WMPA Celebrates its successes in 2011 From right to left (Pic.1&3):  Jerome Rousseau, Herve Bavazzano, Sofiane Lachani.  Pic.2 : England in action against Italy   Barry Scott, Dianne Scott and Claire White at The Home Nations Tournament, Nottingham 2011 Congratulations! 2 West Midlands players gained their coaching badges Teresa Bingham (Warwick) and Janet Kimpton (Half Crown)  have shown an interest in becoming a  coach. They both have taken their exam and have both successfully attained their Grade 3 Coaching Award. Ladies, Congratulations and Well done!  Barry Scott reports on the Home Nations Competition: Janet Kimpton (Half Crown on the left) Teresa Bingham (Warwick on the right))  The Home Nations competition was played on the weekend of 12/13 August at the new Nottingham City  petanque club. 8 teams each from England, Wales and Scotland competed in this annual event. The West Midlands region was represented by Barry and Di Scott with Claire White who played as England 3. After the opening ceremony, attended by the Lord and Lady Mayoress of Nottingham, the games started in earnest at 9.30am. After a flying start England 3 beat a good Scotland 1 team 13-1 and after long day finished the last gameat 7pm by beating Scotland 4 13-3 to record 4 wins out of 6 games. Sunday's play started at 8.45am and in their first game England 3 were drawn against Wales 1, Neil Dobbins's team who were going to Sweden for the European Championships the following week. After a great game which lasted 2hr25mins the Welsh came out on top, winning 13-9, but the effort took its toll and by the time they finished their last game (losing 13-12 to another good Welsh team) it was 7pm and time for the closing ceremony and a well earned rest. The challenging (and frustrating) nature of the terrain made for a hard and tiring two days when every point and shot demanded maximum concentration. A creditable total of 7 wins by Barry, Di and Claire helped the England squad to a victory total of 66 wins  overall. In a close contest for 2nd place the Welsh clinched it with 40 wins against the Scottish teams 38. Full results can be found on http://www.englishpetanque.org.uk Herve reports on England’s experience at the European Championship in Sweden from Friday 19th - 21st August 2011 "It all started when the draw was announced on Thursday afternoon. we were in a group of 5 with Luxembourg, Sweden 1 (host nation), Austria and Czech Republic. Compared to the other groups, it was one of the most challenging for us. Luxembourg (same 4 players) had been 1/4 finalists of the worlds in 2008 in Senegal and we thought that beating Sweden in front of a partisan crowd would be difficult. Having said this, we fancied our chances against the other 2 nations. Our initial objective (to qualify for the last 16) was not impossible but certainly challenging. First came the Czechs. We didn't know what to expect but they looked suddenly very impressive in practice. Both teams played great petanque wasting very little boules but we finished strong to win 13-5. Then came the Luxembourg which had just defeated Sweden, the top seed, 13-11. The game was one of our best ever and we won convincingly 13-6. This was a great start for us and put us in a very good position to qualify. We now knew that the shortest road to qualification would be to beat the Austria in the morning. But before that, Sofiane had to do the shooting competition. And he delivered the best ever English performance at a major international event (38pts) - and qualified for the 1/4ers. This was a massive boost for the team and Sofiane in particular. We had a great evening and now even more buzzing for the game against Austria. But then arrived Austria.  They looked really sharp petanque players. After a bad start (7-3 down), we regained control of the game and won 13-8. With Luxembourg losing their game against the Czechs, this meant automatic qualifications for us. We still had to play the Swedes but we were already really proud of what we had achieved. The game against Sweden was a must win for the host. Around 70 supporters were in the stands making noise for thousands at every boule played by the host players. The atmosphere was unbelievable. We were 8-6 up and then concede a 2 very poor ends to hand over the victory to the host nation. We were down but we soon regained our positive attitude after lunch. Losing against the Swedes meant that we would now play the group of France, Israel and Slovenia. Slovenia looked weaker"on paper" but had defeated Finland in the group stage (Finland won the B competition...). We had played Israel in a friendly on Thursday after our arrival and marginally won that game. France was untouchable. So, it was going to be tough to qualify for the quarters. However, we always knew that we would have to win 2 games to get there. This was our new objective set by the team. Get to the 1/4ers! First came Israel. It was a battle. Their shooter and middle were on fire and we had to dig really deep to edge them 13-9. Then came France...soon, we realised that we played a game called "boules" and they played a game called "petanque". They were full of confidence and won 13-0. But we were unaffected by that game. Our performance might have been average, we knew that the big game was going to be the play-off game between the winner of Israel/Slovenia. Israel won that game 13-12 and we faced them again. Losing quickly against France meant that we had one more hour to relax, have a shower, refresh and feel confident again. We played this game with great skills losing very few boules and won 13-1. We were now in the quarters with the like of France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Monaco, Germany and Sweden. But before that, Sofiane delivered an unbelievable performance against the talented Portuguese in the shooting quarters. It was always neck a neck and if it wasn't for some strange "complimentary" points awarded the Portuguese, I believe Sofiane would have won. Despite losing, we were really proud of his performance. Then came the morning and the same itialians that beat Jerome and I in 2007 (WC Thailand) in the last 32 13-0 and also our English team last year in the last 16 of the WC (turkey) 13-0. So, it was going to be really tough. But as we went for breakfast at 7:30am, we could already see them practising for the 8:30am game. So, we could only conclude that they were worried and needed the extra time on the pitch. So, this gave us strength and faith. We decided to go with proper English Fighting Spirit and try to get this Bronze medal. After the first 2 ends, we were 2-0 up and clearly playing the better petanque. Then came 3 ends when we were initially in control but missed shots and opportunities that would have allowed us to take complete dominance of the game. Instead, we found ourselves 10-2 down. Still, we didn't give up and came back 10-5 to finally lose the game 13-5. We were disappointed as we felt that this was our chance. It was clear that the Italians were showing unusual nerves but we couldn't capitalise this time. So, this was the end of the road for us. 3 days of competition, 9 games, 6 wins, 3 defeats, 1 by knock-out! A 5th position overall with only Monaco, Spain, Italy and of course France (the winners) finishing higher. A very respectable performance for us and above all, a great experience. On behalf of the team, I would personally like to thank the WM regional committee, the Half Crown Petanque Club and a specific individual (he will recognise himself for sure), for their financial support. Without you, this would have been an impossible trip to attend. We had your fantastic support in the back of our mind and we wanted to make everyone really proud. Hope to see you perhaps next year in Marseille!" Read Teresa report on her coaching experience Read below Teresa Bingham’s report on her coaching experience