Partnership proving to be nearly unbeatable

TWO petanque enthusiasts have been setting the local scene on fire. Marcel Edwards and Shane Brehaut have been described as the perfect partnership.

Edwards, taller, four years older, left-handed, has an unerring accuracy when firing that brings applause even from opponents whose boules are sent flying off the terrain.

Brehaut, a right-hander with dextrous fingers that impart subtle sideways drift on his boules, is a precise placer, able to judge distance and weight to finish within a couple of inches of the cochonnet.

Separately, they will give anyone else locally a tough game. Put them together and they are nigh-on unbeatable.

But they'll never hear the applause or the praise from spectators and never be able to discuss the intricacies of the match with opponents, because both are deaf and dumb.

Neither expects any well-meant but patronising sympathy, pity or charity. They've both been deaf since birth, sign to each other and Edwards lip-reads very well. Far from being a handicap, their condition has even helped them during matches.

'There was one match,' Edwards said, 'when I could see our opponents talking about firing the coch off the terrain. They knew we couldn't hear what they were saying but they didn't realise I could lip-read. So I went and stood at the edge of the terrain and when the coch was fired off, it hit me and fell back in play right next to our boules so we won the points.'

The other Club de Petanque members take their deafness into account and make every effort to catch their attention and make eye contact when speaking so that the pair can at least see what is being said. Some have picked up a few signs to help their conversations. That apart, neither man receives or expects special treatment.

Both have flirted with other sports down the years, but being unable to hear a team-mate's call put paid to Brehaut's footballing efforts.

'I just got so fed up with that and with not being able to hear the referee's whistle,' said Brehaut.

Petanque, however, is a different matter. Both have found their niche and are regularly in the final stages of trophy competitions or at the top of league tables.

Their list of achievements and awards is impressively long: they are the pair to beat.

It all started at La Mare de Carteret School, thanks to Roger Goldsmith.

'I could see that they were frustrated at not being able to play sport, so I thought that petanque could be the game for them,' he said.

'Without language, they have had a heck of a life in Guernsey, simply because we have never had a lot of deaf children here. They needed a sport in which being deaf made no difference.'

The three converse using a mixture of British Sign Language and signs adapted for their sport. It is a slangy-type of language that suits them very well.

'We sign a concept, rather than plain words,' said Goldsmith.

'You can't translate it word for word, because for example we wouldn't say: ?What's your name??, it would be more: ?You? Name??'

Goldsmith came to Guernsey in 1970 to teach deaf children. Edwards was already two, while Brehaut would not be born for another two years.

Edwards and Brehaut met at school, though they admit that they were not friends from the outset. Even their petanque pairing has been strained at times.

'When they first started playing, Shane was always going all-out to win, while Marcel would ask him to play a bit more calmly,' said Goldsmith.

'They had a few cross words.'

The Club de Petanque was founded in 1985, three years after Goldsmith started his first matches at La Mare.

'For the first time, Marcel had a chance to play a sport in which there were not 10 others shouting at him. He'd tried other sports, but was always the last to get picked,' said Goldsmith.

'I reckon it was the best thing I have done to introduce Shane and Marcel to the sport and then to the club,' he added.

They are regulars at the club at the former rose centre at Le Camptrehard in the heart of St Andrew's, which on a club evening can be packed.

Edwards also plays a few matches whenever he pops across to France. Brehaut, a technology support technician in the IT department at Specsavers not too far away from the club's headquarters, even pops up during lunch breaks to grab a bit more practice.

When playing together, their complementary styles give them a huge advantage. Brehaut rolls his boules to within touching distance of the coch, then Edwards fires any opposition boules off the terrain.

'He's a little unorthodox, but his strike rate is phenomenal,' said John Mahy, of the Club de Petanque.

'At times, the score can be almost embarrassingly one-sided for them. Marcel is the best shooter in the club, and Shane among the best placers. Therefore, they are without doubt the best combination,' Mahy said.

Brehaut this year picked up the Green Grand Prix Trophy, given to the player with the best all-round results. When he received the award, he paid tribute to his pairs partner, thanking him for all his help, and was just as happy that Edwards was in second place.

Edwards had a hearing dog, 'but it was just too lazy,' he said with a grin.

Asked whether being deaf has ever caused problems, Edwards tells one story with obvious amusement. A technician at Beau Sejour, he was working in a basement stripping paint with a blow-torch. With too much heat in the room, off went the fire alarm, the leisure centre was evacuated, and a couple of dozen fire-fighters raced up looking for flames and smoke.

They entered the room in which the alarm was tripped to find Edwards, blissfully unaware of the evacuation, still studiously stripping paint. A quick tap on the shoulder, and Edwards turned wide-eyed to find himself confronted by a gang of fire-fighters.

So maybe setting the local petanque scene on fire comes naturally.