Farmhouse Petanque Club - Competitions/League

Competitions/League

Competitions/League

Here lays the results of sweat , hard work and fearce competition !!!...

28 dec 2009: For the last competition of 2009, "Big Tony" and John went on to win the consolage of the newly created Arundel Club. 4 wins out of 5, beating on the way the other Farmhouse team (Maureen & Eric). Well done boys, well deserved !

FARMHOUSE OFFICIALLY PROMOTED TO 6-A-SIDE 1ST DIVISION !!!!!

The league so far..." The captain's official report" By -Jean (11th october 2009)

Despite our previous poor showing in the 9-a-side League, our last match against Division 1 Champions, Crondall, gave the team a lift and a small glimmer of hope as to the possibility of not being relegated. Previously undefeated this season, Crondall played us at home on 24/9/09 against the triples teams of Bob, Pam and Sean, Eric(le Francais), Gareth and Jean and Andy, Elwyn and Trevor.

Our players got off to a good start by winning the first round 3-0, but the second round saw a defeat of 1-2 albeit to narrow margins of 11 and 12. This left the match to be decided by the final round but all the players rose to the challenge and again came out comfortable 3-0 victors resulting in a 7-2 outcome. Congratulations to everyone who played of the their very best to achieve this result. With one remaining match for us to go, the question of relegation now depends on Hampshire Rose losing their final two matches, both away against Southampton City and Crondall, and Farmhouse beating Cobbetts in another home game.

Similarly, the 6-a-side won their final match of the season against Royal Oak on 1st October, although this was a much tighter fixture. Eugeen, Tony and Trevor and Eric, Pam and Sean played the triples and led the team to a good start by winning them both. Bob had arranged a squad of 9 players for this important match and so the doubles consisted of Pam and Sean, Bob and Andy and Jean and Trevor.

With only one doubles win needed to secure the match it should have been straightforward but when Pam & Sean lost their game, followed by Bob and Andy it was left to Jean and Trevor. They had got off to a good lead at the start, but their opponents started to claw their way back into the match and then used the tactic of playing across the terrain and throwing long coches. In the final end at 11-2 up Trevor with his last boule moved the coche on to Jean's two boules which were immediately behind and the opposition was unable to retaliate thus resulting in a 3-2 win for us. Since Royal Oak now need to win their last 3 matches 5-0 to overtake Farmhouse it now virtually assures us of second place in Division2 and therefore promotion.

In the Ship 6-a-side knockout competition held over the last two weeks our fortunes have been mixed. Following a very good win last week against Shedfield 4-1, we came up against a home side, Ship Shapes, last night. The home side pointed and shot extremely well and our players could not match them resulting in Farmhouse failing to make the semi-final or final on Sunday.

The league so far..." The captain's official report" By -Jean (17th september 2009)

Whilst our 9 a-side team face relegation, the 6-a-side continue their success story and although only a miracle would enable us to win the league, there is a very good chance of coming second and achieving promotion to the 1st Division.

Having had two comfortable wins of 4-1 at home against Lamb and Portchester Kaplonkers the last match was away against the League leaders, Limesdowne Wonders, who had up to that point only lost 2 games 2-3 throughout the season.

The triples were fairly evenly matched with each club win 1 each and it was then a difficult decision for Bob, Team Captain, to decide on the pairings for the doubles. His eventual choice was Sean and Elwyn, Trevor and Sean and Bob and Jean which meant Bob would take over the role of shooter in that game. This role he undertook superbly very rarely missing a shot and the result was a comfortable win. Pam and Elwyn lost their game which meant the final result rested on Sean and Trevor which game at that point was nip and tuck. They came through with some excellent shooting from Sean and the match was won by a satisfying 3-2 for Farmhouse.

On Sunday at the Southern Counties Mixed Doubles played at Cobbetts the outcome was not so good. Sean and Pam found themselves in a very strong league and in spite of still winning two of their games found themselves in the Plate competition and eventually won the Plate Consolage. Trevor and Jean had a disastrous day ending in the wooden spoon and not succeeding in even winning that!

The league so far..." The captain's official report" By -Jean (06th july 2009)

Our 6-a-side team are continuing to do well in spite of narrowly losing their last two matches.
A re-arranged match against Racing Club Rhinos was played at home on 9/6/09 and resulted in a comfortable 4-1 victory for the home team.

Our next game was two days later at home again on 11/6/09. This was a close fought game against League contenders, Limesdowne Wonders, which resulted in a narrow win by 3-2 to Limesdowne. This nevertheless left Farmhouse joint league leaders with Limesdowne.

The final match was played away against Royal Oak on 25/6/09, always a problem because of the vast difference in the the playing surface. Farmhouse won both triples and were pretty confident of the match. However, it was soon evident that with two of the doubles lost it was up to Trevor and Bob to succeed in theirs. This they narrowly failed to do and it was once again a 2-3 loss. The current situation still leaves Farmhouse with a tenuous lead in Division 2, but with three clubs in close contention with a match in hand each.

Our 9-a-side team continues to struggle in Division 1. Hopes were raised with our first victory at home on 30/6/09 against Southampton City 6-3. Congratulations to the triple of Pam, Bob and Sean who won their three games to unable us to achieve this.

Unfortunately our re-arranged match away against Cobbetts on 3/7/07 was a disaster. Our players on the whole were unable to cope with a very fast terrain due to the dry conditions recently and the end result was a resounding 1-8 defeat, the only triple to win a game 13-12 being Jean, Elwyn and Gareth. This leaves us at the bottom of the Division and needing to win our next match against Hampshire Rose convincingly if we are to have any hope of avoiding relegation.

Hot update (15-05-2009)

The team came out with a nice 4-1 against Southampton City Pilgrims last night, pushing us on top of the 6-a-side league. The first triple (Pam, Sean & Eric) was won in 3 ends 13-0 while the second one was lost 11-13 despite a great come back. On the doubles, another fanny was delivered by Pam & Sean. Big Tony and French Eric were also to win 13-8, though the start had not been great (led by 1 to 8!). Finally, our President and ......

Captain Bob:

(Sir, yes Sir!!! )

were the last to score 13-10 in an engaging match.

Eric

The league so far..." The captain's official report" By -Jean (10th may 2009)

The 9-a-side team has unfortunately got off to
a disappointing start this season in comparison with
last year. The first match away against Southampton City was
closely contested, with the first round ending 3-0 to City
but with two of the games concluding 13-12 and 13-11. We
then fought back to win the next two rounds 2-1, again with
2 equally close results in our favour, but the overall
result was a 4-5 loss.

Our next match was at home against Hampshire Rose and hopes
were high for a better outcome. Once again, however, we were
outplayed and lost the match 4-5. My commendation in both
matches go to the triple of Pam, Bob and our new recruit
from the I.O.W., Sean, who played consistently well to win 5
of their 6 games. It now remains for the other two teams to
follow their lead.

Better results have been achieved in the 6-a-side with wins
of 3-2 away against Limesdowne Wonders, the current league
leaders, and a convincing 4-1 win away against the Lamb.
This leaves us in second place in the league with a game in
hand.

There has also been some success in local regional
competitions. Pam, Trevor and Sean won our own Farmhouse
Open with various other Club members also in the prizes and
Eric, Jean and Maureen came 4th in the Hampshire Open. Then
at the Bordon Open Jean, Elwyn, Eric with Liz from Crondall
were losing semi-finalists to the eventual winners, Cardiff,
and Pam, Trevor with Mark from Hampshire Rose won the Plate
Competition.

Congratulations also to Pam who achieved 4th place in the
first round of the Ladies Nationals and we wish
her continued success in the second round on Sunday, 17
June.

The league so far..." The Official report" By Elwyn-Jean (29/10/2008)

In the 9-a-side league Hampshire Rose, having had a poor start to the season, finished with a convincing 7-2 victory over Southampton City to steal the Division 2 trophy from us and once again we ended up the bridesmaid, never the bride, in 2nd position. Farmhouse had a better points difference than them so a 5-4 win over Southampton City for us would have secured the club the Championship.

As stated in the last report, the 6-a-side team have been confirmed in the third position in Division 2, an improvement on last season against strong opposition. It is also some comfort that the team actually beat the League Champions, Oxshott, on their home terrain at the start of the season and Southampton City Saints, who were second, at home in September.

Perhaps next year it will be our turn for success!

"Un mot sur la ligue"... By Eric (31/10/2008)

Well, that's it then...3rd on the 6-a-side league, behind Oxshott who did not won more games than we had, and Southampton City who missed a great chance of winning the league this year. I think it's quite honorable really....As for the 9-a-side, it was down to us to win the match against Hampshire Rose to take the leadership, but we failed and we now have to pay the price !!! Still, being second is a good result. In the view of those results, I see no reason why next year's leagues shouldn't be a top year for us !!

The league so far..." The Official report" By Elwyn-Jean (09/10/2008)

The 6-a-side team needed to win the last 3 matches to stand any chance of winning the league or achieving promotion by coming 2nd.

Unfortunately, the first game against Lamb on 17/09/08 resulted in a 2-3 loss. Having said this, our compliments must go to Mike Hordern, who at 90 years of age, shot and pointed superbly in both the triples and doubles and was largely responsible for wins in both. Luckily for their opposition Mike does not play away games so the odds are more evenly balanced! Whilst not the main object of the evening the landlord also has to be praised for providing what is probably the best refreshments in that league.

Our last two games were both played on our home terrain against Southampton City Saints on 17/09/08 and Limesdowne Wonders on 02/10/08. A good win of 3-2 was achieved against
Southampton which was pleasing after the 0-5 defeat away, particularly as they are in serious contention for the championship of this league. This, unfortunately, was not maintained against Limesdowne where we lost 1-4. (Due to a certain anxiety by our players to follow Pompey's fortunes, I understand.) The team nevertheless have ended up a creditable 3rd position in the league which I believe is the best result since being demoted from the 1st Division.

In the 9-a-side league the team has fallen by the wayside. Having been top for 3/4 of the season our last two results have let us down. The loss away against Crondall 4-5 was not entirely unexpected as the team always seem to struggle on their terrain. Still, with two home games to come our hopes were high. However, against a competent Southampton City team on 25/09/08, our players did not perform and ended up winning only one game each with a resulting scoreline of 3-6. With Hampshire Rose winning their home game against Crondall on the same night they now lead with 5 wins and we are level 2nd with Crondall.

It now needs Southampton City to beat Hampshire Rose and us to have a convincing win against Shedfield to give us a tilt at the championship.

Finally, our down fortunes continued in the European Championships when we lost to Crondall, again on our home terrain, 3-4 on 29/0908.

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The league so far..." The Official report" By Elwyn-Jean (aug 2008)

Our 6-a-side team has had mixed results recently. We beat
> Adur Manor in away match 3-2 on 8th July, then achieved a
> win at home 3-2 against Royal Oak on 7th August, whom we had
> lost to in the away match earlier in the season.
> Unfortunately we then lost 1-4 to Oxshott at home on 14th
> August, having beaten them on their home terrain earlier.
> The last match that has been played was away to Cobbetts on
> 20th August where again a 3-2 win was achieved.
>
> This leaves the Club in the situation in 3rd position in
> the league with only three match losses whilst Oxshott , the
> current leaders have lost five matches, but with a better
> scoring average than us. Southampton City Saints, with games
> in hand and only one match loss, look in a good position to
> win the League and it is now down to the remaining few
> matches to determine whether we can secure second position.

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"Un mot sur la ligue"... By Eric (21/08/2008)

While I understand our 6-a-side team didn't perform too well against Oxshott (1-4) on the 14th august, a recovery was made last night against Cobbetts. The victory was grapped on the last match as Edwin went to score the needed 13th point to secure a 3-2 victory. I can't help to think that we have been quite unlucky so far in this league as that was our 9th victory out of 12 and still remain third in the table. It seems that we just can not find the path to larger victories ! Saying that, we have 2 games remaining and we can still finish in the top two's !

May the force be with us !!!

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"Un mot sur la ligue"... By Eric (09/07/2008)

Farmhouse has kept all its chances alive in the 6-a-side league last night : The first triple (Eric/Goeff/Trevor) was lost quite quickly and the second one was not looking better as being down (3-12 I believe it was) ... However, Pam, Maureen and Bob managed to fight back. Luck was on their side this time, especially when the opposition moved the "cochonnet" while measuring a winning point. It appeared to be a fatale mistake... Eventually, two more doubles were won (Trevor/Bob & Maureen/Eric) et voila !.. FARMHOUSE 3 / ADUR 2

As usual, a big thank you to Adur for their hospitality in their fabulous facilities !

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04/06/2008: Pat on the back for Chris & Andy Barron (along with David Plumhoff) who were Runners up in the Main at the Southampton City Open (29/06/08) ...

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The league so far..." The Official report" By Elwyn-Jean (03/07/2008)

The 6-a-side team continued its campaign when they played away to Limesdowne on Thursday 26th June. The evening went off to a good start with both teams winning their triples matches. However they then went on to lose two of the doubles with only Trevor and Eric being successful which ended the evening with a disappointing 3-2 win against a team who is currently bottom of the table. Nevertheless the result was sufficient to keep us in second position in the table but very close in points to other clubs with games in hand to play.

The 9-a side result away against Hampshire Rose on Wednesday 2nd July was even more disappointing as this resulted in the first loss of the season. The terrain was challenging and the team struggled to adjust and certainly did not produce the standard of play of the previous matches. Only the team of Bob, Matt and Michael managed to win two of their games although we thought the match was secure when Eric, Geoff andTrevor were leading in the final game 10-3. However an excellent recovery by the home team of Mark, Maurice and Ros resulted in them winning 13-11 . The final result was therefore a 4-5 loss to Farmhouse.

This still maintains our position as leaders of Division 1 with a good points difference but we need to win all the 3 games to follow to ensure our position as League Champions.

Table:

Farmhouse           Played 5, Won 4 (points difference +11)
Hampshire Rose     Played 5, Won 3 (points difference -1)
Crondall               Played 3, Won 1 (points difference +1)
Southampton City Played 3, Won 1 (points difference -5)
Shedfield              Played 2, Won 0 (points difference -6)

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"Un mot sur la ligue"... By Eric (03/06 2008)

Yesterday evening was a much anticipated match as we were up against Hampshire Rose, second in the 9-a-side league. Unfortunetly, things didn't go our way this time, and we were 1-2 down on the first round, then caught up on the second round at 3-3 each ! It was on the last round that the drama took place...In fact we reached a 4-4 score and it was up to the last game to secure the result. However, after leading 10-3, the team (Trevor, Jeff, Eric) just couldn't score any more points for some reasons. They had to shake hand at 10-13 . So the good run of 4 victories in a row is over, and we will need to be cautious for the remaining 3 matches (Shedfield, Crondall and Southampton city) .

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"Un mot sur la ligue"... By Eric (27/06 2008)

That was quite a windy day last night and the sun had decided to hide from Trevor's shooting ! However, after winning the first two triples, Farmhouse was quite confident, too much may be ?... Only one double was won eventually, which gave nonetheless much needed 4 points. A big thank you to Limesdowne Wonders for their great hospitality. The attitude of those players remind us all why we like this game so much !

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SCPA qualifiers 1 & 2 (1st & 22nd june 2008)

Farmhouse did pretty well in the qualifiers as :

Trevor's team "Jammy Do'Nuts" (Ashley Odell, Harrison Ash, Rod Fisher) finished first and the Barron's Bros (Chris&Andy) + Eric got in 5th position.

Out of 23 teams involved, that is a nice result. Now looking forward the Masters (19th & 20th of july), then of course Brean Sands (6th&7th september)... -Eric- (Full results)

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I was curious to see what Farmhouse previously achieved in the leagues ... Here is what I digged out :

Year 9-a-side (Div 1) 6-a-side
2007 2nd 4th
2006 3rd 3rd (Div 2)
2005 3rd 7th (Div 1)
2004 4th FIRST (Div 2)
2003 2nd 7th (Div 1)
2002 5th 5th (Div1)
2001 FIRST (div 2) 6th (Div 1)

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The league so far..." The Official report" By Elwyn-Jean (20/06 2008)

Following a recent downturn in our fortunes, the 6-a-side team returned to its winning ways in the home game against local rival, Lamb, on Thursday, 11th June. The evening started well by the team winning both triples and completed the match by winning two of the doubles comfortably. The last pairing of Bob and Geoff were unfortunately unable to overcome their opponents, the husband and wife team of Mike and Kath Knight, but the match was nevertheless a good 4-1 victory.

The same six, together with three other players, then combined to play in the 9-a-side team away to Southampton City on Tuesday, 17th June. This went off to a bad start with the team only managing to win one out of the first three games, but this was reversed in the second round with a 2-1 win. This left the final round to be played with the score standing at 3-3.

All three teams started well by taking the lead and the team of Bob, Michael and Matt went on to win their game comfortably at 13-4. The other two teams however were struggling to maintain their position but in a very tense final couple of ends Gareth, Eric and Jean triumphed with a 13-12 win.

The match having now been won, we were looking to complete it with a 6-3 victory and again the team of Elwyn, Geoff and June fought very hard to achieve this. Once again it came down to the very last end at 12-12 which could have gone either way, but this time our fortunes were reversed and the game was lost. The result was still a 5-4 victory but without the efforts of one of the opponents' teams who came through with wins of 13-11, 13-11 and 13-12 the result could have been an even greater achievement.

"Un mot sur la ligue"... By Eric (18/06 2008)

It was a sweet victory (5-4) earned by Farmhouse 9-a-side team versus Southampton City. There were some pretty tough matches down there, and after the first round being 1-2 for Southampton, Farmhouse managed to pull through the 2 other rounds... That places us in a confortable lead in the 9-a-side league. Once more, we would like to thank Southampton City for their hospitality. Personally, I am pretty impressed by the dedicated volonteers running the Rugby Club Bar. Super friendly ! Thanks guys !

15/06/2008: Good result for the "Little Boys Blue", AKA Chris & Andy Barron who were Main Semi-finalists at the Lamb Spring Open Doubles ...

"Un mot sur la ligue"... By Eric (13/06 2008)

Farmhouse 6-a-side team made a good recovery last night by beating Lambs by 4-1. Only our good captain and Jeff thought it would be of good manners to let our opponents win a game (2-13) !!! That was the least they could have done since our guests kindly offered us a "pique-nique" by the end of the matches ! Lambs hospitality goes over their own pub, so big thank you guys !

The league so far... " The Official report" By Elwyn-Jean (11/06 2008)

Our 9-a-side team played Crondall, always a difficult team to beat, at home on 5th June.

The first round started badly with only one win from three games. However a good recovery came in the second round with all three teams winning their games and leaving us 4-2 up going into the final round.

Feeling reasonably confident of winning the match hopes were again dashed by the team losing the first two games, levelling the scores at 4-4. Fortunately in an interesting end to their game the team of Elwyn, Jean and Gareth beat their opposition to clinch the match.

The next match in this first half of the season will be played away on Tuesday 17th June against Southampton City with a weakened Farmhouse team due to holidays and illness. A nervewracking thought after our massive defeat in the recent 6-a-side!

The league so far... " The Official report" By Elwyn-Jean (03/06 2008)

After an encouraging start to the season, our 6-a-side team has not done as well in the last 2 matches. On the 15/05/2008, they played Cobbetts at home and having won both triples, it was looking set for a good win. However, Cobetts managed to take 2 of the doubles and the final result was not such a large victory after all (Farmhouse 3 - Cobbets 2) . The next game was against Rotal Oak away on 22/05/2008. This was always likely to be a close match, and the addition of father & son Peter and Jason Wilcox to the home team added to Farmhouse's woes. These 2 played superbly both in the triples and doubles to win convincingly 13-0 and 13-2. Bob and Eugeen had the opportunity to snatch victory in their doubles in a close fought game but the final result was a 2-3 loss. Finally, the less said the better for the game against Southampton City Saints . A resounding 0-5 defeat, our first ever of this maginitude! This leaves us tenuously in 3rd place in the league, with other results yet to come in.