City of Bath Pétanque Club
The presentation event for the 4th season of the Abbey Ales Bath Thursday Boules League took place at The Northey, Box. The league is organised by City of Bath Petanque Club, sponsored by Abbey Ales and is open to any teams of 4 based within 5 miles of the City centre.
Ciaran Crabtree today became the first City of Bath Club member to win the Regional shooting competition. In a field of 9 contestants it came down to a final between last years winner, Clive de Silva and Ciaran who finally triumphed by 17 points to 16.
The eighth annual triples organised by The City of Bath Pétanque Club and sponsored by the Raven Pub was a sell out with 32 teams having signed up weeks before the tournament
With the location of Queen Square as the background, the tournament commenced in the morning with each team playing four games and those teams finishing in the top 16 to entering the championship with the remaining teams competing for the plate.
The main competition was won by SCABS (Star Cottage Amateur Boule Society) comprising of Ian Rushton, Peter Moreland and Mike Dodd. On only their second appearance at the Bath Open they defeated the Good, Bad & Ugly (James Harris, Max Liddington and John Davis) in an entertaining and hard fought final. In addition to winning the cup, SCABS also received a voucher for dinner at Brassiere Blanc.
The Annual Ship Masters Tournament took place on Sunday 12th August 2012 at The Ship Petanque Club in Keynsham.
This event has become one of the most popular and prestigious events of the season’s calender and offers a high level of competition with teams invited from those currently playing in the Regional Brunel League. The City of Bath Club entered 2 triples teams.
Although the day started with an unseasonal thunderstorm, 20 teams gathered early morning to begin the contest in group leagues which took play up to lunchtime and a welcome hog roast.
Despite the difficulties of putting out a settled team to represent The Bath Club in this league, the team currently holds 5th place (of 11), having played 13 of the 20 matches to be played by end of season. We now move into the final third session of this season having won 9 of these matches, which is the same number of wins as the top 3 teams.
There is now a well defined gap emerging between the tightly pascked teams in the top half of the league and those in the lower half. We are 11 points adrift of the top placed team, which leaves a big gap to make up, but a strong finish could see us at least in the top 3 places again, as last season.
Upcoming games
August:
Wednesday 22nd away v Pirates
September:
Sunday 2nd, home v Ringers
Sunday 9th, home v Stingers
Included in the 1932 film by Marcel Pagnol “Fanny” a famous scene in which a tram is stopped in its tracks in order to allow the game to continue (the clip is unsubtitled but, as ever in Provence, the gestures speak volumes).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0PhfNNZN4c
However one of pétanque’s most venerable and amusing traditions, the Fanny, is apparently unconnected with Pagnol. La Fanny, qu’est-ce que c’est?
The Bath – Aix-en-Provence Twinning Association will celebrate its 35th Anniversary this year with ‘Une Soiree Dansante’ on Saturday September 22nd 7pm – 11.30pm at BRLSI in Queen Square.
There will be a glass of sparkling wine on arrival, a buffet supper, and music from a group of Breton musicians and a chanteuse. They will also lead us in some simple traditional Breton dancing, for the willing and able! A group of 14 ‘honoured guests’ from Aix will be coming for the celebrations.
It would be great if a sizeable contingent from the City of Bath Petanque Club joined in the celebrations – the Twinning Association in both cities have supported our visits over the years and helped to make them so enjoyable.
Please contact Lesley Hall, the club’s Aix Twinning representative, for your tickets, priced at £30 each.
lesley-hall@hotmail.co.uk or phone 01225 328685 (day), 01373 827406 (eve)
After 9 years of Bath petanque players visiting our twin city of Aix-en-Provence, we were able to return the hospitality at last when four intrepid Aixois spent the weekend of 22nd-25th June in Bath.
Joachim, Bernard, Renee and Lili were sponsored by the Bath/Aix Twinning Association and the City of Bath Petanque Club to play in the Bath Boules tournament in Queen Square on Saturday. Inevitably the French team ‘Les Aixois’ sailed through all the heats to the play offs in the afternoon. They were visited by the new Mayor of Bath, Councillor Andrew Furse, and the Mayoress, Mrs Mei-Ling Chou Furse, who are firm supporters of the city’s Twinning Associations. The distinguished visitors chatted to the French team and watched them play a few ends, before touring the square to greet other players.
The beautiful city of Alkmaar is famous for its canals, cheese market, historical houses and windmills. Following a successful Club tour in 2010, a second tour is being organised from 5th to 8th October 2012. This coincides with the Celeritas Open Doubles Tournament, and Alkmaar Liberation celebrations. A number of social events and a friendly match are planned as well as participation in the Tournament. Hotel rooms are being booked well in advance because of the high level of demand for that weekend. If you would like to know more about the tour, please contact Diana Lockwood at dmlockwood@tiscali.co.uk or 07967 711120
The Raven proudly sponsors the City of Bath Open Triples.
The time is upon us once again for the City of Bath Open Triples which will be held again this year on Sunday August 19th at Queen Square. Due to the growing popularity of the event the number of teams will be is limited to 32 teams, and given the growing popularity of this event , you are advised to apply early. Entry Fee is £30 a team which includes a ploughmans lunch for 3 people. Additional ploughmans can be purchased.
Cash prizes and Trophies will be presented to the winning teams. The latest submission date for applications will be Monday August 13th. Entry Forms can be obtained on line and should be either emailed to Cary Bush cary@carybush.co.uk or by mail at 11 Dunsford Place, Bath BA2 6HF