The sun shone and there was little wind as 5 members came together this morning for another game on the petanque pitch. We summarily divided into obvious teams of 3 ladies and 2 men and the latter kicked off and won the first end which the ladies equalled on the second. However, playing with an extra team member showed and the ladies then moved forward and were soon 4 points ahead. Another member came by and she was soon persuaded to join the men which certainly helped them narrow the points gap. A second member arrived later and she gave the ladies that extra advantage again. As usual, we had several interruptions from passing public who were interested to know what we were doing including four Ukrainian refugees who had recently arrived here and were being introduced to the delights of Totton by their host. We encouraged them to have a go, which they were pleased to do, before moving on. Then it was back to the game and and at one time it was difficult to determine who was closer to the “jack” as five boules landed almost nudging it. By the penultimate end the ladies led by a single point. Of course, this concentrated our minds on the game and by some miracle the men managed to gain 5 points putting them over the magic figure of 13 to win. Final score was 11 - 15 to the men. Well done everyone. It was all very light-hearted and enjoyed by each one of us. Ken

A short reminder that we’ll be on the pitch behind the library (weather permitting) at 10.15am on Monday for more fun and laughter. Let’s see you there with your boules in your hand and ready to go. Newbies always welcome. Hope you all had a brilliant Easter. We did. Ken.

I arrived at the pitch a few minutes late this morning, due to our washing machine disgorging its load 5 minutes later than expected and wanting to get the laundry out into the sunshine, to be greeted by a sea of expectant faces all ready for playoff.   

Getting down to business team B finished the first end two points up.    Second end they were just as good and scored the same.    Just to make sure that team B did not become bored,  team A managed to gain one point on the next end and another later in the game.   However, team B surged ahead and finished the last end with a magnificent SEVEN points!   Final score was Team A with two points and Team B on fourteen.

I was in team A and John Benfield was part of team B and so I now wish B team many hearty congratulations (because John told me to do so in my report).    I’m not the jealous type.     I’ll now crawl back into my little hole until the next game on the 25th of this month.

Good news, so far as I am concerned, is that the washing was dry when we arrived home. 

See you all again soon,  Ken