Spring Open International Triples
Whitnash, England April 2019Whitnash Windmill Pétanque Club have their home at the Whitnash Sports & Social club, near Leamington Spa. A Petanque club with excellent facilities and some challenging terrains that test your technical abilities, Whitnash Windmill Pétanque Club play host to their annual Spring Open International Triples competition in April.
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Now a staple event in the Petanque calendar in England, the spring triples always draws a good mix of teams from across the UK as well as teams from France who usually make the trip from Villebon-sur-Yvette, a town just South of Paris that is twinned with Whitnash.
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The 2019 event was held on Sunday 14th April. Whilst the teams from Villebon-sur-Yvette couldn’t make the trip this time around, there was still a full house of 32 teams. Order of play consisted of a morning of 8 leagues of 4 to rank players for the afternoons 4 knockout competitions. Most groups saw the favourites finish top and progress to the main “Gold” knockout, but the morning wasn’t without its surprises.
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The biggest of these surprises was perhaps a team from John Street Petanque Club, overcoming one of the teams from London Petanque Club; one of the clubs in contention to represent England at this years EuroCup, in a fiercely contested match that finished 13-10 to John Street. However, it wasn’t enough to see them into the Gold, with the London team eventually making it as far as the Semi-Finals.
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Overall winners were a team from Baldock Town Petanque Club, Jack Blows, Sarah Huntley and Ross Jones were on fine form throughout the day. A last minute entry into this year’s tournament after a late drop out by another team, this seems to be a winning formula for Ross Jones, whom last year at La British Open in Heckmondwike came out winner having been a last minute entry there also.
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