Who's playing when?

La Boule NY came up with a smart idea. They play in 3 different parks in Manhattan: Bryant Park, Central Park and Washington Square.
It is always nice to know who else is going, where, and around what time as to coordinate.
Now, instead of looking up the numbers of your buddies, trying to get hold of them, or leaving voice mail messages, and wasting a lot of time, you can quickly go online, and enter your time and place. Click on the image to see what it looks like.
And here's the page: at the Parks
Quoting Ernesto, their webmaster:

You may not see any entries right now, but last weekend it worked well. 14 of us ended by playing in Bryant Park, instead of Washington Sq. Park.
I figure as long as a handful of people use it, it will be useful. I don't expect everybody to put their name down, even if they see it. When the season starts it will be useful for our "regular" Wednesday night sessions and if the weather is questionable. At least that's how I see it.

The list groups people under Today, Tomorrow, and Day After title. (It's doesn't matter what order you signed up). But these titles only appear if someone actually puts themselves in for one of these days. So you can have a listing like this:

Bryant Park
Tomorrow
ernesto 12pm -

without a Today or Day After. If then someone signs up for today. It will look like this.

Bryant Park

Today

Jim 3pm-6pm To practice.

Tomorrow

ernesto 12pm -

And at midnight it will automatically throw out "Today" list and make the Tomorrow list into Today, etc.

A century of petanque. And now..?

As you may know, the only country in the world where the amount of licensed players is decreasing year after year, is its birthplace, France. There is constant friction between those who have played for years, for fun (and yes -- sometimes for a couple of Francs Euros) and those who want a formal sport structure. New requirements, like a medical certificate, have turned off a lot of the leisure players. They have left clubs, and stick to playing with friends, outside of any league or organisation. It is sad to see clubs, some with a beautiful boulodrome, simply folding for lack of members.

On the other hand French TV stations have discovered that viewer ratings are pretty appealing. That means sponsors, and money, but media also have their constraints when it comes to timing, presentation and discipline. Click on the pictures!

Meanwhile, a lot of the decisons that are made in France indirectly affect other countries as well, countries where petanque is growing faster year after year, and that do not have the historical 'luggage', neither the good nor the bad.
As in any fight, both sides are half right, ànd half wrong.

While researching the previous article, I came across the opening speech by Mr Marcellin Dayer , Président of La Genevoise, the Geneva Petanque Club. He puts it quite bluntly -- which maybe he can afford more than others, being a respected insider, ànd a (Swiss) outsider.
Food for thought.

It is a 'free' translation, respecting the meaning, not necessarily the literal words.
For the original text in French, go right here.

Petanque was created around 100 years ago, organized in an International Federation around 50 years ago, and finds itself today at a crossroad, torn between a high level sport on the one hand and a popular pastime on the other, organized in such a traditional fashion that it has become disconnected from today's realities.
The oldest federations are struggling to maintain their membership numbers, without really grasping the causes for the loss in numbers. Newer federations are looking for ways and means to promote the sport. Both are taking liberties with the rules which only adds to the confusion.
New tournaments are created all around while the survival of older ones is not supported. Yet both depend often on the commitment (sacrifice) of one or two people. When they give up, voluntary or otherwise, the tournament vanishes.

Be it on a national or on the international federation level, fundamental choices must be made, especially upon approaching this first century of petanque:

* clarifying the game rules and their application, specifically in terms of enforcement & discipline

* studying the appropriate ways to be in tune with today's realities and the requirements of the media

while preserving the authentic values and assets that are the very fabric of petanque: a culture and a way of life.

Reconcile the irreconcilable is the challenge for today's leaders. It is possible with competence and tolerance, and with the courage not to go for boiled down standards.

2007 has been designated by the International Federation to celebrate "100 years of petanque". It should also be a time for everyone concerned to reflect on the best way for petanque to remain enjoyed by all players, whether as a game, a sport or for fun, conscious that between those three, there should be no antagonism, but only bridges.

Bol d'Or in Geneva - 25/26 Feb

This was the 32nd edition of the Bol d'Or (the Golden Bowl), organized by the Geneva Petanque Club, "la Genevoise".
You could call it a petanque marathon, because the format is very unique:
- 24 invited teams of 4 players (allowing one to rest)
- 23 consecutive games of 40 minutes
it lasted from Sat 2 pm till Sun 5:30 pm
It means each team get to play every other team once, and then the total points are counted.
Next to the reigning World and European champions and numerous French and Swiss teams, there were top teams from Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain.

Our friend(*) Marco Foyot teamed up again with Pascal Miléi, Zvonko Radnic, and Jean-Michel Xisto) and they won for the second year in a row. Twenty-one wins, one tie, and one loss. 318 points for, 85 against.
For Marco, with different partners in the past, it was the 6th victory - the first time in 1985. Talking about a sport where age is not too relevant!
The Dutch team made it to a remarkable 8th place.

The 20th edition of the Mini Bol d'Or - for ladies - was played the week before. They call it "mini" because the format is more traditional, with pools, semi- and finals. No competition during the night. That was won by France Espoirs, with Tunisia second, and the (Swiss) Organizers team third. Also notable, Madagascar in 8th place.

(*) for new readers of this blog: Marco came twice to Florida, once in 2001 for several demonstrations, and once in 2003 for the first Petanque America Open.

You can see the full report, very well made (but in French only) at geneve-petanque.com. Go to "Résultats".

Louisiana in action

Here's a picture of our petanque friends at LSU.
If we go ahead with the Open in Miami this year, we're bound to get a lot of contenders from Baton Rouge!

Surprise boules

One of our Canadian friends spending the winter in S. Florida brought us some "boules". He had bought them at a flea market. They looked all right on the outside, but they weren't rolling very straight... So he decided to give them a good whack with a big hammer, and look what he found. He brought them to us as a souvenir when he came for - you guessed it right - a new set of real boules.


They're macro pics, so by clicking on them you get a close-up.
I swear we're not making this up!

We wondered why a factory would go through the hassle of forming a glued sort of sandball, sticking a threaded rod through it, and then cast the metal around it.
Well, sand casting is a traditional, though quite labor intensive foundry method. No need for welding.
But the most likely explanation is that sand is a lot cheaper than steel, especially since steel prices have almost tripled over the last 3 years.

Fresno, CA club forming

Tim Channell has been very active with friends in El Paso, TX to get something going there, but he recently moved to Fresno, CA and - of course - has pursued his favorite hobby.

The very dynamic folks of Oakhurst Petanque Club (50 mi north) are lending assistance to his group in preparing a formal proposal to the City for permanent courts.

All he needs is some more players:

Fresno, California Petanque Club forming. If you want to boule send me an email and I will tell you where we are meeting up for games. Hope you can get involved.
Tim Channell – email: timchannell@yahoo.com or give me a call 559/264-0695

Who said petanque is not contagious.. ?

New club in Louisiana

Another new club, this time at LSU in Baton Rouge, LA.

Not only do they have a great sense of humor:

We are the first club of our kind in Louisiana and the current champions of our State.

they also play on a shady, traditional play field, under two beautiful (probably century-old) oak trees.

And they have a website with lots of info and their tournament calendar. Worth a visit!

Small world ...

Last Friday we got an e-mail from someone stationed at the 21st TSC in the Kaiserslautern area (SW Germany): he had just discovered the game on vacation and wanted to continue playing asap. Could we mail petanque sets to an APO box?
Of course we can and do so regularly but - given his location and the time the boules would take to reach - we did some research and directed him to a store close by so he could start playing right away.

Todays' reply, 3 days later:
Thank you so much. I went to the Decathlon store in Sirling Wendel, France, just across the border. I got a set of 3 Boules (competition) and 8 Boules for play with friends. I am looking forward to playing this wonderful game as often as I can. Thank you for all of your help. I enjoy your website.

Score: Sales 0 - Petanque 13 !

Tournament in Frostproof, FL

Today started a week-long tournament at Camp Inn Resort in Frostproof.
There are close to 100 regular players at the resort.
Camp Inn Social Director Peggy Andrews threw out the first boule and the games were off.
Petanque is the fastest growing activity at Camp Inn and many other resorts in the area.
It was a bit windy and chilly today but the spirits were high.

Thanks to Dennie Henley (from MI) who sent us these first pictures.

Boule diameters & weights

Petanque players often talk about boule diameters and weights.
How big are the differences really?
Let's visualize the officially permitted ranges (click on the image).

Diameters: I drew them to scale but of course the result will depend on your screen and resolution. I used 1024 x 768 pixels on a 19" screen.
Not that much, right? Although an extra millimeter can make or break a carreau.

Weights: is a simple graph, that shows the proportion. The 150 grams range represents 23 % of the minimum, or 18.75 % of the maximum. Again a rather small window.

Canadian players in Florida for instance love to play with very heavy boules, 800's if possible. But I think this has to do with the fact that they often play on very soft terrain. A heavy boule will then really sink in, hard to be displaced.
In France, 80 % of players use average diameters (72 to 74) and weights (700 to 730).

Comments anyone?

Petanque: Boules Down Under

Though on "a slow boat from Sidney"... the box made it to Miami. We now have Egon Pozniak's book available for sale online. Both Egon and I were getting a bit desperate. Almost 3 months since he put them in the mail down under. But that's all history now.

It's a nice book. Simple, to the point. You can probably read it in an hour or two, but will certainly pick it back up later on to review some of the techniques.

A review on petanque.org

To order online. Price US$ 18.95

World Cup qualifier in Sonoma

Valley of the Moon Petanque Club announces its World Cup Championship Qualifier Tournament on June 3 & 4. The winning team will represent the US in Grenoble in September.

Knowing the folks at the Sonoma Club, that promises to be a fun weekend. Have a look their very attractive website, and look at their busy calendar for 2006, starting this Saturday, Feb26.

Here is the press release:

Boule holders

One thing I noticed when visiting RV parks in Florida last week is the variety (and creativity) of boules holders at the ends of the courts. Just like a bowling alley. One was made of split 4" PVC pipe, the other in good old crafted wood.
Also, I observed how players pick up all the boules, irrespective whose they are, and put them on the holders for the next round. A very courteous custom.
Pick-up magnets I saw few. As one lady commented: "I love to play petanque, because I am forced to bend down many, many times during an afternoon. Good for my back!".

FPUSA 2006 tournament schedule

Here's the FPUSA schedule for 2006.

Click for a printable version.

The first National is the National Triples at South Florida Petanque Club , on April 8 & 9.

The weekend of Nov 11 & 12 is not taken. If we go ahead with the Petanque America Open this year, we will do it that weekend. We're waiting on sponsors to confirm their participation. If you know any potential sponsors, do ask them to contact us.

Petanque leaflet

For those who haven't seen it:

at the occasion of our PA Open Tournament in November, we asked FPUSA to prepare a little brochure to hand out to people who would walk by that weekend.
The result is very nice:
colorful, brief, to the point yet with sufficient information to tickle people's curiosity.
Every group that plays in public areas should have some handy. It beats looking for a piece of paper and a pen right in the middle of a game!
We noticed people start reading it on the spot and stick around which in turn gives players the opportunity to talk to them and offer to try the game themselves.
Since then, we have been putting one in every boules shipment that goes out.

For a quick look click on the pictures below:


or download the original PDF file (2.9 Mb), for a crisp printout.

The history of pastis

We have a new book available in our store:
"Petit traité savant du Pastis".
In French only - unfortunately.

It is loaded with photos of vintage posters and pastis paraphernalia, plus numerous stories and anecdotes starting from the first trace of anise - 7,000 years ago in Nippur, capital of the Babylon Empire.
Of course a chapter about absynthe and the ensuing prohibition. And the story behind todays' brand names.

Price: $ 24.95
(the price in France is 21 Euro).
To order

US shipping is calculated automatically.
We can ship it anywhere outside the US for $ 10.00

Laetitia Casta

After those cold winter sights, let's move a bit further south...

This picture of supermodel Laetitia Casta (Guess, l'Oréal, Ralph Lauren, etc..) appeared on petanque.org a few years ago.
Now we know she has good taste in games as well!

She will shortly star in two new movies: "La Fille aux Yeux d'Or" and "Le Grand Appartement".

For more about Laetitia.

Winter pétanque

With more & more clubs up north (WA, OR, MI, IL, and now MN), it may be time to start looking at our Scandinavian friends for inspiration.
Here's an example of the Helsinki Petanque Club in Finland. It looks like they took over an old factory building and fixed it up for winter play. Here's their website (PDF).

My Finnish is non-existent, but I can make up that they have 12 courts and a total area of 7,700 sqft. I am sure that in the states above one must be able to find an abandoned or at least cheap building. Or am I dreaming..?
Can some of our friends from Finland (Jukka?) , Norway (Stig?), Sweden or Denmark give us some input on how they went about it?
It is obvious that our Michigan friends are suffering severely from petanque withdrawal symptoms. To the point where they're playing marbles and have even appointed a dog as VP..!! We can't have them go through another winter like that.
Thanks in advance for any input from the European northern front.

New club in Minneapolis

A new club is starting up in Minneapolis, MN.

They will playing every other Sunday during the summer.

Contact: Don Holzschuh at
mpls.petanque@hotmail.com

Minneapolis Petanque Club
"Boules d'acier"

The ultimate photo album

64 beautiful photos of our November tournament by Martha Lewis.

Thanks Martha!

If possible change your screen setting to 1280 x 1024 pixels.
PA Open 2005 album.

Martha and Alec Stone Sweet also prepared an extensive report with pictures of the last World Championships in Brussels, which you can see here.

Tanglewood Petanque Club

Tanglewood is a 55+ community just N. of Sebring, in central Florida.

They have been playing pétanque for years and take it very seriously - while having fun, of course.

First of all the 8 courts are spotless, very well maintained. Just like the entire community, by the way. With shaded seating areas for those hot Florida afternoons.
Several of the +/- 120 members have their role in keeping things organized: tournament schedules, spreadsheets, maintenance, lighting, you name it. A lot of these folks are retired engineers, who make sure everything is always in tip-top condition.
Two of the driving forces behind the club in earlier days, Jack Dobbyn and Alex Legault are honored with beautiful brass plaques.

I was there on a quiet Monday morning, but I understand that when the boules get going, and the drinks & snacks are on the tables, the petanque club gets noisy!

On this picture you see some of today's active members, from L to R: Barry Radawiec (from Cadillac, MI) , Bob and Barb Thulin (from NY) and Wade Greenisen, the actual club chairman (from MN).

Thanks to all for the friendly reception! I will certainly go back to visit in the fall, on one of those noisy evenings!
Tanglewood has its own resident newspaper. Look under "sports" for the latest pétanque club news.

Fou de la pétanque

or "Crazy about pétanque"

Portland Petanque Club in Oregon beat everybody to it.
Here's a report from Philippe Agnesse about last Sunday's event:

We came up with the name for this tournament because we thought we would be playing under cold wet skies this early in the season but that certainly wasn't the case.
Sunny warm weather greeted the 6 teams of doublettes that played on Sunday. We played a round robin format with each team playing the other 5 teams which made for a full day of play. There was good competition and camaraderie all day long and at the end of it all we all enjoyed ourselves thourouly. Nice prizes awaited the top 3 teams including trophies, t-shirts and bottles of cider. The results were as follows:
1st Place - Joe Cortright and Van Wolfe
2nd Place - Pierre and Philippe Agnesse
3rd Place - Roy Ford and Mark ?

Philippe Agnesse
Portland
PPC Secretary

Bringing players together

One of the most common questions we get is:
"Do you know other people who play pétanque in my area?"
We've had a message board up for many years, but with all the spam robots out there less and less folks are willing to put their e-mail address up for grabs. Rightly so.
On the other hand, we have a database of thousands and thousands of people who have purchased boules from us (thank you!!) over the last 15 years. BUT, we have - and always will have - a strict privacy policy. No name or address goes out the door.

What we can do is the following:
Say you are looking for players in Louisville, KY. You let us know. We send a message to all our clients in the 402.. ZIP code to ask if anyone else is looking. Whoever replies positive, and with their permission, we put in touch.
Call it a dating service for petanque players.
It involves extra work, but we all know petanque thrives when small groups are formed.
And isn't it a shame that there may be someone three blocks from your home playing in his/her backyard as well, yet you'd never know it from each other?