Half Crown Petanque Club Draft

Following our great wins over Coventry and The Marches, we now play Solihull in Round 3 of the 2011 knock-out competition to determine which club represents England in the 2011 European Cup. The game has been arranged for Saturday 29th January, starting at 10.30am at Solihull.

The big thaw arrived just in time for The Half Crown to be able to play their second round game against the Marches at the Seven Stars, Clehonger. It was cold and wet with a very muddy terrain. But that did not impair the Half Crown's first round triples who both had convincing wins: Jerome Rousseau, Janet Kimpton and Philippe Bonnet led all the way winning 13-3, the game being clinched by a superb carreau by Philippe. The other triple was closer, with Herve Bavazzano, Jamie Lewis and David Kimpton being just 6-5 up after seven ends, but they then pulled ahead to win 13-8.

The round of pairs started badly for The Half Crown with all three down after the first end. Herve and Philippe clawed back from 0-3 down to take a 7-3 lead but then gave six away on one end from which they never recovered, losing 8-13 in just seven ends and leaving the match poised at 2-1. However Jamie and David held their nerve after their bad start and went on to win 13-5. This meant that The Half Crown needed just one more win to secure the match but Jerome and Caroline Powell started badly, being 0-5 behind after two ends. However they rallied and won the game 13-11 after a scare when the Marches Captain, Bill Wood, had the opportunity to roll two boules in for game in the penultimate end but fell short, leaving a superb point by Caroline to hold against all of the Marches boules and allow her to roll in for game.