Friday 16 Oct 2020 at 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
2020 Autumn League: Away Match Played Against Worthing Simpsons
Handcross Finish Top of the Pile in the Autumn Cup
With Handcross already topping the group the final game against Worthing was to decide where Handcross would be for the knockout and if Worthing would qualify themselves as one of the best runners-up.
It was a lovely evening down at Worthing, warm enough so coats didn’t need to be worn and even Northerner Sam was in his t-shirt, clearly not quite acclimatised to the Southern England climate. The all-male Handcross team consisted of Gerard, Justin, Bill, Tony K, Sam and captain Liam. With the triples up first captain Liam decided to split the teams up as follows: Bill, Justin and Sam; and that left Gerard, Tony and Liam himself. Gerard, Tony and Liam proved to be formidable opponents, winning their match 13-3 in only 5 ends of Petanque.
The match started off with the Handcross lads winning the first end and then having an extremely poor end and giving away the only 3 points Worthing scored. Now into the swing of the match Tony was in fine form with his shooting and Gerard had now mastered the terrain and his first points were now very consistently being on or near the coche.
The game ended in spectacular fashion. With Worthing having used up all their boules Handcross were holding one with Gerard having one boule and Liam having two. Gerard pointed short which left Liam two shots for game. He hit the first shot but in doing so moved the second boule requiring shooting in front of one of the Handcross boules. It was an ambitious shot to take on, but with a healthy lead it was a shot worth taking on. Amazingly Liam managed to take the opponents' boules out whilst leaving Gerard's boule where it was as well as careuxing his own boule. This meant the team scored 6 points although they only needed four to win the match.
The second triples match was a closer affair aand with Sam struggling to shoot, Bill took over midway through the match and the team started improving. Justin’s pointing was not up to his usual very high standards in the triples, but the team managed to win to a score line of 13-6. In the final end Bill had two very nice shots at a longer distance of around 9 metres and this meant it left a clear path with Sam having two boules in hand to point the last point in and secure the win. His first point was extremely short, and this meant all the pressure was on with his last point. Having the rest of the team watching on Sam managed to make his last boule count and secure the win for the Handcross team putting them in a 2-0 lead overall.
Captain Liam now had to make his team selection for the doubles and trying to win the match as best the team could to ensure the best possible finishing position. The squad was split into the following doubles teams: Bill and Liam, Tony and Gerard, Justin and Sam. With a good mixture of pointers and shooters in the various teams the team was hopeful for a good result. Despite a difficult start to the game, when on a couple of times Bill shot out his partner Liam’s boules, the boys managed to seal the overall match win by defeating there opponents 13-3 meaning Handcross had won the overall match. Having finished quickly Bill and captain Liam were now able to watch the rest of the team matches both still in early stages.
With the knockout stages approaching it was a good chance for captain Liam to watch some of his team members play before he would have to select the upcoming teams for the later stages of the competion. Tony and Gerard were having a close match with their opponents. The Worthing team was keen on playing a long coche which didn’t favour Tony’s shooting and pointing was more difficult for Gerard at this long distancing. It also didn’t help that on a few occasions when the Handcross team had won the previous end Gerard threw the coche too close to the dead boule lines giving up the advantage of being able to have the coche at a more favourable distance for the team. Justin, being our resident coach and keeping an eye on the match from the next piste ove,r spoke about giving some coche throwing lessons in the next coaching session. As the match got near to the finishing lines the score was 9-9 and then 11-11. Finally, with the coche then over 10 metres Tony managed to hit a boule with his last boule in hand and the Handcross team managed to score the 2 points needed meaning the team won 13-11.
Meanwhile, in the last remaining game Justin and Sam were also struggling in the match. With Sam still struggling with his shooting Justin was now shooting and Sam was doing the pointing. With the score at 11-8 the Worthing team had 3 boules but were unable to make any of them count and only scored 1 point meaning Justin and Sam had another end to play. They didn’t cover themselves in glory again with Worthing this time gifting them a boule by accidentally promoting one of their boules then being unable to shoot it out. Not finishing their chances when they had them proved to be Worthing’s downfall and the Handcross team managed to get over the line and win the match 13-12.
This meant that despite the two very close doubles game Handcross had won the match 5-0. A slightly flattering score line with how close the two doubles matches were. With this game being the final match to finish in all the league, organiser Dave Stubbs was quick to publish the full results. Amazingly, Handcross had qualified as number one seeds meaning they would play the number eight seeds which was a local derby against Cranleigh. Being the higher seeds meant that Handcross had also earned the right to be the home team for the match. However, due to our ongoing dispute with the parish council and them not allowing us to have access to any toilet facility Cranleigh were not happy to travel to us so instead the game is now being played at Cranleigh this coming Saturday (24th) at 10am.
(Liam Kidd)