COME AND TRY
the great French game of Petanque at our
OPEN DAY
Saturday 14 January 2023
at 1.00 pm
FREE SAUSAGE SIZZLE
A game for the whole family – Everyone welcome
Enquiries to: president@prospectpetanque.com.au or secretary@prospectpetaque.com.au or 0412 244 292
The Second Wind Ensemble chose to have their end of year function at our Clubrooms and what a wonderful afternoon of music it was. The Ensemble was established to give mature people with the will to take up the study of an instrument later in life the opportunity to join in with a group and benefit from the support of other musicians.
The entire group presented a 45 minute program and, after a short break, broke into groups to present the different groups’ choice of music – all making for a very enjoyable program.
The club grounds proved to be a great setting for their function, with the opportunity to use the facilities and try playing petanque, followed by a sausage sizzle.
Congratulations to Brett Williams, whose Life Membership was unanimously conferred at the February Committee Meeting. Many thanks Brett for all of your contributions over the years. Brett joins our President, Allan Sanderson, on the Life Membership Roll and we look forward to many more years of your association with the Club.
Semifinal 2006 on the central court at Vieux Port (Author: Schildt)
In July 2017, we (Lionel Pujol, Tony Stojsic and I) participated in the biggest international petanque competition in the world: Le Mondial La Marseillaise à Pétanque. Held in Marseille over 5 days every July, anyone can come and play. Last year the numbers were slightly down – only about 4,700 teams participated (!!). When you lose a game, you’re out.
Even so, the organisers still had to find pistes for some 2,350 matches in the first round. We played in the carpark of a soccer stadium about 25 minutes north of the centre of Marseille (shuttle buses took us – great atmosphere on the buses) with 94 other matches going on at the same time. Our “piste” N° 95 was rocky, sloping, and more or less triangular, and had a metal manhole cover in the middle of it which made a loud bonging sound when a boule bounced on it. You live with it – that’s pétanque.
We won our first match which was a huge high, then were trounced in the second. It didn’t matter – we had no illusions about our chances: even at local club level, the quality of play is much higher over there – we were at La Marseillaise and the atmosphere was terrific. There was loud rock music, pastis, beer and other beverages flowing freely, plenty of merguez in baguettes (trans.: sausage sandwiches, but REALLY good ones), matches being played on every available surface, tens of thousands of people, great camaraderie. It was a huge fabulous celebration and all of us were there thanks to pétanque.
Tory McBride (Prospect Petanque Club)
