93rd Post... Home and Away

October 03, 2021

Welcome Noel!

The temperature may have dropped sharply but boules in Alden Park continues apace albeit with a little extra insulation appropriate to the time of year. There were players spotted every day of the week and on Wednesday, I took the above snap of our newest regular player, Noel Kelly. John certainly wasn't going easy on him but Noel enjoyed the morning's play nonetheless and played some super shots. If you see Noel on a morning you're playing, please do say hello and introduce yourself.

The busy pistes are no doubt helping to reinforce the idea that the area is not a place for littering or petty vandalism so thank you to all our players on this score. This is a really positive side-effect of our actions. The tables are in reasonably good shape and there's been very little rubbish seen over the last few weeks. I'm not entirely sure what conclusions to draw... was it just Tom D out each morning cleaning up after his late night partying?! :)

Open Play

Open play continues on Tuesdays, Wednesday & Thursdays. If you're at a loose end some morning, you're more than welcome to mosey on down and join in. Friendly games and chats are guaranteed.

Some players in Group B have expressed an interest in regular competition play. Ideally, we'd schedule something in Group B along the lines of what Group A do but the interest wasn't there last time we asked. We'll add this item to the agenda for the next Committee meeting.

Assorted photos from the week:

James was in superb form, casually knocking the coch to a new position.

Larry gambling that the next boule will be pointing rather than shooting!

Noel getting into the swing of things.

A moment of total group-wide focus.

Friday 0900: A solitary figure stalks the pistes.

It's the redoubtable Gerry Wolfe, getting some early morning practice in.

A Little Further Afield

Some very welcome news has come from St. Anne's Park in recent weeks as we understand a complete overhaul of the pistes is well advanced. It appears the surface is different to what it was previously but is also different to our own pistes. The new surfaces will pose new challenges which is no bad thing at all. It's also probably a great time to organise the return BBC vs. St. Anne's fixutre! No photos yet but I'll post them when I get some.

A Lot Further Afield

Six of our intrepid players continue their very long boules hollibops on the Continent. Whether they're being cruel or kind sending us the photos is an unknown!

Wish you were here?

We're not jealous at all.

Group A League Competition

Ten players battled it out on Monday in bright but chilly conditions. Charlie was Top of the Pops recording a score of 32 for the morning which catapulted him into second place. Ciaran drops to 3rd and Yvonne is leading the way for the ladies in 4th. Sean continues his early dominance with another solid showing although his lead has now been cut to 7 points. Full table follows below:

It's important to remember that weekly scores aren't as significant as you might think in this variant, especially in the early skirmishes. As we reach the latter stages, weak individual game scores will be wiped out so don't lose faith if you've made a slow start. Averaging two 10+ scores each week will mean you've a good chance of being in the mix when we get to the business end of the competition.

Assorted photos from Monday:

Marching to victory?

Bombs away....