and will be remembered for his very cryptic sense of humour. Together with his wife, Natalie, he joined the Half Crown PC in 2002, and played regularly until the onset of his illness six years ago.
Tom Powell passed away on the afternoon of June 1st 2011 after a short illness. Tom, Rich and Caroline Powell's father, had been living in Cyprus together with his wife Elizabeth for 14 years. Prior to that they lived in Long Itchington and were both members of The Half Crown Pétanque Club for 4 years.

Now to brighter things. We have had an excellent year from a playing perspective, making me very proud to be your Chairman.

Half Crown PC members have been winners or runners up at every WMPA competition in 2011 and the West Midlands PA held a great Presentation Evening at Whitnash in November when we took all of the trophies except the Summer League Division 2 and the Summer Triples.
Positive highlights of 2011 have been:

• A strong membership - we now have 47 members: 38 Registered Adult EPA Members; 2 Juniors (Jacob Tanner and Sam Hardwick); 2 Life Members; and 5 other paid-up members. We gained 10 new members during 2011, but have lost Jamie Lewis and Nic Baxter. Our new members have made a real impact - the Scott family with some great results including Home Nations victory, and Lynn Semple, Steve Clark and Sarah Jerger have become stalwarts in our revitalised Saturday Club.
• Club facilities - We are making good use of our Pavilion, although there is still work to do to tidy it up and replace the broken fence panels. Thanks to Dave Hancox for his work this year in putting in cladding and panels and a security light, and to Bill Bentley who has kept the pistes weed free and the flags flying once again.
• Good communications - We have an informative web site that continues to generate enquiries and an ongoing programme of Newsletters and Press Releases.
• The success of our Saturday Melees, which as well as attracting some good competition with an average of 20 players, earned us £440, and our New Year's Day melee attracted no less than 29 players.
• The revitalisation of the Saturday Club with 10-12 members regularly turning and providing a challenging Winter League since we re-introduced a round of singles. We also raised £346 vs £185 in 2010. The 2010/11 Winter League was won by Ian Brittain with 51 points from Bill Bentley on 40 and Rosaleen Preston on 26. The Summer League was also won by Ian Brittain with 55 points from Bill Bentley with 44 points and Rosaleen Preston with 36. The 2011/12 Winter League is just over half way through and is much closer with John Emberton leading with 54 points, Ian a close second on 52 points and Bill Bentley third on 44.
• The success of our Open Competitions: Our Easter Monday Triples was linked to the West Midlands President's Cup, with 16 teams competing, the winners being Rich Powell, Ian Brittain and Janet Kimpton. The Half Crown Open pairs on 23rd October attracted 17 teams, the winners being Garth Fletcher and David Mason.
• 8 Piste Parties for various associations with over 100 participants throughout the year and raised £315 - thanks to Rich, Dave, Bill and Ian for helping me to run these important events. The pity is we have not recruited any new players through these events
• Some good social events:The Annual Beaujolais Nouveau Challenge saw a great turnout of 36 players on 17th November, representing five clubs - Half Crown, Whitnash Windmill, West Haddon, Nottingham and Worcester. The weather was very pleasant, the Beaujolais Nouveau was excellent. Many of the players entered the spirit of the evening by dressing up French style with striped shirts and berets, but the star of the night was Lin Rendell who appeared wearing a wig, fishnet tights and garter! Best pair of the night was Ian Brittain and Geraldine Gardiner.The Russelsheim Twinning: seven members of the Half Crown Club travelled to Germany for the August Bank Holiday weekend and had a great time eating, drinking and even playing some Pétanque! Our Celebration Party on Saturday 30th July in blazing sunshine, which attracted 26 club members with play carrying on until almost midnight. We were also joined by some friends from the Whitnash Windmill Pétanque Club and some other guests. An excellent buffet was laid on by The Crown Inn and there was dancing to Frank Court's accordion, mainly by Pat O'Flynn and any female he could tempt to join him on the floor. We held a three round melee, and the prizes went to the only two unbeaten players - Barry Scott and Dianne Scott
• Strong representation for The Half Crown on the West Midlands Executive Committee - Three Half Crown members were elected to The West Midlands Pétanque Association's Regional Executive Committee at the AGM on Sunday 13th November: John Emberton - Treasurer; Dave Hancox - Regional Umpire and Youth Development Officer; David Kimpton - Regional Membership Secretary.

The only disappointment for 2011 was The Half Crown Club Day on Sunday 11th September saw just four players contesting the Annual Singles competition with Ian Brittain emerging victorious. In the afternoon just three teams contested the Annual Club Pairs with Barry and Dianne Scott taking the honours.

On the serious playing side, The Half Crown Pétanque Club has again dominated Pétanque in the West Midlands throughout 2011, with the following results:

• Inter Club Challenge: Half Crown PC (Jerome Captain)
• President's Cup: winner - Ian Brittain
• Summer League Div 1: Half Crown Knights (Ian Brittain Captain)
• Winter Pairs: David & Janet Kimpton Runners-up
• Summer Triples: GID (Garth Fletcher, Ian Brittain, Dave Hancox and Rich) runners up.
• Regional Shooting Championship: Winner Jerome Rousseau
• Closed Singles: Winner - Jerome Rousseau; Runner up Barry Scott.
• Closed Pairs: Winners Jerome Rousseau/Dianne Scott; Runners up Dave Hancox, Garth Fletcher
• Closed Triples: Winners - Barry Scott, Claire White, (with Patrick Robiquet).

Our members also dominated the Annual Inter-Regional Championship at Brean Sands, Somerset in more or less constant driving rain, plus a hailstorm. The West Midlands performed well in Division 1, winning 55 games (out of 108) and ending up 5th out of 8 thereby securing their position in Division 1. The winners were Chiltern with 69 wins and only 4 games separated the next four teams: Southern 59, East Midlands 58, Kent 57, West Midlands 55, so with just a couple more wins, West Midlands could have been runners up!! The best performing West Midlands teams all featured Half Crown members, so our club made a key contribution to the Region's result. The top West Midlands team was Robert Silvy and Sofiane Lachani, playing with Brian Stote from Coventry, who won 10 out of 12 games with a +52 points difference, and were the third best team overall from the 72 teams competing in Division 1. West Midlands 2 (Jerome Rousseau, Barry Scott and David & Janet Kimpton) were a very close second with 10 from 12 and a points difference of +47. Next was West Midlands 6 featuring Dave Hancox, playing with David Mason, Paul Stoodley and Maurice Rendell (all from Whitnash) who won 8/12 with a points difference of +17. Also competing, as West Midlands 3 were Philippe Bonnet, Dianne Scott and Claire White who won 7/12 with a points difference of -13.

The Scott family also played for England over the weekend of 13/14th August at Nottingham in the 2011 Home Nations Championship against Wales and Scotland. Playing as England 3, Barry, Dianne and Claire won 7 games out of 12. England won with 66 wins. Second were Wales with 40, closely followed by Scotland with 38.

We also saw off all local clubs in the Euro Cup for Clubs knock-out and are therefore by far the top club in West Midlands, if not the UK, given the performance of Jerome, Herve and Sofiane at Gothenburg over the weekend of 20/21st August, where they represented England competing against 35 other European Nations. They won their first three matches to secure a place in the last 16 play offs, and despite losing 0-13 to France (the eventual winners), they went on to beat Israel 13-1 to secure a place in the quarter finals. They lost 5-13 to Italy in the quarter final who in turn lost to Monaco in the semi-final, who in turn were well beaten 2-13 by France in the final. Sofiane also represented England in the Shooting competition and reached the quarter final with a fine display. Unfortunately he was drawn against Hugo Dores from Portugal in the quarter final losing narrowly. Hugo went on to meet Dylan Rocher from France in the final and was soundly beaten by the French Champion.

The only downside was our defeat by Sports Bar in the Euro Cup for Clubs, with the consolation that they did no better than us when they played in the first round in Europe. Regrettably we failed to get to the 2012 finals also, following a very narrow defeat by The Malt Shovel from Leicester on 15th January 2012.