A strong turnout of thirty-two teams participated in Round 3 at Novar Gardens. Once again, our extraordinary run of luck with the weather continued. Of the five SAPL events held so far this season, this was the fourth to follow the same pattern. Coming after a major rain event, with more showers forecast for Sunday, the conditions cleared just in time to make way for a pleasant sunny day of petanque. The only difference this time was that the preceding rain continued until 9am, rather than 3am, and the following rain didn’t come until midnight, rather than 5 or 6pm.
Snaring the gold medals, once again, were ESP’s Ha Nguyen, Van Nguyen & Alexi Alexi, making it three out of three for Van and Ha this season. They had to work particularly hard for it on this occasion, with the luck of the draw bringing them up against a couple of their strongest rivals in the morning session. However, they were up to the task and got through unscathed. Joining them on the podium in second place were Tory McBride, Dave Ward & Ray Drummond, also from ESP, with the Adelaide Hills trio of Mike Read, Peter Davies & Brian Tuckfield taking out the bronze.
On the premiership table, the only changes were among the middle group whilst the top two and bottom two merely reinforced their positions. The biggest movers were Adelaide Hills, with a big haul of points lifting them to equal third.
Thanks to the Novar Gardens club for hosting the event.
Download the full report of scores (PDF): Scores-2025-26-Round-3.pdf