2023 Whats Happened!

Boules Festival – the show must go on!

Early on the morning of Friday 14th July the Festival committee received the weather forecast (validated by ATC contacts at RAF Brize Norton) for Boules Day on the Saturday: 50mph winds, torrential rain and thunderstorms! With the help of our wonderful team of volunteers, we re-structured the event in the interests of public safety, banning all marquees and gazebos on the High Street and re-siting all the food and beverages into the Village Hall with Boules Control going into the Old School building and the Kids Zone into the British School Rooms. 

The conditions meant the entertainers were forced to improvise by operating from the bus shelter outside the Angel – but this didn’t stop Jerri Hart (aka The Crooked Crooner) and O’rael delighting the audience with their performances. Jerri kicking off his set with “Singing in the Rain”!

For the first time (and despite the conditions) we ran a full plate competition accommodating all first round losers – representing an additional 32 matches. Along with full Junior and Colts competitions this made the 2023 Festival the biggest ever held and despite a few challenges we managed to finish before it got dark and, by using the new pistes on the rec, we were able to re-open the High Street shortly after 8pm.

After two stunning Open semi finals in which Casanis (captain Mark Gay, Lesley Eastlake, Chris Garratt) defeated Bouledogs (Alan McInnes, Jacquii Anderson, Janet Weaver) in a match which went right down to the wire, and Team Wales (Derek Jones, Stewart Spencer, Con Tomczyk) overcame by a margin last year’s winners Team Moriarty (Alex Moriarty, Guewen Chantreux, Phil Bradshaw), the overall tournament winners were Casanis (providing a seventh Sherston win for Mark Gay) with Wales runners-up.

The local winners were the TDT’s (captain Tom Dryden with brothers Peter and Mark Thornbury) who beat Gavin Corbett’s Luckington Lords.  

The Plate was won by London Pétanque (captain Bobby Welch, Adrian Costa and Keith Vines) who beat local team Run the Boules (Gary and Max Liddington and Mike Warner).

The Colts tournament was won by the Bomber Boys (Will Potter, Ben Meheust and George Breakspear) whilst the Junior winners were the aptly named Troublesome Trio (James Winwood, Max Tremellen, and Henry Kutchera)

On the Sunday the weather relented very slightly allowing the Duck Race, and equally importantly the famous Duck Cream Teas, supplied and served by the Church Ladies (plus Nigel), to go ahead. The swollen river made for a fast race with duck 267 romping home for Viv Harris. 2nd place went to duck 205 and Charlotte Holland with 600 taking third for Jessica Robinson. Last place (154) went to Henrietta Butler. 

The raffle results were as follows: Winner £100 #639 Turvey, Second £50 #842 Butler, Third £25 #990 J Bartlett.

Thank you to everyone who helped make it happen – there are too many of you to mention individually but we really couldn’t have done it without you. And finally thank you Sherston for turning out in your droves to support us - despite the wind and rain.

Vive Le Sport!