Celtic Challenge 2012

Paul Dancey on 23/05/2012

This year’s Celtic Challenge was held at the home of the North Down Petanque Club at Pickie Bowling Club in Bangor Northern Ireland.

All the teams were made very welcome and the organisers, led by George Davidson, worked tirelessly to make it a successful and thoroughly enjoyable event for the players and the supporters.

All four Welsh teams worked very hard during the competition, and they came up against some very good Irish and Scottish teams, with a mixture of very experienced and in some cases Worlds and European competition standard players, and some very good up and coming young players – especially among the Irish teams, which fielded two young sides, who performed really well.

The youngest Irish side nearly defeated Scotland 1 - which was undefeated in this competition – as it had been in the last Celtic Challenge. Ireland has come on well and if their new generation of players lives up to their potential, Ireland will do very well in the future.

The outcome of the Challenge was 31 wins for Scotland, 26 for Ireland A, 25 for Wales, and 14 for Ireland B, which was a fair reflection of team performances.

Wales 1 and 4 each won 8 games out of 12, Wales 2 won 6. Wales 3 won 3 games – in something of a baptism of fire in this their first Celtic Challenge, against such tough opposition. Wales 4 just pipped Wales 1 by points difference as our top team of the competition. No one suffered the embarrassment of zero points in any game, as the general standard of play was good.

Thanks are due also to the IPA for organising the excellent weather and to thank the supporters who travelled and worked hard to back their teams. For further information please visit the Welsh Petanque website.

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