Last Tuesday evening the petanque team that goes by the name of The Magpies came to sunny Whitstable for a Division 1 league match, scratched around for a few minutes on the dusty piste and then left with very little to show for their efforts. After the Dover Bells had postponed a match against them the previous week (for the second time this season) the Natives A team were thirsting for a competitive match, albeit that the conditions were somewhat arid and their home piste was beginning to resemble an Oklahoma dust-bowl at the height of the Great Depression. In fact, "great depression" would be an apt name for the centre of the far piste, where the powder was now so deep that boules might easily become completely submerged, not to be recovered until dug up by an archaeologist a few hundred years from now.
The chief distinguishing feature of this breathtakingly brief match was the debut of Andy Bennett, who was drafted into the team at the last minute due to the indisposition of Alan. Most members of the B team were already committed to a match at the Vale Tavern and were not available. So Andy, a recent stalwart of our Sunday afternoon practice sessions, was recruited, registered and hauled off his combine harvester in a matter of minutes so that he could come and play for the Natives. Still kitted out like an agricultural labourer he looked completely at home on the dustbowl and acquitted himself outstandingly well in his first competitive match. Mind you, we were a bit worried when he announced that, as a qualified gamekeeper, he possessed a licence to shoot magpies! As it turned out, the only shooting in evidence that night was the shooting of boules off the piste by the Hardy boys.
The triples saw Robin, Robert and Andy playing on the near piste, where they galloped to a 13-5 win in double-quick time. Meanwhile, the game on the badlands of the far-piste involved the usual trio of Peter, Duncan and Phil, who took on the young firecrackers of the Magpie team and trounced them 13-3.
Although it seemed to be a benign evening there was rain in the forecast (as usual) so the doubles commenced immediately after the conclusion of the triples. The pairing of Robert and Peter did not find the near piste to their liking on this occasion, however, and they succumbed to a pair of cunning Magpies by 13-8, the only setback for the Natives on an otherwise highly successful night. On the middle piste Andy and Duncan enjoyed themselves enormously as they combined to harvest 13 points while their opponents only managed to gather 2. On the far-piste Robin and Phil renewed their partnership to great effect as they smothered Chris and Ollie, the dynamic duo of the Magpies, by 13-6. Normally, magpies, in common with most birds, relish the opportunity to take a dust-bath - but not on this occasion! In fact, they were largely unable to find their feet on our piste and, not surprisingly, they weren't very happy about it:
The points score was 60-29 to the brave Natives and the whole thing was over by 9pm. After the match the home team supplied a sumptuous buffet but this was only pecked at briefly by our opponents, who seemed keen to flock-off back to Thanet. Perhaps they were embarrassed by the memory of having allowed our team to go unfed when we played them at the Northwood Club earlier in the Summer. Or perhaps they were just pissed off!
This result consolidates the A team's position in second place of Division 1, behind Brown Jug A, who are already looking unassailable. Tomorrow we have a crucial crunch match against Brown Jug C at the Belmont Ground. We lost our first fixture against this team a couple of months ago, when we gave away a commanding lead and were beaten despite having scored more points than the opposition. Let's hope that we can make amends and that Alan will be able to return to the team with all guns blazing:
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