Held 4th June at Club de Pétanque d’Adelaide.
Open Singles Champion: Raja Jamaleddine
Runner Up: Greg Anderson
Semi-Finalists: Alexi Alexi
Brett Williams
Open Veterans Champion: Brett Williams
Ladies Singles Champion: Selina Dally
Runner Up: Rada Pierre
Third Place: Deb Rodda
Ladies Veterans Champion: Rada Pierre
Consolante
Winner: Alain Rousse
Runner Up: Anthony Pietsch
Conviviale
Winner: Glenis Head
Runner Up: Stan Wilson
Open Singles Champion: Raja Jamaleddine with Adrian Clements (League President)
Ladies Singles Champion: Selina Dally
Open Singles Runner Up: Greg Anderson
Ladies Singles Runner Up and Ladies Veterans Champion: Rada Pierre
After a frosty start, the 2016/17 State Singles Championships were held in cool but sunny conditions.
It was an evenly matched field of sixteen players that took to the pistes in the Open competition. No-one got through the preliminary rounds unscathed. In the absence of four-time Singles champion Lionel Chazal, the biggest question going into the day was whether Dominique Pierre could continue his run of consecutive state championship victories. Having already rewritten the record books, the only box left unticked for the reigning Singles, Doubles, Triples and Mixed Doubles champion was to claim all four titles within a single season. A win here would do it. However, all good things come to an end and that must remain a pinnacle as yet unclimbed.
The format used in the Open continues to mystify many but, like last year, it achieved its aims of bringing the cream to the top while keeping everybody else interested for as long as possible. Here, the role of the Round 6 games was particularly significant. This round was designed to correct any potential imbalance between the two pools in the original random draw. As it transpired, the top six players from Pool A all won their game against one of the top six players from Pool B, which would suggest that such a correction was definitely warranted in this case. Hence, five of the final eight came from Pool A and only three from Pool B.
At the end of the day, it came down to a battle between two proven singles performers — Greg Anderson, who won the inaugural championship in 2006, against Raja Jamaleddine, the 2008/9 champion. Either way, the winner was going to become the second player to win more than one SA Open Singles title. With a solid victory in the final, this honour goes to Raja.
In the Ladies competition, the early-round success was not spread around as evenly. Instead, there were three clear contenders who went into the luncheon interval undefeated and well ahead of the pack. Each then proceeded to lose one game in the subsequent qualifying rounds, leading to a very tight three-way finish. Ultimately, it was Selina Dally who secured a place in the final with a tense win over Deb Rodda in the last qualifier. Her opponent was Rada Pierre.
There have been a number of Ladies Singles champions over the years, including both of this year’s finalists. Remarkably, however, no-one has ever won more than once. Until this year. With her victory in the championship match, Selina enters the record books as the first to take the title for a second time.
Thanks to the Adelaide club for hosting the event, to the umpires, and to all who participated.