At the end of July Sussex held their Over 50s Doubles Championships and the winners were David Alfred & Rohan Bedford who defeated Tony Mann & Jeff Mitchell in the final. This made both teams eligible to represent Sussex at the EPA Over 50s Champions of Champions. This was held on Sunday 25th September at Hanbury PC in Essex at a quite stunning location to play pétanque. Overall there were 16 teams from 11 of the EPA regions and the morning consisted of 4 leagues of 4 teams with teams from the same region separated. 
 
David & Rohan’s opening game was against the Isle of Wight team who they defeated 13-7 having trailed 0-5. Tony & Jeff’s opening game was against the Southern Region 2 team and their strong practice form deserted them as they struggled at times to earn a 13-10 win.
 
In the second game David & Rohan played the very experienced Angie & Lee Jamieson from Kent in a close encounter. Both teams had opportunities to build a lead but failed to capitalise and eventually David & Rohan succumbed to a 10-13 defeat. Tony & Jeff however beat the Anglian 2 team 13-0 but this was a case of where the score did not reflect how well Luisa & Les from Anglia actually played.
 
So it was essential for David & Rohan to win their third game to qualify for the afternoon’s main competition and they did just that by beating the Great Western team 13-5 to finish 2nd in the group. Tony & Jeff knew they had already qualified for the main but defeated the East Midlands 1 team 13-2 winning the group and also securing the number one seeding for the afternoon.
 
In the Main Quarter Finals David & Rohan were drawn against the Anglia 1 team and despatched them with a 13-5 win. Tony & Jeff played the Eastern 2 team and found themselves 0-7 down having not played at all badly but events going against them. They soon rallied though and came back to win 13-10.
 
Both Sussex teams avoided each other in the Semi-Final draw and David & Rohan played against the Anglia 2 team. Anglia built up an early lead before David & Rohan came back in what developed to be a very tight and long game. The final end saw Rohan shooting with the last boule and getting a carreau for game winning 13-11. Tony & Jeff were drawn against Angie & Lee from Kent in another tight and long game, not helped by some slow play by the Jamieson’s which earned them a warning from the umpire. At one stage the Jamieson’s had an opportunity to win the game if they had successfully moved the jack back but despite 3 attempts by Lee they did not achieve this and Tony & Jeff were mightily relieved to be still in the game. Tony & Jeff then finally saw off the match winning 13-10 to create an all Sussex final which absolutely no one would have predicted.
 
The final was played in a great spirit with both teams commending each other’s good play and of course in the knowledge that whatever happened it was going to be a great result for our region. David & Rohan started well but in the 3rd end of play a carreau from Jeff and strong follow up pointing by both players earned them 5 points and established a lead that they never surrendered. Tony & Jeff went on to win 13-7 and proved to be very popular winners with many of the teams participating and in particular with the teams they had defeated on route to the final.
 
It was a fantastic day for our Sussex Region with all four players proud to be representing Sussex, being great ambassadors for our region and making many friends during the day.

(thanks to Tony Mann for the above report and photos below) 

Sussex had teams competing in 3 different competitions and they played in difficult rainy conditions on the Saturday followed by glorious sunshine and heat on the Sunday.

Our Junior Team consisting of Ella Slade, Callum Slade and Morgan Pry had a difficult Sunday and failed to win any of their 4 games on the Saturday.However they fought back strongly on the Sunday and won 3 of their 5 games and should be congratulated on their maturity and resiliance. They were ably managed by Les & Lindsey MacDonnell.

In the ChallengeTournament our 4 teams were playing in Division 2. On the Saturday our teams won 13 of the 28 matches played and were sat mid-table. However on the Sunday they won 13 out of 20 matches played and they climbed the table to finish 3rd and only 3 wins behind the 2nd placed team so narrowly missing out on promotion. Our Challenge Squad were ably managed by Claire Slade.

Our team of Sylvie Pry, Martin Pry, Steve Slade and Steve Mortimer finished as the 2nd best team of all the 8 regions in the division with an amazing 9 out of 12 wins and only missing out on top spot by points difference.

In the Main Inter-Regional Championship our 8 teams were playing in Division 1 for the 2nd year running. It was a tough morning on the Saturday as we were drawn to play the 4 strongest regions of London, Southern, Chiltern and Kent. We came away with 4 wins against both London and Kent but only 1 win against Southern and Chiltern. On paper we should have picked up more wins in the afternoon but only picked up 4 wins against Northern, 3 against Heart of England and only 2 against East Mids. At the end of Day 1 Sussex were at the foot of the table with 19 wins. On the Sunday we picked up 3 wins against London and 2 against Kent and followed this with 4 wins against both Heart of England and Northern and finished with only 2 wins against East Mids. We remained at the bottom of the table and along with East Mids will be relegated to Div 2 next year.

Our 7th and 8th seeded teams both finished with a respectable 6 wins out of 12 played. Jacky Broad, Andy Pettitt, Debbie & Graham Gillett finished with 6 wins and a points difference of -18. However our best performing team were Ed Brown, Rob Wren, Jamie Holland and Kevin Earl who finished with 6 wins and a points difference of -8.
Our Main Squad were managed by Dawn Constable who, once again, made sure everyone including the other squads, teams and managers all could concentrate on their playing without worrying about any other stresses. 


​Despite the disappointment of just missing out on promotion in the Challenge, and being relegated in the Main Inter-Regionals, Sussex will come back next year stronger and more determined to win a double promotion and with our Juniors battling it out for the top positions.


Full results are attached below and they can also be found on the EPA website