Brian Ward	Don MACINTYRE	Douglas HAMILTON	Bill Gray

Scotland’s Veterans Team of Brian Ward, Donnie MacIntyre, and Bill Gray from Troon and Douglas Hamilton from Perth competed over the 12^th and 13^th of September at the Euro Veterans 2009 in Middleburg against the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Poland.

Considering the opposition Scotland came in a creditable fourth equal with Sweden beating Germany 3-1 (German Veteran Champions) and Poland 3-1 but loosing to the Netherlands 0-4, Denmark 0-4 and Sweden 1-3. However in our tense final triples match against Denmark, in which a win would have secured us third place, we fought back from 2-11 to 9-11 but finally succumbed to some outstanding pointing from the Danes.

The exchange of gifts, pins, hats, coches, etc., went well until Donnie and Bill exchanged their Bunnahabhain Malt Whiskey for Polish Vodka Liqueur and were then blamed by the Poles for their under par performance against us!

The hospitality from the hosts and the camaraderie between the teams was excellent with lunches on both days and dinner on Saturday evening provided along with wine, beer and coffee available during the day.

The set up in Middleburg is most impressive with nineteen indoor and forty plus outdoor pistes, a clubhouse with bar, lounge and kitchen facilities - solely for Petanque.

It was with regret that the ‘vets’ packed away their zimmer frames and headed back to Scotland. However next year the Euro Veterans is in Sweden - land of blondes, £10:00 pints and Abba - ‘S O S’ ‘Take a Chance on Me’ Bill, ‘The Name of the Game’ Douglas,

‘I have a Dream’ Donnie and ‘Dancing Queen’ Brian are saving up already!

‘The Winner Takes it All’!

Donnie MacIntyre.
 

Belgium beat Scotland 7:0
Monaco beat Scotland 7:0
Belgium beat Monaco 4:3
Belgium go through to round 2