Title: Visit of guests from Aix-en-Provence Location: Bath Description: On Friday we welcome our first ever petanquers from Aix-en- Provence who will be staying over the weekend. The have been entered into the Veuve Cliquot Bath Boules Tournament for Saturday.
It would be great if anyone around town on Saturday can drop into Queen Square and say hello and cheer the team on, I’m hoping to have a small table and chairs to use as a base.
Otherwise, Saturday evening, Sunday lunch and Sunday evening are good opportunities to join the group and help to make the visitors feel welcome.
Look forward to seeing you around during the weekend. Do let me know if I’ve forgotten anything!
Lesley
September 30th and we are on our way to Bremen and Braunschweig to compete in a couple of tournaments, attend the 40th twinning anniversary of the Anglo German Association.
Plaques presented to the City of Bath Club at the Bremen Open
Our trip started with a visit to Bremen in Northern Germany to compete in the Bremen Open. As saturday dawned we were greeted with blue skys and warm sunshine. The competition is held round the Werder Bremen football ground and we were assured that we were the first english side to have graced the Bremen Open. While the results were not positive both teams gave a good account of themselves and after a enjoyable day were presented with a memento of our visit. Dinner that night was exceptional and despite a limited menu it was agreed that we could not have done better.
Sunday and on to Braunschweig by train. Don had been advised by our host, Lutz, ahead of our visit that
There are two possibilities for you to practise petanque. The easiest is to go to the square in front of the Magnikirche, fairly central -actually in the oldest part of town – and just play there. it is open to everyone. The second is to play at the grounds of the BffL where the championship will be held. But this is more complicated. Firstly, it is a nudist club and on that day there will be nudist club members in the grounds, which may not be to your taste.
In the end, deciding to prevent any embarrasement for the tour members we arrived in front of the Magnikirche to be greeted by a number of our hosts for a preliminary game of pétanque before the main competition and of course a few beers.
City of Bath Petanque Club made a pilgrimage to the birthplace of the sport last week when they paid their annual visit to Aix-en-Provence.
Aix-en-provence gathering at Luynes – a new club
Members took on their counterparts at the Boulomaine Club in the French town of La Ciotat, famous as the birthplace of cinema and the place where the first game of petanque was played in 1906.
It was part of a busy week for the Queens Square-based club, who also caught up with old friends in Bath’s twin town of Aix-en-Provence and also played against the Cercle Club at Tholonet.
The tour was City of Bath’s second venture abroad this year, having also visited Holland during Easter to establish a playing relationship with their counterparts in Alkmaar.
Club captain Chris Garratt said:
While we hope that our newly-established relationship with the petanque clubs in Alkmaar will develop into a thriving one in the future, there is nothing like the challenge of meeting the French at their own game on their home territory.
In recent times, we have learned a few hard lessons from our adventures to Provence. However, it’s been great how they have been so pleased to see us having a serious go at their sport. They have been so very encouraging and this has enabled our own standard of play to progress significantly – the City of Bath Club is fast becoming a force to be reckoned with.
The club would like to thank its local sponsors, including John Moore Sports, The Raven and Bath Aqua Glass.
In April of this year the City of Bath Petanque Club recently went Dutch when they visited the twin city of Alkmaar, in the Netherlands to challenge the local teams. Eight intrepid travellers met up at the Hotel Stad en Land on Friday night allowing themselves plenty of time to discover the nightlife on offer.
On Saturday we were invited to the Sportlaan Club where we joined our hosts for a challenge match won by Bath by 13 games to 12.
On Sunday we were invited to the Celeritas Pétanque Club where we were kindly treated to lunch before heading into our second tournament of the weekend. Unfortunately this time we finished second in a competition of 32 teams.The trip provided plenty of inspiration as Celeteris has a large indoor boulodrome attached to their bar, something the Bath club would like to replicate.
For the second year The Raven on Queen Street sponsored the Triples open Petanque competition, held in Queen Square on Aug 16th. The weather was changeable as has been the norm this summer and tops were removed and replaced frequently. Thankfully the umbrellas were left folded. The refurbished pistes were in excellent condition, our thanks to B&NES park dept.
The competition, now in its 4th year, was the usual petanque mix of intense and friendly, one of the few ball games that you can play seriously and still enjoy a beer or two. As seems to be becoming a tradition the sponsors team, Team Raven, was out classed by most of the field, we really must get down to some practice, I hear it makes you better.
Sunday 17th Aug saw the third annual Pétanque challenge held by City of Bath Petanque league in Queen Square, sponsored by local pub, The Raven, Queen Street. 31 teams of three competed in games of Boules on the recently refreshed pistes in Queen Square. Many of the teams are part of the regular Tuesday evening league tournament. As always an atmosphere of friendly competition pervaded the Square with rival teams taking a seriously playful attitude to the tournament, which is a feature of Boules.
The morning session consisted of three games each with the top 16 teams going on to compete for the main Prize of a dinner for three at Tilley’s Bistro and the lower 15 going for the plate. The Main competition was won by ‘The Good, The Bad and the Ugly’ and the plate by The Cool Boulers, Martin, Alice and George Ellis.
The fourth trip to Aix – Le Petanque Ensemble – took place in early June. We visited three local clubs and played against AAGP the the foot of Mount Sainte Victoire made famous by Cezanne. For photos of these days please see the gallery below.
Day with AAGP
Our day with AAGP in the Provence Country side
A beautiful day.A series of games in the car park, followed by a feast of a picnic in amongst the shaded trees.A gentle walk up around Mount Sainte Victoire, taking in the lovely scenery, giant ants, reservoir and with storm clouds threatening a hasty walk back down – until they drifted away.We stopped off on the way to have a look at the marble (bottom right).A winding drive through Cezanne country on the way back to Aix.
