Poppy Doubles 2023

The 15^th Cobbetts Poppy Appeal Doubles was held at Burridge on Sunday, November 12^th. Initially the entry was restricted to 38 teams but thanks to the co-operation of Burridge Football Club, who managed to move their fixture to an away match, we set-up 5 more terrains on the car park and had a full house of 48 teams. Thanks to all the teams for their amazing support but especially those who made the long journeys from outside of the region, including players from Wales, Bath, London and Kent.

The morning brought the awful news that Paul Leverett, husband of Hassi and a Cobbetts member for the past 5 years, had tragically and suddenly passed away the previous evening. Paul had been due to be at the competition helping with the organisation and Hassi should have been defending her Poppy Doubles title with Mark Robertshaw. A terrible loss for the club, the Southern Counties region and Petanque England but most of all for Hassi. R.I.P. Paul, you will be sadly missed.

There were twelve morning leagues of 4 teams with the league winners and next best 4 teams qualifying for the main competition in the afternoon, the next 16 in the plate and the final 16 in the wooden spoon.

Champions in 2021, Steve Daykin & Phil Bradshaw were top seeds after the morning leagues with an impressive 3 wins +34. Second seeds were Liam Kidd & Kaylee Thatcher on +26, closely followed by the Clymping pairing of Wesley McCullough and Geoff Fowler. Other league winners were Dave Stubbs & Richard Greeves on +21, Mark Gay & Leslie Eastlake also on +21, Frank Charlesworth & Christine Peat on +19, Nigel Sibbring & Martin Gordon +17, Steve & Karen Lombard +15, David Franco Cruz & son Axel Franco Llado +14, Graham Blake & John Barker +12, Dave Kilshaw & Carrie Litchfield on 2 wins +14 and Alex Moriarty & Sophie Rowley 2 wins +5. Joining them in the main, the next best 4 teams were Leo Black & James Ellis, Grant & Sandra Goodwin, Dave Plumhoff & Millie Perkins and Ameen Miah & Christian Revil.  

Just before 11am play was stopped for the traditional two minutes silence for Remembrance Sunday. A big thank you to Mike Moss from Fareham who, a couple of weeks before his 90^th birthday, again attended especially to recite the exhortation during the act of remembrance.

In the afternoon knock-out rounds, Graham Blake repeated his semi-final placing in 2022, this time with John Barker, beating Nigel & Martin and Kaylee & Liam along the way. Dave & Carrie had beaten Paul & Eliot and Wesley & Geoff on their way to the semi-final where they beat their Cobbetts club mates.

Dave & Richard, Main Consolage winners in 2022, managed to progress further in the main this year with narrow wins over James & Leo and Alex & Sophie before falling to Steve & Phil in the other semi-final. Steve & Phil beating the London pairing Ameen & Christian and Steve & Karen on their way. This meant that 7 out of the 8 semi-finalists were from the home club!

Steve and Phil won the final but the 13-1 scoreline did not reflect how well Dave & Carrie played. The main consolage was won by Frank & Christine who overcame Ameen & Christian in the final

The Plate competition was won by Callum Lombard & Stuart Floyd who defeated Tony & Peter Kidd (Runners-up in the Main last year). The Plate Consolage was won by Dave Lucas & Harrison Ash who defeated the home team of Terri Cox & Alan Forse in a close final 13-9.

The Wooden Spoon competition was won by another Cobbetts pair, Bernie Miles & Viv Tilbury who defeated Carolyn Greenhalgh & Tomasz Drewniak from Crondall in the final.  Another Cobbetts team also won the Spoon Consolage with Mark White & Steve Mills defeating Kevin Williams and Erica Dixon-Gough from Parley in the final.

The raffle had many prizes, all donated, which raised a very large sum thanks to everyone’s generosity. There was also a wine raffle for a case of 6 large bottles of English Sparkling wine, also very generously donated, which was won by Viv Tilbury. Sean Wiggill from Handcross correctly chose Morgan in the Name the Bear competition. A big thank you to Chris Barron for donating the bear and for all his hard work with Lyn Porter in the kitchen. Last but not least, thank you to all the other helpers who made the day such a success. Thanks to the great support shown by club members and all the visiting players, we should again reach (and probably surpass!) the target of £1500 for the Poppy Appeal.

Results:

Main	Winners	Phil Bradshaw (Bath) & Steve Daykin (Cobbetts)
	Runners-up	Dave Kilshaw and Carrie Litchfield (Cobbetts)
	Semi-finalists	Graham Blake& John Barker (Cobbetts)
	Semi-finalists	Dave Stubbs & Richard Greeves (Cobbetts)
	Quarter-finalists	Alex Moriarty (Bath) & Sophie Rowley (Kent)
	Quarter-finalists	Wesley McCullough & Geoff Fowler (Clymping)
	Quarter-finalists	Steve & Karen Lombard (River Hamble)
	Quarter-finalists	Kaylee Thatcher (River Hamble) & Liam Kidd (Handcross)
Main Consolage	Winners	Frank Charlesworth & Christine Peat (Bordon)
	Runners-up	Ameen Miah & Christian Revil (London)
	Semi-finalists	Mark Gay & Lesley Eastlake (Bath)
	Semi-finalists	Martin Gordon (Worthing) & Nigel Sibbring (Handcross)
Plate	Winners	Stuart Floyd (Anglesey Arms) & Callum Lombard (River Hamble)
	Runners-up	Tony Kidd & Peter Kidd (Handcross)
	Semi-finalists	Eliot Mortimore & Paul Myers (Crondall)
	Semi-finalists	Dan Murphy & Gay Evans (Bath)
Plate Consolage	Winners	Dave Lucas (Ship) & Harrison Ash (Crondall)
	Runners-up	Terri Cox & Alan Forse (Cobbetts)
Wooden Spoon	Winners	Bernie Miles & Viv Tilbury (Cobbetts)
	Runners-up	Carolyn Greenhalgh & Tomasz Drewniak (Crondall)
	Semi-finalists	Allan & Carol Paice (Crondall)
	Semi-finalists	Phil Cross & Tim Jewell (Southampton City)
Spoon Consolage	Winners	Mark White & Steve Mills (Cobbetts)
	Runners-up	Kevin Williams & Erica Dixon-Gough (Parley)