The 3rd and final Eastern Counties Region qualifier took place at Bocking Sports Club on Sunday.
Finishing top of the pile were Victorians 1 from Theydon Bois with 14 wins overall. Phil McCrostie, Dave Tarling, Francois Bourquin and Andy Wilmot had 4 wins on the day, losing just one game to Meat & Wheat who finished in 2nd place. Keith Flack, Dean Little, Gus Garland and Matt Smith also had 4 wins, their only loss was to Campetanque from Cambridge, finishing on 13 wins. Braintree League team, Chequers from Gt Tey, were next with 12 wins. Frank Britt, John Perfect, Bill Eve and Lloyd Herman showed what a close competition it was as they also had 4 wins. In 4th on 10 wins were Bedazzled, who had a very poor days play winning only 1 out of 5. Adam Buxton, Lee Dodge, Vince Schofield (Rayne Swan) and Michelle Tarbun (Chequers) were grateful for their wins in the previous 2 qualifiers. Welcome newcomers to the region Elan, Geoff, Rob and Fred Booth and Russell Brewis representing Towers, Brentwood, fought well to win 4 games and finish in 5th place with 9 wins overall. Also on 9 wins were Campetanque, Nigel Hills, Phil Hichens, Chris and Andy Butcher finished 6th on points difference. It’s welcome back to Charters from Whittlesey winning 3 out of 5. 8 wins overall for John King, Peter Ward and Graham McDougall saw them into 7th place. The final position was taken by Towers from Brentwood. Two wins on the day saw Colin Roper, Eric Taylor, Peter Way and Graham Penn just squeeze in at 8th.
The eight teams will represent the ECR in the Inter-Regional Tournament in Somerset this September.
The next 4 teams will represent the Region in the Challenge Trophy. Colne Angel, Naheb Khodabux, Viv Middleton-Sams, Wendy Ridehalgh and Tracey Austin were 9th and missed out on the top 8 by just one game. 10th were Essex Petanque League’s Onley from Stisted who managed 2 wins on the day. Trevor and Dan Blows, Nikki Parrish and Lorne Gibson won 7 overall, the same as Colne, but had a worse points difference. In 11th on 6 wins were Victorians 2. One win was enough to qualify for Simon Mellen, Aris Savvides and Dawn Bourquin. The biggest cheer of the day went to the home side of Bocking who scraped in the last qualifying place at 12. Three good wins, particularly their last game of the day against 3rd placed Chequers saw Pam and Dave Adams and Trevor Turner qualify for the first time.