THE Penarth Petanque Club, every year, hosts the Colin Ballett Doubles Competition at their home ground at the Kymin Penarth.

Colin Ballett was one of the founder members when the club was formed in 1986 and members as well as visitors enjoyed the beautiful setting and surroundings of the Kymin.

This year, after being made homeless when the Penarth Council closed the Kymin, the club had nowhere to hold their annual competition, which had already been promoted before the sudden closure was announced.

The Monkstone Petanque Club in Penylan Cardiff, kindly offered their lovely grounds to the Penarth Club, so that all those who had expressed interest in taking part, would not be disappointed.

The competition took place with 16 teams taking part.

Thirty-two players, from various Welsh clubs, including Caerleon, Maesteg, the newly formed Ystradowen, Monkstone and Penarth, as well as a team from England, took part.

After three games and a break for lunch, the players were divided into two groups, depending on their ranking, to determine who would play in the Main competition, while the rest played in the Plate.

The main competition saw Jean-Yves Robic (Penarth) and Tony Smith (Monkstone), come back from 0-5 to beat Len Field and Jeremy Clare (Maesteg), and reach the final.

In the other semi-final, Kon Tomczyk (Caerleon) and Peter Westall (Maesteg), were easy winners, beating Jayne Dunn and Vickie Adshead (Monkstone), who put up a brave fight.

The final between Jean-Yves, Tony, Kon and Peter, was hard fought with no decisive leads, until the very last boules were thrown.

It took 90 minutes to reach its conclusion, with Kon and Peter victorious at 13-10, who fully deserved the 2019 trophy.

The two semi-finals of the Plate, were fought between Peter Kensett and Keith Knott (Monkstone), who beat Tim Howard (Penarth) and Mike Jones (Monkstone) and Roger Griffin and Bernard Adshead (Monkstone), who beat Barbara Vaughan and Richard Harris (Caerleon).

They all fought hard to stay in the game but in the end, the all Monkstone final saw worthy winners Roger and Bernard, with a 13-10 lead.

A great day was had by all, players and spectators alike.

The game of petanque continues to thrive, with new clubs being formed continuously.