Second ''Leg'' victory in our 3-in-3 weeks triple header

Deben Division
Sunday 8th May

With the arrival of the Eels Foot Inn Eastbridge to the Moot Hall Arena, the Aldeburgh team embarked on their second match in as many weeks, on the home piste that hasn't seen much rain in weeks and is very dry, dusty and fast running.

The early pairings saw Rob & Bev Wheeler on the 'roadside' piste with Reet Gilday & Nick Ratcliffe on the 'beachside' lane. It was the story of two different games really, with Reet & Nick suffering a 2-13 loss, only for Rob & Bev to keep matters evenly balanced with a 13-3 victory on their side of the terrain.

1-1 and everything still to play for....

The more experienced pairings of Lewis Fletcher and team captain Jimmy Robinson overcame their opponents by a score of 13-4, leaving Tina Robinson and vice-captain Simon Fletcher to finish the match one end later with a equally good 13-1 win and thereby see the team secure their third 3-1 win in a row.

This latest win pushes the Seasiders into second place in the divisional table and sees them go into next weeks big match at home, to the Golden Key Yales from Snape, in good shape.

Our Gift to Beaux Belles Middleton

Following on a tradition we started in the 2008 Play-Offs, team captain Jimmy presented a match memento to Rchard Turner, captain of the Middleton team followng yesterdays 3-1 league victory at the Bell.

May Day Away Day Pay Day

Deben Division
Sunday 1st May 2011

Playing a new team at a new venue with a reasonably new-ish team yourselves could possibly contribute to not necessarily gaining you the result you desire, but the Mill Inn team set about their task well earlier today at the Bell Inn Middleton, where the Beaux Belles were the gracious hosts.

The previously successful pairing of Richard Newman and Heather Maybee edged past their opponents by virtue of a 13-10 result. This cancelled out Reet Gilday and debutant Nick Ratcliffes 13-4 reverse on the other lane.

Once again (and a £1 please for every time I say this, this season but...) the match stood at 1-1 before the more 'senior' pairings made their appearances. Team captain and birthday boy Jimmy Robinson partnered Lewis Fletcher for Lewis' first appearance of the season following his recent fractured wrist. Meanwhile unbeaten Simon Fletcher and Tina Robinson were together again on the right hand lane.

Tina and Simon started sluggishly but a mistake by the Middleton team by dragging the coch back to Aldeburghs boules when the score was 3-2 in the Bells favour, allowed the Seasiders to take a five on that end and a further five the next end transformed the game, with a final point being taken for 13-3 to the Mill.

All the teams hopes rested on Jimmy and Lewis, with Lewis pulling some class shots off in the last few ends to earn a 13-6 score and the overall match score of 3-1, bringing two more league points to Aldeburgh and pushing them to third place in the league table currently, with next weeks match at home to the Eels Foot being one that, if won, will see the team go to second place in the division.

Sink or Swim for Aldeburgh at the Dolphin

Deben Division - Sunday 3rd April 2011

Following on from the unsatisfactory but nonetheless deserved home defeat at the hands of the Parrot & Punchbowl Aldringham in the opening match of the season, Aldeburgh's boulistes ventured the short distance up the coast to the surroundings of Thorpeness and all of its ''quaintness''.

With a full team of 8 again, but still missing Lewis Fletcher from the line-up (freshly out of his plaster cast but in the warm-up felt that his wrist wasn't up to strength), the Seasiders took on the home side, who themselves fielded a 6-strong side.

First blood went to Thorpeness with Reet and Chrissie going down 13-4 but Heather and debutant Richard Newman made amends by taking their match 13-8. So as has happened many times before, the match laid evenly poised at 1-1.

Usual pairing of Simon & Tina took to the ''pub-side'' piste and managed to pull back from a big deficit of 8-2 at one stage to finish strongly as 13-8 winners and thus guarantee at least a draw. However things got better than that as team captain Jimmy and his partner Binnie (Jonathan), took the fourth deciding game by 13-10 and bring the 2 league points to Aldeburgh with a good 3-1 away win.

Next up for the Mill Inn is a ''three matches in three weeks'' stint, starting with an away trip to Beaux Belles Middleton on 1st May, home to the Eels Foot Inn on 8th and then home again to big divisional rivals Golden Key from Snape on 15th May. This will bring the team to halfway through their league programme and give some indication of what potential they may have on reaching the Last 16 play-offs in September.

Aldeburgh stumble at first hurdle in season opener

Deben Division - Sunday March 20th 2011

For the first time ever, Aldeburgh had a ''full card'' of 8 players for the home match versus Parrot Punchbowl Aldringham, with club captain Jimmy Robinson taking the non-playing role and Lewis Fletcher still in plaster and unable to play.

The Parrot have come a long way since their first season last year and have shown considerable improvement and could prove to be a decent side over the course of the season.

As was shown in the first two doubles games, with the Parrot taking a 2-0 match lead with 13-6 and 13-10 victories over the Seasiders, who faced an uphill task in the second half of the match to even gain a draw.

Unfortunately a 3-13 score in the third match saw Parrot reach a 3-0 lead and the match was effectively over but vice-captain Simon Fletcher and partner Tina Robinson pulled out a 13-10 result to restore some pride and see the match finish 3-1 in Aldringhams favour.

Half the Aldeburgh team were making their league debuts but the 4 players from Aldringham were just that bit sharper on the day and deserved their away day result.

Next match is on Sunday 3rd April when Aldeburgh visit the Thorpeness Dolphin.

League Opener re-arranged

The scheduled match against the Eels Foot Inn has now been put back till early May, so Aldeburghs league campaign will now start on March 20th, with the home visit of the Aldringham Parrot & Punchbowl.

2011 Fixtures Announced

Starting their fourth season in the Deben Division, the Mill Inn open their 2011 campaign with a home match against newcomers Eels Foot Inn from Eastbridge, and follow this up 2 weeks later with another home fixture versus the Aldringham Parrot & Punchbowl.

The first big 'crunch match' comes when the Seasiders welcome the Golden Key Snape on May 22nd to take on The Yales and the season ends when Aldeburgh go to Snape on the last day of the season, 21st August.

Full fixture list is as follows;

March 6th - Eels Foot Inn Eastbridge (Home)
March 20th - Parrot & Punchbowl Aldringham (Home)
April 10th - Dolphin Thorpeness (Away)
May 1st - Beaux Belles Middleton (Away)
May 22nd - Golden Key Yales (Home)
June 5th - Eels Foot Inn Eastbridge (Away)
June 26th - Parrot & punchbowl Aldringham (Away)
July 17th - Dolphin Thorpeness (Home)
July 31st - Beaux Belles Middleton (Home)
August 21st - Golden Keys Yales (Away)

Aldeburgh back for fourth season

Once again the Mill Inn Aldeburgh have submitted their registration application for the Suffolk Coastal Petanque League, with 2011 being their fourth season, as they are one of the ''Original 9'', the moniker giving to the teams that competed in the inaugral season (way) back in 2008.

Previous seasons have seen 7th place in 2008, Deben Division winners & Bronze Medalists in 2009 and 9th place in 2010 (one place off qualifying for the play-off stages).

Pre-season activity has seen the team attempting to secure the services of between 4 and 5 additional players, 2 of whom have played in odd matches during the 2009 and 2010 seasons but may be able to play more often. Added to that is the ''growing'' talent of 13 year old Lewis, who standing at nearly 6ft, is currently considered to be one of the best upcoming junior talents in the country, having attended the English Petanque Associations Weekend of Excellence twice in the last 3 seasons.

Team captain Jimmy Robinson will be looking to the team to maintain a challenge within their own division and be looking for at least a Last 16 play-off position, but with many new teams entering, the team will need to be on top of their game especially away from home where valuable league points have been dropped in the past.

The team thank Dennis & Sue at The Mill Inn Aldeburgh for their continued support.