Saturday 24 Oct 2020 at 12:00 am - 12:00 am
2020 Autumn League: Quarter Final Home Match Vs Cranleigh at Cranleigh
Handcross Bubble Well and Truly Bursts
After qualifying as the best seeds in the league spirit in the team was high going into the quarter final match. A strong team consisting of Bill, Sam, Justin, Peter, Tony K and Liam were selected for the team. Still having no solution to the ongoing toilet issues with the parish council, Cranleigh were unhappy to travel to our pitch and so we had to give up the home advantage and make the trip to Cranleigh. We were given a warm welcome and after being spoken through the club rules regarding social distancing the triples games were ready to be played.
The team was divided up into the following two teams: Justin, Sam and Peter were team one and Liam, Bill and Tony made up the second team. We knew Cranleigh were going to be a much tougher test than what we had faced in the group stage however what happened in the triples was a big eye opener to the team.
Team one elected to play on the thicker area of the piste which looked to suit Peter and Sam’s lob style of pointing. However, the team did not start well going 5-0 down and heads dropping in the team. Peter’s shooting was not up to his usual standards and he was getting more and more frustrated as the game went on. Sam was also struggling to get the right weight with his pointing with many of his points going through long and then the follow up being short. Justin was trying his best to keep the team together but even the coach was struggling to pull his team mates out of the hole they found themselves in. As the game went on Cranleigh pulled further into the lead making it 8-2 and the Handcross boys looked like the game was almost over before it had even started. The team did manage to score a couple more points, but it was to no avail and the team lost the match 13-4.
Team two were arguably playing Cranleigh's stronger team, captain Liam clearly backing himself and his team’s ability to get the win in the game. After a cagey first few ends the teams were locked together at 4-4 with all to play for. None of the Handcross team were playing to their full ability, Liam was playing at first point and although he had a few good points on to the coche was at best performing at a 50% rate during the start of the match and this didn’t seem to improve any through the game. Bill was also struggling with the pointing on a few occasions having his two boules as the last two in the end and not being able to make use of them and score more points in the end. Tony's shooting was performing okay but with his pointers not being at their best it made it difficult for his good shots to be effective and turn into winning ends. Going from 4-4 to Cranleigh being 7-4 up the team decided to switch Bill who was now moved to shooting to see if he could make more of his boules count this way. It was to no prevail though as Cranleigh kept on scoring points until they got to 10. By this point Bill had been moved to first point, Tony was back shooting and Liam was playing in the middle. With hopes that maybe Cranleigh would get stuck on 10 the Handcross team won two ends in a row making the score 10-6. A comeback could’ve been on the cards but a very poor end from the team meant Cranleigh had three boules left in hand to try and win the match. After not being able to do it with the first two their final boule did the trick in moving the coche back to their three boules behind a shot worthy of winning the game and meaning the Handcross team lost the match 13-6.
Being 2-0 down the team knew they could not afford any more slip-ups and had to ensure they won all three doubles to win the match and stay in the competition. Tony and Justin were paired up together as Handcross's strongest team to play Cranleigh's strongest pair. The Handcross team now fired up were playing much better with a point to prove as to why we were number one seeds. The team won the first four ends of the match scoring 3 points in the first 3 ends and then scoring another point making the score 10-0 after four ends. The two lads didn’t let off the pressure and managed to fanny the opposition ensuring hopes of a huge comeback were still alive for the whole team. Bill and Peter also were not messing around and were now seeming to be playing much better. The match was played on the thicker end of the piste which seemed to suit Bill’s pointing and Peter’s shooting had found some form and he was beginning to hit boules again. After an excellent display the pairing managed to beat the Cranleigh team, not quite as spectacularly as Tony and Justin but still very well winning 13-2.
All eyes now turned to watch Sam and Liam to see if they could finish the comeback off. This game was a much closer affair than either of the other doubles matches. Scoring only 1’s and 2’s the match got off to a slow start with the score being 3-3. After a good start shooting Liam had now become very inconsistent and so a swap was made and Sam was moved to shooting and Liam was pointing. The swap didn’t make much of a difference and the Handcross boys were now struggling and were losing the match 8-4. With the other matches finished the pressure was now on as it had become an all or nothing game. The deficit was however too much to turn around and unfortunately the team lost the match 13-5. After getting back into the match and having a real chance it was devastating to lose the match like this with everybody watching on.
Looking back on the match there are lots of what if’s and things that could’ve been done differently with the play and team selection, but ultimately we weren’t good enough on the day and a particularly a slow start in the triples is what killed off our chances. Despite the disappointment in losing it is still just nice to be back playing some competitive Petanque against fellow clubs and it can be a real learning point going forward to next year's league season which will hopefully go ahead. A huge thank you to Cranleigh for hosting us and good luck to them in the rest of the competition.
(Liam Kidd)