Sunday 7th September, 2008

After a week of smiley and overly enthusiastic weather girls pointing at pictures of clouds (well swirls of grey, blue, and bright green) suggesting that there maybe a possibility of rain ... the weather did not disappoint. I boarded the 65 bus wiping away the drips from my chin, and ordered my bargain Sunday Essex Rover ticket at only £2.70. After the first leg of the journey we disembarked at Colchester Bus Station admiring the half finished & likely to be pulled down VAF for, oooo, about half a second and made our way to stand number 5. This is where the famous 88 bus departs from (so famous in fact that it has its own facebook group).
It was here that I started going into a mild panic that maybe the Dog was expecting us to bring our own petanque balls!!!
After selecting the scenic seat (the one by the window), I passed away the time by planning my trip to Woolworths or even Wisebuys to purchase some varying coloured tennis balls and a ping pong ball. Luckily after arriving in good time, I was relieved to find out that there was indeed a spare set of balls left behind the bar for us :) yay!
Also I was pleased that, along side the Adnams beers, there was a luuurvley Brandons beer ...mmm, all going well so far. This ale went down the hatch very nicely along with the energy inducing pre-game Quavers. Gradually the crowd increased ... bringing with it our youngest potential CAMRA member!!! ( do not fear... we do not encourage under age drinking ... and the photo's is purely for fun ... the only drink this Chelsea fan (where were his Col U colours!!!) was drinking was below 0% abv!
Whilst everyone was psyching themselves up for the big game, I made my way outside for the pitch inspection ... it was wet, but little surface water ... I spotted the roller to flatten the surface but no one volunteered to undertake this job.
We all huddled under the big umbrellas whilst I tried to prevent my scribblings on the back of the petanque rules from smudging everywhere!!

The players were split into 4 teams...

TEAM A Josie, Adam
TEAM B Simon, Dad 1 (Andy)
TEAM C The Mum (Meryl) The Dad 2 (Malcolm), Dave
TEAM D Darrell, Richard, me (Big Al...super sub)

After the warm up session it became blatant that the jack was impossible to identify amongst all the stones ... mmm ... improvisation ... we coloured it in white with some chalk ... much better!! Right ... then it was time for the real competition to begin....

ROUND 1 TEAM A vs. TEAM D

After the first round of balls had been played there was a sudden descending of bodies around the jack to work out the scoring ... sadley it became increasingly evident that both teams thought they were playing with the same pattern balls ie. 'little squares' ERROR ... the words 'piss up' and 'brewery' were mentioned. After in-depth analysis we problem solved, and action planned ... and chalked the 'small square pattern' balls ... and instead of team names ... we were from then on effectively known as the 'chalks' and the 'non-chalks'. Team A got off to a cracking start heading straight into the lead with 2 points. After scoring another 2 points making their total 4 it left TEAM D trailing behind. The next round of balls caused problems ... with poor preparation skills, the tape measure had been left in my wardrobe back in Col U land ... more improvisation saw a variety of objects being pulled out the shed at the foot of the pitch in a vague attempt to resolve the dispute between the two teams over whose ball was closest to the jack ... and woo hoo ... my team ... sorry no bias ... TEAM D was off the mark scoring a whole point! At half time TEAM A were still ahead winning 8 points to 5 but TEAM D were picking up form with the scores reaching 11 and 10. This was a nail biting edge of your seat stuff final ... but to cut a long story short ... TEAM A had been ahead all game but TEAM D piped them at the post at last minute and won ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

ROUND 2 TEAM B vs. TEAM C

Afraid no report for the first part of this round due to the need for a toilet and beer break!! However I can tell you that at half time TEAM B was storming it with 8 points and TEAM C was on 3 mizzerly points ... actually storming was probably quite an appropriate description as at this point a crash of thunder was heard in the distance. In the end TEAM B won ... I did not notice the score as I was too busy chatting. Well actually I did but didnt want to embarrass the parents too much by telling you all how much they lost by.

FINAL (not shown on sky or sultana) TEAM B vs. TEAM D

Very close final, with both teams being level after the first two rounds of bowling. Half time TEAM D were leading 7 points to TEAM B's 5 points. I had been replaced by super sub Al which was proving a good tactical move ... gradually they increased their lead winning a crucial point toward the end of the game with lots of blocking, knocking and some very close bowls ... D were doing a grand job and were on match point (TEAM D 12 TEAM B 7) ........ and ........ after some time wasting ... (I do not think the balls really needed a re-chalk, I just think TEAM B wanted to break the oppositions winning run) ... TEAM D eventually took the title ... of Colchester YM Petanque Champions ... They graciously accepted the ultimate prize (a packet of McCoys crisps with a pickled egg) whilst TEAM B had to settle for runner up ... a Stella Atrois coaster. After bundling back inside for another quick drink, we realised that weather had actually turned out to be ok in the end ... Al forced us all into going for another quick drink in the White Hart. We made our way to the bus stop via the chippy ... and then I somehow ended up in the rather large cat in Colchester with Al before making my way home ... 7.5 hours after my first Drink ...

Thanks to everyone who came ... I do hope you enjoyed yourselves...mmm sleep zzzzzzzzz

Georgie