KL Report - Lordswood Moldavians (Cup) - Won 5-0

From Phil
In the 13th Century the Moldavians conquered half of Eastern Europe. On the 13th of April they came to Whitstable to see if they could do the same to the Natives. The mighty Moldavian army fought its battles on the barren wastes of Transylvania, so they should have felt quite at home on the Belmont piste. But history doesn't always repeat itself and, on this occasion, their combatants were obliged to make an honourable but hasty retreat.
  

This was Round 1 of the Kent Petanque League Knockout Cup, and the 21st century Moldavians, hailing from the Lordswood Sports & Social Club (and not the Romanian hinterlands) were in town to play the Natives' Wednesday team, skippered and managed by Alan Martin. This team has been operating in the Kent League for several years, under various guises and at various venues, but it is now playing in green and silver as a welcome and estimable member of the Whitstable Natives Petanque Club. 

The Moldavians arrived in good time and set about familiarising themselves with the piste. After practising for several minutes their captain concluded that it was going to be "a bit tricky," which turned to be something of an understatement. The triples games were played first and the "trickiness" soon became very apparent to the Moldavians playing on the near piste, who found its ups and downs extremely difficult to predict. But they fared better than their compatriots on the far piste, who found it absolutely impossible to predict. These games were won by the Natives 13-1 and 13-0 respectively and one can only admire the Moldavians for maintaining their equilibrium throughout this difficult experience. In fact, they proceeded to celebrate their one point in traditional Moldavian style:

After a brief respite the doubles games got underway and these saw the Moldavians' luck improve to a certain extent but not quite enough to allow them to actually win a game. Robin and Phil, playing on the roller-coaster far piste, were tested by their opponents, who adapted to the conditions and showed great character to level the scores at 10 apiece after the Natives had taken an early lead. The home team then demonstrated some character of their own, however, and asserted themselves for a 13-10 win.

On the near piste Alan and Robert were finding the terrain more approachable than it had probably been the night before, when it had been  so graphically and accurately described by Desi as, "distinctly damp, crater ridden and sluggish." Mind you, after Alan had finished demonstrating his high, looping lobs, it was even more cratered. Robert, with only a small degree of exaggeration, likened it to an Iraqi war zone. They won their game 13-7 in fine style.

That just left Chris and Pete to attempt to put the plum on the pudding by winning their game on the middle piste. This turned out to be no straightforward task, however, as their opponents managed to establish a sizeable lead of 11 points to 5. Resilience, spirit and patience were required to effect a comeback from this position and, fortunately, these characteristics were all on display and the Natives emerged as the eventual victors.

Altogether an excellent outcome and a good booster for the Wednesday Natives, who had been beaten 5-0 in an ice storm the previous week at Hartley Country Club. So we know what it's like to take a thrashing. Did I forget to report on that one? Well, my brain seemed to be frozen for the best part of a week. Not that anybody noticed. 

To  conclude: it has been a cracking first week of competition for the Natives. Overall score: The Natives 13, The Rest 2. Mustn't be complacent though. As the Moldavians found out, things can always get a bit trickier!

By the way, I was unable to find out why they use the name, "Moldavians." Perhaps the team was founded by a couple of keen petanque players called Molly and Dave. You never know!