Very well done to everyone who took part in last Sunday's North West Challenge. It was a great day, in one of the most picturesque spots of Victoria (even the Southern Hemisphere) with good company and fine weather.

Both teams performed really well, against some good opponents, coming in at 7th and 8th place out of 15.  

I did notice that our results were better after the lunch break - possibly as a consequence of our performance-enhancing drugs - next year, we can maybe start on that a bit earlier, maybe at 09:30 ??

Photos below
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The results are shown below:

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Well done to everyone who played at Avoca in March.

Especially well done to the two Daves who came first in the Social. John and Mike did very well in qualifying, coming in at 19th place out of 53 after winning 3 out of 5 games. Jeff and I came in 27th place with 2 out 5 wins. Jack and Pam were unlucky coming up against some strong teams early on, but still managed one win out of 5 games.

Delia and Anne were extremely unlucky in their draws, coming up against Alex and Sary in one game, Jean-Claude and Martial in another and Guy Detot & Andrew Jackman in their last game.  They did however score 10 points against Lindsay and Alison Kinghorn ... on the Sunday, I spoke to Lindsay who had nothing but praise for the way Anne and Delia played, so well done!!

National Head Coach JF Veysierre conducted some training at Smythesdale in Nov 20221

The Smythesdale team of Mike Sheedy, Delia Allen, Phil McGrath and Ray Masson won this year's Learmonth Cup in March 2022

The tongue in cheek mid year championships presentation were held at the Smythesdale Recreation Reserve on July 9th.

Most Distant Member Big Dave
Most Games Played Gerry Marthe
Best Delta Rob Willet
Most Improved Ray Mason
Club Champion (Most Games won on average)
3rd  Rob  61.6%
2nd Mike Croome 63.04%
Winner Joe Spiteri 64.29%

Congratulations Joe!

Some shots from a very wet day. Six clubs fighting it out for the honour of being the inaugural winners at what might become an annual event, Our team of Rob, Kevin, Mike S and Michele played well and won one game.

Congrats to Mike C and Linda for the excellent organisation

A fantastic end of year BBQ was held at the Rec. Reserve on Dec 20th.  Jeff won the Half year championship presented by Clive Williams who now has his name on the cup.  A big thanks to everyone who came and participated. A good social night!

The Club put on a demo game of petanque at the launch of Learmonth Cider on Sunday 29th November.  It was a great day and many thanks to Club members Mike Croome and Linda Davey for organising it.

​The Cidery incorporates a very nice playing area that easily accommodates two pistes.

Two teams of three played off. Jeff (subbing for Gerry), Michel and Phil B beat Jack, John and Mike S in a very tight game (in the end!). Mike C and Linda provided some very entertaining and informative commentary to the enthralled audience.  Afterwards a number of games ensued.

Lots of great Cider and food was consumed. The weather was kind. Thanks to everyone.  Thanks too to Phil Cormie the inspiration behind the new Cidery at Learmonth

​If you click on the photos you get a bigger version..

daThis year we weren't able to conduct our annual Morisset Cup Open Triples tournament.  However we were able to invite some players from local regional clubs to come and play a pop up game on the Saturday 31st Oct.  We had representatives from four clubs - Smythesdale, Ballarat, Grampians and Woodend.  Some pics follow. The wining club was Grampians!

The Ballarat Times did a cover story on the Club on Oct 15th.  The photos below were taken for that article.

During the COVID lockdown where we could only exercise with one other person we ran a singles tournament over a couple of weeks where two people played each other in a public space (with Council approval and a friendly police visit).  The season's performances are in the following table (if you can read it! Try clicking on it!)

Finals were held on Sep 16th with Chis playing Jack in one semi and John playing Andres in the other. Chris and John played in the final with John being the winner!

Congratulations John.