The big event of the year in the sport of Petanque, the Inter-Regional Championships, took place at Brean Sands, Somerset. With fortuitous warm weather over 1000 players from around the UK gathered to do battle. The ECR’s first game at 8am on a fresh Saturday morning was against Northern region and it was a very successful start to the campaign. With 6 wins out of 8, only teams 1 and 5 were unsuccessful.
Unfortunately the joy did not last as the next opponents were the very strong Chiltern region, who along with Kent, were favourites to take the Division one title. With only team 3 (Dean Middleton, Graham McDougall, Colin Sams and Clare Courtney) with a 13-6 win and team 4 ( Chris Allen, Nessie Webb & Michelle Tarbun) with a close 13-12 win having any success, it was a 6-2 loss.
In round 3 the region bounced back with a vengeance gaining a superb 5-3 win over the aforementioned favourites Kent. Team 1, Dean Little, Keith Flack, Matt Smith and Gus Garland, gained their first win of the day which helped swing the tie in ECR’s favour.
West Midlands were the next opponents and it was another reverse result with a 5-3 loss. Team 3 were still unbeaten, and team 6, Trevor Blows, Dan Blows & Lorne Gibson & team 7, Frank Britt, Paul Brown, Lloyd Herman & John Perfect were the successful three.
It was a long days play which went on until 7.30 in the evening, but the afternoon session saw a 4-4 draw with Southern, a good 5-3 win over Wales and another 4-4 draw with East Midlands. Despite this the ECR found themselves sitting in a relegation position with just Northern region below them. They were only 1 point behind Wales who were in 6th place and needed a good second days performance to move above them.
Play started again on Sunday at 8.30am, with Southern the first opponents and it resulted in another 4all draw. It was followed with a poor 6-2 loss to East Midlands. Team 3 and team 5 (Adam Buxton, Lee Dodge & Vince Schofield) were the winners.
Next up were Wales and a big effort was needed to ensure a place in Division 1 for next year, and there were smiles all around as the team emerged with a 6-2 win. A 4all draw with West Midlands followed with an excellent win by team 2 (Phil McCrostie, Andy Wilmot, Dave Tarling and Ritesh Lungut) over the oppositions no. 1 team which comprised of Great Britain internationals. Finally with a 4 all draw against Northern in bottom place the region made sure of a position in the top flight for next year.
Overall it was an enjoyable weekend for most teams. Team 1 struggled throughout and only managed 3 wins on the first day and none on the second. Team 2, who tried hard not to finish as team 2 in the qualifiers as they knew from the year before how difficult it would be, also struggled over the weekend winning 4, but had some close games which could have gone their way, and beating W Midlands 1 was a great boost.
Team 3 won all their morning games and lost all their afternoon games, a total of 7 wins with some near misses.
Team 4 were equal top scorers with 9 wins, East Midlands were their bogey region, losing to both teams.
Team 5 had a disastrous first day losing all but their game against Wales. The second day was better, after losing their opening game against Southern they went on to win the next 4 making a total of 5.
Team 6 enjoyed their weekend and gained 7 wins, with the Blows playing in the top 8 for the first time it was a great result for them.
Team 7, the Chequers boys, had a good first day winning 5, with a close 13-12 loss to Southern just stopping it being 6, and with 4 out of 5 on the Sunday, with E.Midlands the fly in the ointment, a total of 9 put them equal with team 4 as the top performing team of the weekend.
Last but not least team 8 had mixed fortunes but managed a steady 5 wins.
Well done to all for keeping us in the top flight for next year.
Kent region did a clean sweep winning the Division 1 title, the Challenge and the Junior competitions. Wales and Northern were relegated with I.O.W Division 2 champions and London promoted.