Bath Open Triples 3rd August 2026
Please see link to photos of the day taken by Liz Bugg
https://photos.app.goo.gl/2gL95zXA7qac1aft7
Santa Susanna Cup 2025
On 27th September seven triples teams from COBPC made the journey from Bristol Airport to take part in the Santa Susanna Cup in Spain between 28th September and 3rd October.
On the first day, several teams took part in a practice tournament while others decided to take the opportunity to visit the nearby city of Girona, although Louise couldn’t quite manage to stop thinking about pétanque.
Those who decided to stay began to accustom themselves to the challenging pistes with Ade Williams and Geoff and Jude Wyatt winning a hamper for coming third in their group.
The second day saw the beginning of the tournament proper. In all, there were 12 different countries represented, so the Bath teams were competing against teams from France, Spain, Ireland, Sweden, the USA, Germany, Estonia, Denmark, Italy, Argentina and Belgium. All the Bath teams were drawn in separate groups and played some strong teams on the first day, many of them from France. However, we quickly discovered that there is a French tradition that a victorious team buys their defeated opponents drinks. Given the substantial number of French teams present, defeat was therefore not always a bad thing! This also gave some of us the opportunity to practise our pidgin French. Other French traditions we encountered included dispensing with the toss and passing the coche to the opposition if there was a lady on their team, although we were unable to persuade them that it was a tradition in England not to shoot out the boule of a lady opponent! Wins were hard to come by. However, Annette Hall, Julie Hughes and Max Bartlett qualified for the silver tournament on the following day as did the team of Ade Williams and Jude and Geoff Wyatt.
The third day saw all the teams take part in qualification for the finals day on the Thursday. Cary Bush, Mary Bradridge and Dom Singleton won three of the 4 games they played to qualify for the final day of the bronze tournament, including a comeback win from 12-6 down against the eventual semi-finalists, while Ade Williams and Jude and Geoff Wyatt progressed serenely into the final day of the silver tournament.
On the Thursday, some of those teams who had not progressed to the final day of the tournament took part in a consolation tournament, giving them the opportunity to make new friends. Others went to visit Girona. In the tournament itself, Ade Williams and Jude and Geoff Wyatt won two matches and lost a third by the score of 13-12, narrowly missing out on the quarter finals of the silver tournament, while in the bronze tournament Cary Bush, Mary Bradridge and Dom Singleton lost three tight matches and were eliminated, but not before they gave another of the eventual semi-finalists a scare in a match which they lost 13-11. The tournament therefore ended with the seven COBPC teams as spectators, only able to marvel at the quality of the shooting of some of the top teams on display. Later that evening, we all picked up our medals for participating to the strains of ‘Freed from Desire.’
On Friday, while some departed for a city break in Barcelona, most had a relaxing day In and around the hotel before departing for the airport that evening. Sadly, Storm Amy meant that our flight to Bristol was cancelled, and the return journey became very difficult with some not making it home until the early hours of Monday morning and others having to fly back to Bristol via Milan. Overall, though, the group’s spirits were unbowed, and all were agreed that it had been a great week and in thanking Steve Charman for all his work organising the trip.
Steve’s comments about the week summed up a great trip: “For me it was a success both on and off the piste. Some great results, teams excelled, teams battled, teams came off disappointed, but we all came off learning something new about the game of pétanque and ourselves. As a group, we bettered our last year’s results. A team made the silver finals day and another made the bronze. We all played our best on the day, no matter our results. Friendships made and friendships renewed.”
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City of Bath Petanque Club’s 20th Anniversary – 21st September 2025
Terry has kindly shared some narrative for this report on how we celebrated the 20th Anniversary of the Club last Sunday – 21st September 2025:
I am privileged to record this special event, having personally seen the club grow, into the biggest Boules club in the West.
Over 70 members attended to enjoy all the events; so very well organised by Cary Bush and his many volunteers. Of course, several members have now passed – sadly no longer able join in with the day’s celebrations.
One of the original founding members and first Chairman was the late Don Grimes. Don wanted a permanent home for the club; achieving this in 2014 with the committed help of Clive Burge of ‘Larkhall Football Club’.
On the day, the sun shone brightly as members played in the Melee and Wade’s professional band entertained us during the splendid Hog Roast feast.
I feel honoured, to have been among the people who have become so very special in my life.
Don’s Wife Thelma; presented some awards.
Winners as follows.
1st Nick Nicolas
2nd Colin Bachelor
3rd Di Barros.
4th Julie Turnball
5th Geoff Wyatt
6th David Taylor
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16th – 17th August 2025 – Friendship Games, Germany
Photos from the weekend (taken by Liz Bugg)
https://photos.app.goo.gl/jwps5u2td2X4cJSc8
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3rd August 2025 – Bath Open Triples
Photos from the day (taken by Liz Bugg)
https://bathboules.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Bath-Open-03-08-2025-1-001.zip
BATH OPEN
Since its inception over 15 years ago when the open was held on Queen Square we had for the first time ever 40 teams competing from far and wide. The weather while intermittently drizzling during the day held
up and by the time of the finals at 5.00 we had bright sunshine.
The two Gold finals (main and consolage) were well attended, and the standard was high with a City of Bath Team (Phil Bradshaw, Alex Moriarty and Adrian Williams) prevailing over a very strong visiting team 13-11.
The organisation of the event gets easier with time even with additional teams but this is down to the time that a number of volunteers put in to tidy up the pistes, but also building 4 new pistes on the car park.
Special thanks go to Chris & Di Baross and Steve Charman for their contributions. We also need to thank Emma Pople and Suzanne Bachelor who oversaw the registration and scoring throughout the day to ensure a seamless running of the tournament and finally Trevor Glenton who built the software to simplify the process and allow the competition to run on time.
Finally, to all of you (too many to name) who provided cakes and raffle prizes without who the day would not have been as much of a success as it was.
So, on to 2026, can we increase the numbers to 48 teams? Can we attract sponsorship to make this a truly great event attracting petanque players from all over the country.
For photos of the event, thanks go to Liz Bugg who spent the day looking for that perfect photo
https://photos.app.goo.gl/EA5R6BF2uwQsEScUA
Also for those who were unable to watch the final
https://youtu.be/EyIdipH4J9g?si=lo80c3VdQiWdqhRd
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13th July 2025 – Club Mixed Doubles Championship.
A lovely day. All the games were played competitively in the right spirit.
Well done to all the 32 players who took part in the competition.
The Gold Winners were Jules and Pete
Runners up were Christine and Jean-Marc
The Silver Winners were Ann C and Gary
Runners up Mary B and Dave W
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12th/13th July 2025 – The Sherston Boules Festival
A successful weekend for two CoBPC players. Phil Bradshaw and Alex Moriarty along with Steve Deykin from the Southern Region won this festival beating Cassanis in the final. And winning the Caerleon Bastille Day triples on the Sunday. Well done.
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Have a look at our feature in July edition of The Bath Magazine. The feature is on pages 54 & 55