merciapetanque

Mercia Petanque Association recently held their annual Dinner Dance & Presentation Evening at the Hostess Restaurant near Mansfield. The event was originally scheduled to take place at the end of January along with the AGM but was rearranged due to Covid.

46 people representing 7 clubs from the Mercia family attended the event, and enjoyed an excellent three course meal, which was followed by the presentation of awards to the winners of competitions held by Mercia over the past year. In total 24 trophies were presented – see below.

The prizes were announced by outgoing Chairperson John Proctor who himself was then awarded with a special trophy in recognition of his services to Mercia Petanque presented by regional captain Mike Ricketts. Thanks were also extended to Di Harrington for organising the event.

The award for the best dressed attendees- if only there had actually been one – would surely have gone to Robin Winter, Chris Brown and Kirsty Chalmers who were resplendent in full evening dress.

As always on these occasions the main topic of conversation revolved around petanque, but some hilarity was caused by one member who, not content with telling anyone willing to listen, that he had appeared on Come Dine With Me, further claimed that he had been on Naked Attraction. Whilst research confirmed that he did grace Come Dine With Me, no-one so far has managed to find him on Naked Attraction. Perhaps he only had a small part ?

The evening concluded with a disco and a number of people took to the dance floor to strut their stuff.

Everyone left looking forward to the presentation evening next year with the majority of the trophy recipients remembering to take their trophy with them.

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The awards were :

Winter League
Gold Winner	Bourne Abbots PC
Gold Runner Up	Chesterfield PC
Silver Winner	Nutbrook PC
Silver Runner Up	Arena PC
Sherwood Shield
Winner	Ravenshead PC
Runner Up	Arena PC
Closed Singles
Winner	Di Smith
Runner Up	Kevin Frost
Closed Shooting
Winner	Carla Jervis
Runner Up	Tim Jervis
CofC Closed Doubles
Winners	Paul Bult & Bill Spencer
Runners Up	Robin Winter & Chris Brown
CofC Closed Triples
Winners	Mike Ricketts, Jenny Robb, John Collins & Lynn Collins
Runners Up	Richard Derham, Neil Penny & Kevan Ramsdale
CofC Closed Veterans (55+) Doubles
Winners	Bryan Hodges & Kevin Frost
Runners Up	Morris Goodman & Colin Lane
International Ladies Day Doubles
Winners	Madhu Mistry & Sandra Butchart
Runners Up	Carla Jervis & Carole Sheppard
Memorial Trophy
Winners	June Graves & Christian Seville
Inter-Regional (Finals)
Highest Scoring Team	Bryan Hodges, Kevin Frost & Paul Bult
Mixed Doubles
Winners	June Ricketts & Mike Ricketts
Runners Up	Joint Runners-Up: Val Tully & Roy Clark + Megan Winter & Chris Brown
50+ Doubles Melee
Winners	Mike Ricketts
Runners Up	Ian Kingman