Hartley boys win medals at EPA Junior Championships
17 September 2007
The newest Junior member of Hartley CC Pétanque Club, Elliott Fribbens, 12, was a bronze medal winner twice over in the EPA National Junior Championships held at Sandown PC, Isle of Wight on 15 and 16 September.
A low turnout for both Doubles on the Saturday and Triples on the Sunday did not stop the competition being close and challenging. Charles Fribbens took the apparently altruistic decision to team up with his younger brother in the Doubles, with their aim to win just one match. To their credit and everyone's surprise and pleasure, after 3 rounds of Swiss they were in first place having won all three games. They lost their fourth to 11 then finished the day off with a fanny. Unfortunately, due to the complex mathematics of the way that the BPF and EPA calculates the Swiss results, Charles and Elliott slipped to third place despite enjoying four wins from four games, the same as the winners and having beaten the winners as well.
On Sunday in the Triples, Charles played with his colleagues Robert Cooter and Philip Jarrett of Plough and Chequers who have represented England together and won this title last year. Sunday's competition was a 5 round round-robin. Elliott teamed up with Josh and Ben Littley from The Villager at Vigo and won himself his second bronze medal of the weekend. Despite being competion favourites, Charles and team came second losing the final match against the new Junior Triples title winners.
The overall winners on Saturday were Samantha Littley (Villager) and Deborah Elcome (Worthing, Southern Counties Region) and they were winners, with Tovil's Gary Atkinson on Sunday too.