HALF Crown Petanque Club made good use of home advantage to be crowned Heart of England regional champions for the eighth successive year.
With Warwick PC folding, six clubs competed in the annual Inter-Club championships which took place at the Crown Inn, Stockton.
Each club fielded three pairs in the round robin event with the Half Crown losing just two of their 15 games as they comfortably retained the trophy.
The Nomades, from Kenilworth, finished runners-up after amassing ten wins, the decisive round being the head to head with The Half Crown which the home team won 3-0 to secure victory.
The Swan from Hereford were third with eight wins, followed by Solihull and Coventry on five wins each and Whitnash with four wins.
The top pairing on the day was the Half Crown duo of Rich Powell and Philippe Bonnet who boasted an unbeaten record with a +54 points haul.
Meanwhile, there was a good turnout of 21 players for the latest Half Crown Open Melee and after three rounds there were just two unbeaten players.
Half Crown chairman, John Emberton finished top with a +26 points difference, narrowly ahead of Pauline Horsfal (West Haddon) with +24.
Nine players won two of their games, the best being Toby Leeman on + 15 followed by Wendy Brittain on +11.
With just three weeks to go, John Emberton leads the field in the Half Crown Winter League with 47 points, just clear of second placed Bill Bentley 43 and Dave Hancox 42.
