Report by Trevor Blows
Trevor and Daniel Blows from the Onley Arms contested the St. Albans Petanque in the Park event.
The matches were played on the gravel paths between the flower borders at Hillside park. The event was sponsored by the publishing group International Labmate. They are also sponsors of the Chiltern region, providing the shirts used at Brean Sands. In contrast to the rain of 2008, the competition was played in glorious sunshine. Twenty pairs were split into four groups for the morning session.
A poor start by the Onley saw defeats to London, Brickendon A and a Chiltern region pair. The third game, lost to 11, was a game that should have been won but the Onley pair beat a second Chiltern pair, 13-12, to finish the morning session.
In the Plate competition, Botany Bay from Enfield were the quarter final opponents. An excellent 13-6 win took the Onley into the semi final to play Brickendon B. The Onley were always in the lead but the opposition pulled the score back to 12-10 before the win was secured. So to the Plate final and a return match with Brickendon A. The opposition, after their morning win, sensed an easy win but the Onley stepped up a gear from the off. With Daniel pointing well and Trevor finding his shooting boots, the Onley wrapped up a quickfire 13-7 win to take the Plate trophy. ILM founder and event sponsor Mike Pattison and his son Marcus, were there for the final and did show some bias towards the Onley. This was probably down to Trevor and Mike having known each other for 20 years through their time in the laboratory business!! They also witnessed an excellent Main event final that took almost two hours to complete, with a London pairing (Mehdi and Yussuf) beating a Chiltern team by 13-12 in a match that could have gone either way. A great friendly competition, played in a unique setting, well organised on the day by John Luke. Prizes were presented by Marcus Pattison on behalf of ILM. The co-organiser of the event, Dave Ciano, once lived in Coggeshall and played at the Portobello PH. It was good to see Dave up and about after a recent operation and the ECR wishes him well for the future.