Last season’s winner was COVID-19 but, fortunately, the 2020/21 State Triples Championship was able to go ahead as planned – 14 months after the 2018/19 event. It was very well supported, with 69 players in attendance. In just a couple of years, the number of entrants for this competition has nearly doubled, with many participating this year for the first time. The conditions were cool but mostly fine and the competitive spirit was excellent.
The random draw added some spice to the morning session as a number of the early favourites were drawn to play each other in the preliminaries, in the ‘pool of death’. Only the strongest survived while others did not make the cut. Hence, it was not just the usual suspects making up the final eight. Some of the newcomers also took their opportunity to shine. However, as is so often the case, experience won out in the end.
The new champions are Deb Rodda, Selina Dally & Wendy Bensen. Their exploits are already legendary – they hold numerous records and all three have performed with distinction representing Australia on the world stage. This latest win is also historic as they are the first all-female team to win a South Australian Open championship in any format. Selina becomes the first female player with two Open Triples titles to her name. Deb and Wendy add an Open crown to accompany the Women’s Triples trophies they won in the last two years that a separate women’s event was run (before being discontinued in 2008).
The runners-up were Jean-Luc Gonnet, Bruce Lucas & Jonathan Giddings. These three are rapidly establishing themselves as a new heavyweight combination on the local pétanque scene. Having already seen off the defending champions in the quarter-final, they earned their place in the decider by virtue of a commendable return bout against the formidable trio of Alexi, Dave Lefer & Maurice Belz in the semis. (It’s uncanny how often you get two different winners when the same teams play each other twice within a tournament.)
The Consolante winners were another experienced all-female team, Rada Pierre, Jenny Key & Tina Stockley, so it was definitely a day for the girls. It looks like SA will have some strong contenders in the women’s competitions when the Easter Nationals finally come to Adelaide.
To conclude, one more team that also needs a mention was from the Adelaide Hills club, comprising Neil Maslin, Robin Austin & Rob Mawson. In their first state championship, these three had the misfortune to face a preliminary draw against three daunting teams that, between them, did not contain a single player without international experience as Australian representatives! Lesser men might have been a bit demoralised by lunchtime, but these guys took the attitude that “if it doesn’t kill you it just makes you stronger”. They performed creditably in all three of those games and then went on to win the Conviviale in the afternoon, fighting all the way to the end. One would have to say that their bottle of wine was well-earned.
Congratulations to all the winners. Thanks to those who made the day possible, especially the volunteers from host club ESP and the umpire, Terry Hall.

Results

Detailed Results

This post is the rankings for last year’s InterClub competition.

The attached document shows the complete list for the last year.

SAPL Player Rankings 2019-20

This year’s SA State Singles Championships were held in ideal fine and mild conditions. A total of 45 players (another attendance record) took to the expansive Novar Gardens pistes to battle it out in the most demanding form of the game.
The Open attracted a very strong field and every win had to be earned. By lunch time, only 4 of the 32 players had managed to get through their preliminary games unscathed. However, morning form is not always a good predictor of afternoon form and it is the latter that matters most. On this occasion, three of those front-runners fell by the wayside in the qualifying rounds — quite spectactularly in some cases.
Ultimately, the cream rises to the top and it came down to a Final between two of the grand masters of SA pétanque. On one side was Lionel Pujol, the 2018 Champion and the only player to have gone all day undefeated. His opponent was Dominique Pierre, the 2016 Champion, whose one point victory in the semi-final against last year’s winner (Maurice Belz) was possibly the match of the day.
The Final was not the cliff-hanger that some may have hoped for. Dominique, the man who “hates singles”, once again reinforced his reputation as The Dominator. The other time Dom won the SA Singles it was a sign of things to come as he went on to claim concurrent State titles in Open Doubles, Mixed Doubles and Triples — a historic achievement that has never been matched. Is this victory another sign?

Continue reading→

at:  Prospect Pétanque Club                  25 August, 2019

This year’s State Doubles Championship was held at Prospect in fine and mild conditions. Twenty-five pairs took part, including male, female and mixed-gender teams, which was the best attendance at this event for at least ten years.

The competition was more even than some might have predicted, with lots of close games and plenty of upsets. By the end of the four preliminary games, only one team remained undefeated and that was a portent of what was to follow.

The stand-out team on the day was the pairing of a young gun and emerging star with an established grand master of the game — Nick Armstrong & Maurice Belz swept all before them and are the new state champions. Well done, messieurs! This is the second SA state title for each of these players. Nick’s winner’s trophy will sit next to one from the 2107/18 Mixed Doubles, while Maurice is now the reigning champion in both Doubles and Singles.

Maurice Belz & Nick Armstrong

Congratulations must also go to Sue & Peter Matthews, who performed strongly all day and finished as runners-up and ‘the best of the rest’. Sue & Peter were part of a large contingent of teams from the fledgling Novar Gardens club that, on the whole, accounted for themselves very well.

Continue reading→