The Colne Angel & Rayne Swan Petanque clubs played host to a team of 20 Dutch players from the Petanque Union Kennemerland club, nr Amsterdam, at the weekend.
The Dutch flew in to Stansted on Saturday morning and were ferried straight to the Swan at Rayne. Saturday’s event, which was generously sponsored by Daniel Robinson & Sons, was a doubles tournament open to all comers, with play starting at 1pm and carrying on into the evening. The Dutch team was made up with several international players and national champions, but the English teams were not overawed and there were several good performances. In fact Rachid Hannache & Daniel Hill took first place defeating Fred & Thomas 13-11, but the Dutch filled the next three spots, with Edward & Marc beating Chris & Nessie 13-5, Jos & Gilbert won 13-5 against Sofiane & Dean, and finally Jelle & Arjen beating Viv & Kim.

Sunday was a closed competition between the two hosting clubs and the Dutch team, playing the EPA KO format of 2 triples, 3 doubles & another 2 triples. After the first set of triples it was all square with each of the 6 teams winning one apiece. Then on to the doubles, Colne Angel 1 managed only 1 win out of 3 against PUK 1 with Sofiane & Simon winning 13-5 against Marc & Henry. Colne Angel 2 were heavily beaten in all 3, and Rayne Swan’s Colin Sams & Tom Smith were the only successful pair in their games against PUK 3 with a 13-9 win over Thomas & Jean Paul.
Colne Angel 1 needed to win both their final triples against PUK 3 to take their match which they did, both with a 13-2 scoreline. Sofiane, Dean & Keith beat Hans, Tim & Thomas, while Nessie, Chris & Simon won against Jos, Jean Paul & Esme, and this gave them a 4-3 win.
Rayne Swan were in the same position and they also came through against PUK 2, Adam Buxton, Clare Courtney & Dennis Smith winning 13-11 against Jacky, Gilbert & Arjen, while Lorne & Beryl Gibson & Tom Smith won 13-7 against Mandy, Stefan & Menno for their 4-3 win.
Unfortunately Colne 2 were not so successful losing both theirs and their match 6-1, which gave an overall score of 12 to the Dutch & 9 to the English.

Thanks go to all who made the weekend so successful including Daniel Robinson & Sons, Lizzie Bollington, Mr & Mrs Roy House, Simon Bird & Julie Constable and all their helpers. This was the first of hopefully many friendly but competitive games between the 3 clubs and it is hoped Colne & the Swan will be visiting Holland next year.

The Dutch & English teams