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The 18th Cobbetts Poppy Appeal Doubles was held at Burridge on Remembrance Sunday, November 8th. The full complement of 48 teams was achieved by the 3rd week of September! We had a record entry of 7 juniors and also 3 espoirs (another 3 juniors had entered but had to withdraw beforehand for various reasons). All 3 espoirs and 4 of the juniors finished in the prizes which is great news for the future, especially with Petanque England holding their Junior and Espoirs Doubles at Cobbetts next May.
There were twelve morning leagues 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.
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 again attended especially to recite the exhortation during the act of remembrance.
Callum Lombard and one of the juniors, Zac Kelly-Lord, were top seeds after the morning leagues with an impressive 3 wins +32. Second seeds were defending champions Steve Daykin & Phil Bradshaw on +31. Equal 3rd seeds were the home team of Dave Stubbs & Richard Greeves and the Crondall team of Carolyn Greenhalgh & Eliot Mortimore both on +25. Close behind were the Cobbetts/Racing Club pairing of John Barker and Richard Baker on +24 and the Worthing/Arundel team of Martin Gordon and Malcolm Berrett on +23. Making their annual competition appearance were the Botley Butchers, Nick and Mike Hillier. Despite their lack of match practice, they used all their years of experience to finish on 3 wins +17, defeating one of the competition favourites Dave Plumhoff & Steve Welford along the way! Also on 3 wins were the Bath pairing of Jeff Hutchinson & Lesley Eastlake on +15 and the Cobbetts/Muscliff pairing of Andy Barron and junior Matthew Butcher on +14, the same as the Cobbetts team of Mark Robertshaw & Hassi Leverett. Other league winners were Aimee Rickman & Will Read on 2 wins +19 and Marc Franco-Llado and junior brother Axel on +15.
In the afternoon knock-out rounds, top seeds Callum & Zac were somewhat surprisingly beaten by the 16th seeds, the experienced Crondall team of Carol & Allan Paice. Carol & Allan then defeated Andy Barron & Matthew Butcher to reach the semi-final. Here they met Dave P & Stephen who had proved too strong for the 4th seeds Dave & Rich and followed this up with a quarter-final win over Marc & Axel. Defending champions Phil & Steve beat the home team of Jim Bardell & Ness Raynbird before having a very good quarter-final match against Botley Butchers, who they eventually beat after long, tough game. Their next opponents were junior Aimee and espoir Will who had defeated Martin & Malcolm and then Carolyn & Eliot on their way to the semi-final.
Having duly won their semi-finals Dave & Stephen and Phil & Steve met in the final and great performances from Dave and Stephen saw them take the Paul Leverett Trophy with a 13-3 win.
The main consolage was won by Hassi & Mark whose only defeat of the day was in their Last 16 game against the Botley Butchers. They defeated Callum & Zac in the final.
The Plate competition was won by Alex Hepburn & Kev Williams from Parley who defeated the home club pairing of Chris Ralls and his espoir daughter Caitlin in the final. Semi-finalists were Leo Black & James Ellis and Ian Harper & Kevin Jones.
The Plate Consolage was won by the Cobbetts team of Ali Stubbs & Dave Kilshaw who defeated another Parley player, Dave Plaistow, and another espoir, Oxshott’s Thomas Wells.
The Wooden Spoon competition was won by the Arundel pairing of Etsil Boukhobza and Paul Myers who defeated Claire Rickman & Mark Duncan.
The Spoon Consolage final was won by Janet Dalton (Cobbetts) and Andy Carey from East Sussex who defeated Chris Turner (Headley & Bordon) and Alicia Clarke (Parley).
The raffle had many prizes, all donated, which raised a very large sum thanks to everyone’s generosity. Congratulations to Roger Greenhalgh who correctly chose Edmund in the Name the Bear competition. Thank you to Viv and Jim B for providing the bear and its uniform.
Chris Barron, as always, worked extremely hard in the kitchen to provide breakfast bacon rolls, excellent chilli and cheese & beans jackets, and of course his very tasty soup. A huge thank you to Chris.
Thank you also to everyone who helped by baking and donating lovely cakes, Paul Bone for building the additional terrains in the car park, helpers with the raffle, helpers behind the bar, helpers in the kitchen, helpers with organisation etc, etc. Also, we must not forget Steve Daykin who bought in France the vast majority of the 84 bottles of wine given as prizes. The savings this made helping greatly in our efforts to match the amount donated last year to the Poppy Appeal.
Results:
| Main | Winners | Dave Plumhoff (River Hamble) & Stephen Welford (Anglia) |
| Runners-up | Phil Bradshaw (Bath) & Steve Daykin (Cobbetts) | |
| Semi-finalists | Allan Paice & Carol Paice (Crondall) | |
| Semi-finalists | Aimee Rickman (Muscliff) & Will Read (Bedhampton) | |
| Quarter-finalists | Nick Hillier & Mike Hillier (Botley Butchers) | |
| Quarter-finalists | Caroline Greenhalgh & Eliot Mortimore (Crondall) | |
| Quarter-finalists | Marc Franco Llado (Meadow) & Axel Franco Llado (River Hamble) | |
| Quarter-finalists | Andy Barron (Cobbetts) & Matthew Butcher (Muscliff) | |
| Main Consolage | Winners | Hassi Leverett & Mark Robertshaw (Cobbetts) |
| Runners-up | Callum Lombard (River Hamble) & Zac Kelly-Lord (H&B) | |
| Semi-finalists | Roger Greenhalgh (Crondall) & Jay Willcocks (Anglesey Arms) | |
| Semi-finalists | Dave Stubbs & Richard Greeves (Cobbetts) | |
| Plate | Winners | Alex Hepburn & Kev Williams (Parley) |
| Runners-up | Chris Ralls & Caitlin Ralls (Cobbetts) | |
| Semi-finalists | James Ellis (Bordon) & Leo Black (Independent) | |
| Semi-finalists | Ian Harper & Kevin Jones (Portchester) | |
| Plate Consolage | Winners | Dave Kilshaw & Ali Stubbs (Cobbetts) |
| Runners-up | Dave Plaistow (Parley) & Thomas Wells (Oxshott) | |
| Wooden Spoon | Winners | Etsil Boukhobza & Paul Myers (Arundel) |
| Runners-up | Claire Rickman (Muscliff) & Mark Duncan (Bedhampton) | |
| Semi-finalists | Lesley Crofts & Colin Crofts (Headley & Bordon) | |
| Semi-finalists | Danny Corp & Jackie Corp (Shedfield) | |
| Spoon Consolage | Winners | Janet Dalton (Cobbetts) & Andy Carey (Sussex) |
| Runners-up | Chris Turner (Headley & Bordon) & Alicia Clarke (Parley) |