The archives of past tournaments starts in 2023.

Winter Doubles 2024.

Iain and Todd have won Division A, with Todd being a debut winner. Their victory is well deserved as they beat all of the teams in the top half. Congratulations to them! In Division B, Mark and Linda have won their league with 7 from 7. A comprehensive victory. Congratulations!

John Mahy Trophy 2024

Seb and Brandon were the worthy winners of the John Mahy knockout trophy. With eight teams and a straight elimination format, they had a tough draw. They beat Craig and Dan in the quarter finals, followed by Giles and Andi in the semis. In the final, they beat Lee and Ian. Well done to Seb and Brandon!

Vauclusienne 2023

In Division A, Brandon has been crowned champion with 8 wins from 9. Craig ended up on second place with Seb and Del finishing strongly with two wins in the final week to claim third.In the final week, Brandon had three incredibly close games and could have easily lost the competition. He managed to come through 13-12 against Donal and also prevailed by the same score against Giles. He lost his other game 13-12 against Andi and Vikki. Playing until 11pm: small margins indeed! Andi and Vikki have the bragging rights of beating the top two players in what was another very close league. Lee also came close in fourth and only lost 11-13 to Brandon and 12-13 to Craig. His chances were ended by losing to Seb and Del and also to Fred on the last night. In Division B, Mark & Julian just pipped Dan & Heather on points difference. Both teams ended up with 7 wins from 9. Ultimately this league came down to the head to head between the top two teams in the very first week where Mark & Julian were convincing winners. They will need to play in the A Division next time!

Men’s and Ladies’ Doubles 2023

The Men’s and Ladies’ doubles has just finished. The final league tables are shown below. Giles and Brandon have won the men’s doubles. Congratulations to them! A special mention goes to Rob and Alan. They came second, beating several good teams and only losing out to Giles and Brandon by three points difference.

In the Ladies’ doubles, Andi and Pat came through with an impressive 11 wins from 12. They beat Margaret and Vikki in the last week to take home the title. Congratulations to them!

Flexible Trophy 2023

Bob Cave was the clear winner of the 2023 Flexible Trophy.

Triples 2023.

In Division A, Lee, Shane and Iain have performed strongly and are the worthy winners. They have won nine out of ten, sealing their victory by beating Giles, Andi and Dan in the final round. Second place has been taken by Sean, Mandi and Del. Congratulations to them for this result in a tough league!

In Division B, Bob, Rob and Pam managed to reach 9 wins from 12, pipping to the post New, Pan and Ken who ended up with 8 wins. This league was close with each team winning at least 6 games.

Mixed Doubles 2023

Pat and Fred are the 2023 Mixed Doubles Champions! After losing two matches narrowly in the penultimate week, Pat and Fred were not the favourites going into the last week. However, they recorded a good win against Andi and Giles in their last match, coming back from 10-4 down. This left Pat and Fred on 12 wins in first place but with no more matches to play. Jo and Craig started the evening on 11 wins with two games to play and so in an excellent position, but they were well beaten by Linda and Lee, which meant that they could no longer overtake Pat and Fred. Equally, Andi and Giles also had 11 wins with two matches to play. They then lost 13-3 to Joan and Rob in their next game. This meant that Pat and Fred could not be caught and therefore they won the league by a clear margin. Congratulations to them! In their final match, Jo and Craig played Andi and Giles in what could have been a first/second play off. In the end, this was a second/third play off with Andi and Giles winning convincingly. Overall, the league was very close with not much separating first from ninth over the fifteen rounds and no team dominating.

Shooting Competition 2023

Shane Brehaut won the shooting competition with a convincing display, finishing well ahead of Craig Allen in second and Andi Cleal in third. Andi won the women’s title with her third place overall. Congratulations to Shane!

Placing Competition 2023

Seb Renaud won the placing competition with a comfortable gap over Shane Brehaut and Iain Haith. This result also takes Seb to the top if the Green’s Grand Prix standings. Evita won the junior trophy. Congratulations to Seb and Evita!

Singles 2023

Lee Holberry is the 2023 singles champion. The top four from each league played off on Wednesday in what was essentially a straight knock out. After topping his league with an undefeated run, Shane Brehaut was rather unfortunate to come across Lee in the quarter final. After a tight game, Lee came through 13-10, thus preventing Shane from winning the competition. A very harsh result for Shane! All of the quarter finals were close with Seb Renaud edging out Vikki Le Poidevin 13-12. Iain Haith beat Giles Cleal 13 -7 and Craig Allen beat Bob Cave 13-10. In the semi finals, Lee came through 13-7 against Iain and Craig edged out Seb 13-11. This meant that the final was between Craig and Lee. The match was perfectly poised at 7-7, but Craig had a bad end followed by another end which he lost from a strong position. This resulted in Lee taking a 12-7 lead which he duly closed out on the final end with a perfect first shot. Congratulations to Lee! Seb ended up third with Iain fourth.

Vikki won the women’s singles as the highest placed women in the leagues. Congratulations to Vikki! This competition was good practice for the forthcoming inter insular where singles form a vital part.

Liberation Day Doubles 2023

Twelve teams contested the Liberation Day Doubles tournament. With the trophy having first been awarded way back in 1986, there is a lot of history in this event. Each team played four games in the group stage, with two games before lunch and two games after lunch, starting at 1pm. This process was hotly contested and took quite some time to complete. In the end, four teams qualified for the semi finals. Giles and Andi Cleal topped the table with four wins, closely followed by Craig and Margaret Allen who also had four wins. Dan Le Sauvage and Fred Wallnofer came third, with Keith Priaulx and Shane Brehaut in fourth, each with three wins and a good points difference. After a tough draw, Seb Renaud and Dave Bartam were knocked out with two wins.Referring the the long history of this tournament, Fred and Dan were the defending champions, Keith and Shane had previously won in 2016, Fred won when it was a singles event in 2009, Shane won back in 2002 with another partner and Craig won way back in 1992 with Alan Best whilst still at school!Semi Final one was between the Cleals and Shane and Keith. Andi and Giles duly won 13-8, having beaten Shane and Keith for the second time. In the other semi final, the Allens took on Fred and Dan. In a tight match where the coche moved several times, Craig and Margaret came though 13-11.The final therefore was very late going into the early evening. The contest was fitting between the Cleals and the Allens as both teams had won all five of their games. Craig and Margaret got off to a strong start and despite a valiant fight back, with Giles saving an end with a five point swing at one point, Craig and Margaret came through 13-6. There were a few occasions where the Cleals had several boules left at the end but were unable to capitalise with the Allens having closed the end down. In the third/fourth play off, Fred and Dan won 13-9 to take third place.

Winter Mixed Triples 2023

The Mixed Triples has now concluded. In the end, it was a shoot out between the top two teams: Dave, Margaret and Craig versus Fred, Andi and Keith. With both teams winning their first matches, the league ended up as a head to head. Crucially, Dave, Margaret and Craig had the advantage of a superior points difference, meaning that they could afford to lose, as long as they reached 7 points. Fred, Andi and Keith needed to win 13-6 or better.After a tight start, Fred, Andi and Keith raced away to a 9-2 lead and they were clearly the better team. Andi pulled off the shot of the match with a last boule carreau, resulting in a four point swing.After a very poor end at 9-2 down, Craig put his last boule on the coche, leaving Keith with a shot to kill the coche and win 13-2 and therefore the league. Keith duly hit the boule but only flicked it. The next four boules resulted in only one point and so the lead was extended, but only to 10-2.There were more chances for Fred, Andi and Keith at 10-4 with Andi having a shot for the match with a five point swing shot, but Dave, Margaret and Craig managed to creep up from four to six and finally to the all important seven points on the following end.Fred, Andi and Keith ultimately won the match 13-9 in a well deserved victory, having been the better team throughout. Dave, Margaret and Craig ended up winning the league with the same number of wins and by just 6 points difference.A special mention to Jimmy, Barry and Jane who came third and had a great tournament. As they almost beat Dave, Margaret and Craig in their match, they were very close to winning the league.

Guernsey Open September 2022

Set over two days, the Doubles were on Saturday 10 September and the Triples were on Sunday 11 September. Here is the report:

Major honours shared between Guernsey and Jersey at the 2022 Guernsey Pétanque Open

Thirty-two doubles teams and twenty triples teams from the UK, Jersey and Guernsey contested the annual Guernsey Pétanque Open which returned last weekend after a two year covid enforced break. The major honours over the weekend were shared with a Jersey team winning the Doubles and a Guernsey team winning the Triples over two days of hard fought matches.

In the Doubles, after the morning qualifying groups, eight teams remained in the main tournament, led by three teams from Jersey and three teams from Pétanque Events in the UK. Not to be outdone, two local teams also made the last eight: Andi Cleal with Hana Atkinson in one division and Craig Allen with Rob Tulie in the other division. Cleal and Atkinson played well throughout the day, but did not manage to post additional victories in a tough pool, headed by the eventual winners Frank & Bean. They missed out by the narrowest of margins 13-12 against a Pétanque Events team and had their chances to win. Frank & Bean (Geoffroy Buffetrille and Matt Buesnel) won all of their matches and therefore topped their group ahead of Pétanque Events 3.

Allen and Tulie fared better, narrowly beating a strong Jersey team Callum Stuart and Andrew Bellamy-Burt in their first afternoon match before succumbing 13-11 to another experienced Pétanque Events team, despite having led throughout most of the match. Whilst the Guernsey team still had an outside chance of topping the group going into the final match, they were well beaten by a strong Jersey team Matt Pinel and Laurent Pellaton in the final round, losing 13-8, but received the consolation prize of being the top local team in the Doubles. With Pinel and Pellaton also having beaten their Jersey team mates Stuart and Bellamy-Burt, they remained undefeated in the afternoon and topped their group.

The final was therefore contested by two Jersey teams, with Geoffroy Buffetrille and Matt Buesnel beating their local rivals Matt Pinel and Laurent Pellaton 13-6 in The Network Insurance final which went on until the early evening. It was clear that these were the best two teams over the day and their standard was markedly ahead of the teams from the UK and Guernsey. With several of the top local players missing the Doubles due to prior commitments,  they will have to work hard to compete with this Jersey based contingent in future competitions.

The Plate was another all Jersey affair. In the end, it was won by All By Myself, (Neil Selby and James Gennoe) beating Country Boys (Michael Cotillard and Darren Le Brun) in the final. Guernsey took the Consolage One with Fred Wallnofer and Dave Bartram making up for a poor morning with some good play in the afternoon. Consolage 2 was won by Pétanque Events 7 (James Kirkbride and Peter Le Cheminant) which was a mixed UK and Guernsey team.

The Triples on Sunday was a different affair, with two Guernsey teams performing well from the outset. Having missed the Doubles due to a prior commitment, Shane Brehaut was keen to make his mark and he was joined by two of his long standing partners, Ian Haith and Lee Holberry. The strongest local trio on paper duly delivered, winning their first three matches to take them to the semi-final.  Another local team performed equally as well with Vikki le Poidevin, Jim Ramsay and Joan Ramsay also winning their first three matches. In the semi-finals, Brehaut, Haith and Holberry defeated a very experienced Pétanque Events female team, but Le Poidevin, Ramsay and Ramsay succumbed to a strong Jersey trio whose team members had also performed well on the previous day.

This led to a Guernsey vs Jersey showpiece final with the best two teams on the day up against each other in a game of high standards.  After another fairly late finish, the Guernsey team ended up victorious, winning 13-7 after some consistently good play from Haith and Holberry in particular. In doing so, they took home the Doyle Motors trophy, meaning that Guernsey and Jersey shared the two major prizes over the weekend.