Rayne Swan Petanque Club held their annual Money Doubles competition on Sunday and the winners were Sean Prendergast & Clare Brooks from East Midlands. There was a good turnout of 20 teams with a variety of experience and talents on display. The morning session had five groups of four with the winners and 3 best runners up going into the main competition. Prendergast and Brooks started well with 3 wins to top their group. Group 2 was a very close affair with 3 teams winning two apiece, but Jacques Tevillier and Dean Seville came out top on points difference. Local players Dick Youngs and Trevor Blows did very well to top their group unbeaten. The strong and much fancied pairing of Lee Jamieson and Sofiane Lachani won all their group games, as did local pair Tracey Austin and Laszlo Szilagyi.

Probably the best game of the day was the quarter final clash in the main competition between Jamieson and Lachani and Tevillier and Seville. With some cracking shooting from both Lachani and Seville and accurate pointing on a difficult piste from their partners, it was the young pretenders who triumphed to go on and meet Prendergast and Brooks in the final. Maybe this earlier triumph took it out of them, but Tevillier and Seville had to settle for 2nd place after the East Midlands pair put on a good display to win 13-9.

With such a strong turn out the Plate competition saw some equally good teams vying for the final. Adrian Emson and Myra Huntley (Chiltern) defeated the strong Kent team from The George in the semi-final and Simon Bird and Barry Scott won through after beating Peter Ward and John King from Peterborough. It looked as if Bird and Scott, who played together for GB in the 70’s, were going turn back the clock and claim the win when leading 11-9, but a good fightback by the Chiltern pair saw them sneak in for a 13-11 win.

The consolage was won by Eric Taylor and Kevin Ambrose from Towers PC, Brentwood who defeated Viv Middleton-Sams (Colne Angel) and Francois Bourquin (Victorians, Theydon Bois) 13-6.

A big thank you to all who entered and to Roy and Marlis House from the Swan Inn, Rayne for their continued support.