held at: Eastern Suburbs Pétanque Club 12 February, 2017
State Triples Champions: Rada Pierre, Dominique Pierre & Tomas Heredia
Runners-Up: Lionel Chazal, Raja Jamaleddine & Nick Armstrong
Semi-Finalists: Alexi Alexi, George Lainas & Arwed Turon
Alain Rousse, Antonio Stojsic & Adrian Clements
Consolante Winners: Sukrit Vaswani, Craig Stewart & Ray Drummond
Consolante Runner-Up: Martin Verdonk, Richard Voskamp & Garry Karklins
Conviviale Winners: Allan Sanderson, Brett Williams & Ray Beaumont
After two cancelled League days due to unfortunately-timed hot weather, we finally got lucky. The State Triples Championship was held in ideal conditions.
The day ran smoothly and it was little surprise that it came down to a final involving the form team of recent times, Rada & Dominique Pierre and Tomas Heredia on the one hand, versus the young guns and proven performers, Lionel Chazal, Raja Jamaleddine and Nick Armstrong on the other.
Ultimately, it was the former who took home the title, in a case of experience triumphing over youthful exuberance. Or perhaps the latter ‘spent too many petrol-tickets’ in a very tense semi-final, when they were forced to claw their way back from a 2-10 deficit against Alexi, Arwed and George, who appeared to be peaking at the right time. Or perhaps their unpopular choice of piste for the final backfired on them. Or perhaps you just can’t beat current form.
The historical significance of this result cannot be overstated…