A Very French game in Australia: Bill and Alma are into Pétanque
(Last updated Jan. 24, 2010)
|
|
Yes, I know, as sports go it can’t be called very strenuous. But it’s fun nonetheless. We’ve been playing Pétanque, a game originated by the French in which people stand around with a glass of good wine close at hand on a Sunday afternoon and, after much fanfare, lob a heavy steel ball (about the size of an orange and weighing 700 grams or so) toward a little rubber ball about 10 meters away on a hard-packed fine gravel pitch. As opposed to just being bowled, the ball (or “boule” as we call it) is lobbed fairly high so that after a short roll it will come as close as possible to the “cochonnet” (or small rubber “jack”). Two or three balls are tossed by each player, and opposing team players try to “shoot” your boule away with a high, hard toss that occasionally sends players scattering for cover. The idea is to end each round with as many boules as possible closest to the jack and thereby win anywhere from 1 to 6 points towards the 13 points needed to win a game.
Pétanque
is a very social game, vaguely similar to bocce in the sense that conviviality
is a big part of it. One major attraction is that many vineyards in the region
hold Pétanque tournaments characterized by much wine tasting and socializing
while the game is played. Typical of the tournaments we occasionally rock up
for is a vineyard in northeast Victoria’s King Valley, where we’ve lost to some
pretty good experts during the three weekend tournaments in which we’ve
competed there, but we always have fun anyway. Usually about half the players
are French-born Aussies, who tend to be best at it. But the nice thing about
Petanque is that you can take it as seriously as you want (on our very first
two outings at the St. Kilda Sports Club’s annual winter competitions we were
pitted against a couple of national champions—and lost, naturally) or not
overly seriously. But in a recent competition at our club, Bill ended up the
top-scoring player, and in another contest he went undefeated against some very
high-ranking players from the Dove Petanque Club, so maybe there’s a bit of
improvement there. But the idea is to bring a picnic basket and a bottle of
wine and have fun, while meeting some other fun-loving people, and that’s what
we mostly do.
We’re members of what we think is a great Petanque group—the Camberwell Petanque Club, which plays on 18 pistes adjacent to the greens at the Hawthorn Bowls Club, which has been a local mainstay since the 1800s. Bill is Immediate Past-president of the Club and is the creator and editor of the club’s website, “The Camberwell Petanque Club Piste-up.” That’s a somewhat rude play on words, but you can check out the website at www.pisteup.com and see that it’s good, wholesome fun (mostly).
Here are some photos of our club in action, as well as a few shots taken at other Petanque outings we’ve had:
|
Playing outside the Pizzini Vineyards wine sheds |
Bill tries a new strategy of having a glass between games |
|
Lunch is served amidst the wine casks, appropiately enough |
Graham, Jean-Jacques and Bill raise a glass or two |
|
Alma ready to shoot boule at Pizzini Vineyard |
Our club members celebrate a win at Pizzini tournament |
|
Bill and mixed doubles partner Helen with wine prizes |
Relaxing between games with friends Helen and Colin |
|
Pulling weeds on our local pistes is part of Pétanque |
Aimee throws, Alma watches at Camberwell Club |
|
Petanque Club management committee-2009 (me front, left)
|
Alma, Bill, Alec hold Triples prizes (David looking on) |
|
Bill throws a boule at Camberwell Sunday meeting |
|
|
|
The action’s also furious during the lunch break |
|
Heine and Trish take a break from the game’s rigors |
Making the elimination ladder for a club match |
|
David cracks open a bottle of red to sustain the players |
Alma gets tucked into some cheeses during lunch break |
|
A tournament we played in at Cope-Williams Vineyard |
Alma “points” her boule in Cope-Williams tournament |
|
Alma doing the measuring and scoring at end of a round |
Jacob in form at a social game in Melbourne |
|
Lisa sizes up the piste at Melbourne game |
|
And here’s a copy of a flyer I created to promote Petanque, particularly at our club:
“Funny name, great game” 
Pétanque
|
Pétanque competition at Hawthorn Bowls Club |
Play is usually followed by wine, lunch, laughs |
An Invitation to try it yourself
Join some entertaining and enthusiastic Pétanque players Sunday afternoons and also Friday evenings during summer at the Hawthorn Bowling Club, located adjacent to St. James Park at Wood and Denham streets, Hawthorn. BYO picnic lunch & drinks.
Pétanque is a close relative of Italian Bocce and even closer to jeu provençal, which originated in southern France in the early 1900s. Petanque first came to Australia in the 1960s with French immigrants, and in recent years has rapidly spread to the point where Victoria alone has 16 clubs. Pétanque Australia lists 47 clubs nationally, with 1,200 registered players and more than 7,000 participants.
The Camberwell Pétanque Club holds social games one Sunday a month, and Twilight games Fridays from 5-9 p.m. during Daylight Savings time. It hosts tournaments, and often plays in competitions throughout Victoria.
$5.00 per person includes tuition, boules provided
Contacts: Richard Trish Terry Bill
9853-68611 9815-0443 9803-3330 9348-0639
Melway Ref. 44 K9
