Eighteen teams took part in the 15th annual Hawke’s Bay Autumn Triples at the Hawke’s Bay Lawn Tennis and Squash (HBLTS) club in Napier. The weather was quite good and people had an enjoyable weekend of pétanque.
The Trophy final featured Sharon Cannon, Dez Grant and Sarah-Jane Wright (for fourth year in a row) against Moises Burgos, Myles Cowper and Michael Rocks. The Wellington team took a healthy lead right from the beginning but the local team fought back and closed the gap down to 11-9. Moises, Myles and Michael picked up another two points to win the final 13-9.
In the Trophy consolation final Trish Biddle-Amoroa, David Nicholls and Lee Taffard beat Vaughan Husband, Flo Madgewick and Richard Turfrey.
In the Plate final Colin Gooch, Michael Gooch and Peter Gooch beat John O’Halloran, Carole Rowsell and Mark Thompson.
In the Plate consolation final Neville Frost, Stefany Frost and Trevor Neilson beat John Church, Mary Church and Patricia Galbraith.
Masterton’s fifth defence of the Jacques Cochonnet Trophy was away at Upper Hutt.
The home team had a good start winning two of the three first round games. In the second round Upper Hutt won two more games to take a 4-2 lead, leaving Masterton no choice but to win all three games in the last round.
Masterton came back strongly winning the first two games to even the score 4-4, so it all came down to the last game. The result was decided on the final ball and the narrowest of margins, 13-12 to Upper Hutt.
Thirty teams took part in the Murrayfield Open Triples and enjoyed the great weather at Otaki. The format of the tournament was the usual 5 round random draw (timed games - 60 minutes each).
After the 5 rounds only two teams were undefeated. They were Linda Gazzard/Barbara Nichols/Alan Taylor and Moises Burgos/Myles Cowper/Michael Rocks. So it came down to points differential to decide the winner.
Linda, Barbara and Alan ended up with a better differential (+48) than Moises, Myles and Michael (+46). So they became the winners of the 2019 Murrayfield Open Triples. Dave Gatchell, Vaughan Husband and Graeme Morris won four games (+43) and claimed the third place.
