The 2018/19 State Doubles Championship was held at Eastern Suburbs in cool but fine conditions. Twenty pairs took part in this open competition including male, female and mixed-gender teams.

There were plenty of strong contenders and most of the pre-tournament favourites made it to the pointy end of the day. But, with so much talent on show, it was no great surprise that nearly every team suffered at least two losses throughout the course of the day. There was just one exception, who stood head and shoulders above the rest of the pack…

The exceptional team was Raja Jamaleddine & David Lefer, undefeatedand never really threatened from beginning to end. They arrived with intent, talked the talk and then walked the walk, culminating in an awesome display in a one-sided final. Their very worthy opponents, Louis Oltarczy & Jean-Paul Bouyer, could find no way to halt the onslaught.

This is David’s first state title since his win in the inaugural State Triples Championship in 2007. After something of a mid-life hiatus in his petanque career, he is back to his best. For Raja, meanwhile, his second State Doubles title completes his second full set of singles, doubles and triples crowns. Raja becomes the first player in the history of SAPL state championships to win twice in all three formats — an outstanding achievement.

There was no separate women’s competition this year due to low numbers. However, as the highest finishing women’s team, Selina Dally & Deb Rodda retained the title they won last year. To prove that they thoroughly deserved this honour, they put on an outstanding display in the Open competition, finishing top of their pool in the morning session and going as far as the semi-finals in the afternoon. This extends Selina’s reign as women’s doubles champion into its fifth year.

Finally, it is interesting to note that the first two teams to register for this event turned out to be the two finalists. What does that tell you?

State Doubles Champions Raja Jamaleddine & David Lefer (L & R)

with Anthony Pietsch

State Women’s Doubles Champions  Deb Rodda & Selina Dally

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South Australian Doubles Championships will be held at Eastern Suburbs Pétanque Club (8 Northgate Street, Unley Park) on Sunday 19^th August, 2018

For more details see the brochure here.

This year’s State Singles Championships were held in unseasonably warm conditions which proved quite taxing in the morning session, but an afternoon wind shift offered some relief later in the day.
The most notable thing about this year’s Open was the evenness of the competition. It was a strong and larger than average field, but a few players who have dominated proceedings in the past were absent this time around. The result was a day full of epic battles and close results. The stats tell the story…
Of the fifty games played in the morning session, half of them went to a score of 13|9 or higher. Across all games after lunch, this ratio was again exactly 50%. Historically, we would normally expect it to be more like 25-30%. Breaking it down further, about a quarter of all games had scores of 13|12 or 13|11 — three times the number of games less than 13|3.
Unfortunately, one consequence of so many close games was that the competition proceeded more slowly than expected. It made for a long day, with the final played under lights and finishing more than two hours later than other occasions where the same format has been used.
The new State Open Singles Champion is Lionel Pujol, who peaked at the right time and lasted the distance when others around him were flagging. In particular, his victory over Alexi Alexi in the final bucked the day’s trend towards close games.Continue reading→