On a balmy summers night (we wish!) on 14th August a party of pseudo French men and their Mesdames descended on the Kings Head in Little Marlow to challenge the cream of Rotary Pétanque teams.
Split by President Tony into two teams - Maidenhead Vieux and Maidenhead Jeune, the battle commenced on the piste. The competitive spirit came to the fore almost immediately as Monsieur Clarke positioned his derrière in the wrong piste. As the rain commenced we were glad of our berets keeping the rain from our eyes.
The results were as follows:
Maidenhead Vieux: won 1, lost 1, drew 1
Maidenhead Jeune: won 2, lost 0, drew 1
As only two other teams won all three games Maidenhead Jeune thought that they would be third, but by some quirk of the rules (not recognised by this international player) we were not third but fifth. As we retired to the bar to calls of "recount", "we was robbed" and "mine's a pint" or in the case of Monsieur Clarke "mine's a half", we reflected on a night of maybe’s and what if's. All agreed that as the night was magnifique, we will enter again, perhaps as an additional social evening in early summer next year.
Maidenhead Teams were (in no particular order of age):
Vieux (Old)
President Tony “tosser” Lodge
Eddie “le derrière” Clarke
Ian “why am I not in the young team” Thomas
Jeune (Young)
David “bomber” Perry
Sean “ little balls” Egan
Peter “you would not get away with this in France” Graham