Glorious spring weather, delicious food, some tight games, some thumpings and, most importantly, lots of fun. The third Interclub round had it all, and an excellent turn-out of twenty-three teams were at the Club d’Adelaide to make the most of it. Players were kept on their toes by subtle changes in the playing surface over the course of the day, as the moisture from some overnight rain dried out in the warm sun.

The major honours for the day went to the highly experienced trio of Alexi Alexi, Arwed Turon & Maurice Belz. This was Maurice’s first appearance in the Interclub competition since relocating to Adelaide from NZ. By taking out the gold, undefeated, and demonstrating some awesome skills along the way, he certainly made his presence felt and sent a warning to the rest of the competition.

The silver medallists were Louis Oltarczy, Jean-Paul Bouyer & Tony Stojsic, who maintained the fine form they showed all last season. Through a quirk of the draw, this was one of the rare occasions where a second team gets through the day undefeated. Despite winning all three preliminary games, they only qualified third in their pool which denied them a shot at the gold, but they made the best of their situation after that.

The tournament structure we use for the Interclub has been designed to deal with anomalous situations such as we saw here, where most of the strongest contenders happen to find themselves grouped together on the same side of the draw. Players sometimes think it odd that the losers of the gold medal match in the fifth round are only awarded third place, rather than second as you would expect with most conventional formats. This set of circumstances provides a clear example of why the silver medal match is for the silver medal.Continue reading→

Perfect spring weather, some serious petanque and plenty of bonhomie were the rewards for a large turnout of competitors in Round 2. As usual, the Gawler club went all out to make it an excellent day, serving breakfast as well as lunch to the hungry petanquers.

Taking home the gold medals on this occasion were the Club d’Adelaide trio of Louis Oltarczy, Wayne Twigden & Alain Rousse, carrying on the excellent form they displayed last season. They got there via a thrilling one-point win in the fourth game against the internationally acclaimed girls from ESP, Deb Rodda, Selina Dally & Wendy Bensen, who went on to claim the silver.Continue reading→

The first round of the new season was well attended despite the threat of showers, which fortunately did not materialise. Conditions were cool, but pleasant enough.

Last year, in the 2017/18 championship, the pecking order was fairly well established after Round 1 and barely changed for the rest of the season. This time around, the early indications are that the season to come may be a bit more interesting than that.

The dominant club on the day was Eastern Suburbs, with their three teams all finishing in the top five. Congratulations to the gold medal winners — Alexi, Arwed & Lionel. The resultant points haul puts ESP well ahead of the rest of the pack, at this early stage.

Reigning champion Adelaide sits in second place, on the back of a silver medal performance by Dominique, Rada & Alain. However, with a depleted squad and only one team in the points, they only just got their noses in front of the next three clubs who are all tied for third ‑‑ Adelaide Hills, Gawler and Prospect. Rounding out this tight pack are FAB, who, in sixth place, are a mere 6 points shy of second!

Such a tight contest is good for the competition and leaves us eagerly anticipating the next round. Thanks to the Prospect club and all their volunteers for doing a great job as hosts.

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