West Yorkshire League

Harrogate v Mirfield

The day started on a sad note as we held a minutes silence to mark the passing of Graham Bamford who sadly passed away the previous week while playing petanque against Leeds.

Mirfield offered Harrogate the opportunity to postpone the match but Harrogate wanted to play the match to honour Graham.

Mirfield petanque club sent a condolences card to Graham's family.

The match was played in torrential rain, and anyone who has ever played there knows it's right in the middle of town right next to a bus stop

We must have looked a sight,12 pensioners throwing balls in the pouring rain

Triples

Diana, Harry and Michael played well with some excellent pointing from Michael and were leading the game until Harrogate scored a 5, not deterred by this, they clawed the game back to 10-9 and were on for 2 when the Harrogate player threw his last boule hard, sending boules to all points of the compass resulting in Harrogate winning a 4 and therefore winning the game 13-10. Such a cruel way to lose.

Shirley, David and Mark struggled to get to grips with the terrain and soon found themselves 4-0 down, with David finding his range and accuracy and Shirley her shooting boots eased to a 13-6 victory

So it was all square at the break

Doubles

David and Michael struggled as the rain got heavier and lost 13-5

Shirley and Mark carried on their good form from the triples to win 13--3

So the match was all square at 2 games all, so all down to Diane and Harry

The match was very tight with both teams leading at times, the score was 11-11 until Diane scored the final points to take the game 13-11

So Mirfield won the match 3-2 , thanks to all who played on what was the wettest day of the year.

And thanks to Harrogate who went ahead with the game at this difficult time for them

Next game, Heckmondwike at home on Monday