A simple question but as ever, there are a few things to think over.

The most obvious choice is:

• Does everybody consult together and agree a team decision? or
• Does one person makes the decisions?

Will this differ if?

• It’s early in the end and everybody has boules to play.
• Only one player has boules left to play.

In the latter case, is it better to let that player decide on how to play or should it still be a team decision? What should the player do they feel unhappy or not confident about following the team decision?

Without naming names, there was a notable case in France in 2011 where the pointer, a former French and World Champion, pointed a couple of ‘mediocre’ points and then asked his shooter to shoot the opponents’ holding boule. The shooter would NOT take the shot! He clearly thought this was the wrong tactical decision and an ‘animated’ discussion followed

There aren’t really any ”Right and Wrong” answers to the above points but they are the sorts of things that established teams should discuss and agree on how they are going to play.

Responses, please

Allez-y!

Ray Ager

He refused because ”I’ve lost my voice and wouldn’t take any pleasure from playing together”. A tall story? Maybe but it illustrates something really important about the game:

”It’s a team game and you need to talk to your team.”

If you look at The Dream Team, Philippe Quintais, Pointer, Philippe Suchaud, Shooter and Henry Lacroix, Middle, you can see how well they work together as a team.

The Dream Team, recently disbanded, won virtually every single pétanque title and are recognised as the most successful team of all time.

For me personally, the thing I enjoy most about playing is playing well together as a team. The worst thing is playing in a team where nobody talks to each other…

If you watch the top teams, they always:

• Stand together at the jack
• Consult with one another about what shot to play
• Support and encourage each other

What is your Dream Team?

Your name Pat Connolly.

Age 69.

Occupation Retired.

What was the last book you read? The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas.

Do you have a favourite film? Midnight Cowboy and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

Favourite Music? Bryan Ferry, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young to name but a few.

When did you start playing? 2003.

What made you start? I was retired and looking for an interest. I liked the social aspect and of course the great location.

What do you like about the club? The combination of social and competitive play and the camaraderie.

What boules do you use? Intégrale 720g.

What position do you play? Mainly Pointer and occasionally Shooter.

What other hobbies and interests do you have? Reading, swimming, films and I am a volunteer at the Ropetackle Arts Centre, Shoreham.

Tell us something about yourself that club members won’t know. My first job at 17 was in Soho and I spent many a lunch hour in a dive bar in Wardour Street – oh happy days!

What is your pétanque ambition? To carry on playing well into my dotage and continue to help take the club forward.

How have you seen the club develop? Having played since 2003 I have seen the club improve in leaps and bounds both competitively and socially and it is definitely well respected in the pétanque community.

What does being Club Secretary involve? My main job is recording Minutes of meetings. Also as a contact for other clubs and organisations wishing to play.

You’ve just won the EPA Over 50′s Plate Compeition – Congratulations! Can you tell us about the competition? I was over the moon winning (with my partner, Ian Maynard) the EPA Over 50′s Plate Competition. I thought the club excelled itself on all fronts in hosting this event, with a total of 40 teams entering. This was all due to the willingness to help by club members.

You’re also played in the European Cup for Clubs – can you tell us about this event? I am particularly fond of this competition because it comes at a time when the season is closing down and it keeps the momentum going. It is also quite a tough competition.

You’ve also played in the Sussex Regional Squad and the Inter-Regional Championships at Brean Sands – your thoughts, please? My first visit to Brean was a real eye-opener to see so many people playing and how well the EPA organised it. It is a great experience but a tiring one, for me, playing two long days. The social side is always fun which compensates for the hard work.

Do you pefer Singles, Doubles or Triples? I prefer to play Doubles – nothing like having three boules.

Can you give us a tip for playing? Always go to look at where the boules have landed because it often looks very different from the circle – something I should take note of!

How would you like to see the club develop? I feel the club has developed so much in the past few years it will be hard to top this. A junior team is lacking and this perhaps is something to be worked on. I just hope that we can continue to keep a good balance between social and competitive play. ”Onwards and Upwards.”

Pat, thanks you so much for taking the time to answer and for everything you’ve contributed to the club.

Ray Ager Oct 2011.

Gareth with new boules

Gareth with new boules

Gareth has recently bought a set of new boules and talks about his new set of boules and why he chose them.

Gareth's new boules

Gareth, thank you very much for talking to us about your new boules – they certainly seem to be working for you!

Did you know? ITR3 are (were) Intégrale’s top-of-the-range low-bounce, low-rebound semi-soft stainless steel boules. La Boule Intégrale, France’s oldest boules manufacturers, went into liquidation at the beginning of the year. Although the assets of the company have been bought, it’s future at the time of writing seems unknows.

Report by Ray Ager.

Keep Calm

One for the bedroom wall

Keep Calm PDF

Shooting comp

A rather rainy Sunday has allowed me to catch up with my last post from the Provence trip. The club at Istrès held an informal Shooting a Back Boule competition one afternoon.

We have held similar events in Brighton – they’re great fun! Shooting a Back Boule at 10m is one of the great traditions at French clubs. Shooting is, of course, a key part of the game and shooting a back boule at 10m is one of the hardest tests shooters have to face.

Shooting 2

You can just place two boules on the terrain but often you’ll see a special area set aside for such practise – usually either an old tyre with two boules bolted on or a piece of rubber, which is what we have at Brighton and what they used at Istrès.

Shooting 3

Players usually put a stake into a pot, everybody lines up and shoots at the target boule. You must hit the back boule – if you hit the front boule, it’s an invalid shot. If you hit, you stay in for the next round, if you miss, you’re out but you can often buy back into the next round, but usually at double stakes.

Shooting 3

Eventually there will just be two players left in – winner takes all.

Note how the young children gather round to watch – it’s how children grow up learning to play.

Shooting now has it’s own championships and there is a World Record for shooting 1,000 boules in one hour. There are some recent videos on YouTube and Boulistenaute with 10 of the world’s top shooters each shooting 100 boules to revisit the 1,000 boules record.

While each player has individual variations in style, there are a number of common factors:

• Smooth, gentle swing.
• roughly shoulder-head height arc.
• The release puts backspin on the boule – increasing the chance of a carreau.
• All shots are boule-to-boule.
• Although there are the inevitable few misses, two misses in a row are extremely rare.

Have fun
Ray Ager

• Against a team of strong shooters?
• Against a team of weak shooters but good pointers?

These are the sorts of things that established teams need to discuss and practise.

Some options to consider:

• Get as close to the jack as possible
• Play about 30 – 40cm in front
• Play to the side
• Play a ‘tactical’ boule, not that close to the jack

What would your team do and why?

Here’s a bit of a mixed boules-bag of pictures from Provence.

The first picture is inside the massive clubhouse and bar at La Ciotat. They have over 200 members and the walls are lined with locked boxes for members to store their boules.

Pétanque Sign

Here are a couple of street signs next to the famous terrain at La Ciotat where the game started.

Smooth terrain

This is a close-up of one of the new terrains at Istrès. The terrain is quite smooth and is only used for Le Jeu Provençal, way too smooth for the pétanque players!

Avignon handrail

At Avignon, they even use boules on the handrails.

La Ciotat Boulomanes

This is the other club at La Ciotat where I played in one of the afternoon club comps.

La Ciotat terrain

This view shows about one-third of the playing area. There is as much again behind this section, plus another separate area used for Le Jeu Provençal.

Boule bleue banner

There are lots of sponsors’ banners at the terrain – here’s one.

May programme

This is the program for May at La Ciotat – there is a comp almost every day throughout the whole month! A mixture of Doubles, Triples, Mêlées and Choosing partners, pétanque and Le Jeu Provençal.

Entry is typically €2, €3 or €5 and the usual system is that for every game you win, you get your money back – quite a good system, something to think about…

Restanque

Memorial at La Ciotat.

Memorial

And when it’s time to play on the great terrain in the sky, for only €189, you can have your own pétanque tombstone.

La Ciotat belote

The card game, Belote, is just as popular with pétanque players, sometimes more so, with more playing belote inside than playing pétanque outside! As soon as our game had finished, my partner Françoise was playing.

Françoise was a bit of a ‘character’ – I think why she was willing to take anybody for a partner! During one of our games we played a couple of Marseille players, one of whom was quite ‘fiery’ and when Françoise went to check the boules, despite us having played all our boules, things got very heated and I actually had to step in and ask for ”Du calme, du calme!”.

After we’d finished, Françoise went to play belote and the two guys invited me for a drink where everything was joked about – C’est les boules!!! They found it very amusing that I’d come for a relaxing game on holiday and got embroiled in a dispute, not of my making.

Sign

At Cros de Cagnes, boules games are allowed until 10pm in winter and 11pm in summer – génial!

Cros de Cagnes Mêlée

I played in the Saturday afternoon Triples Mêlée at Cros de Cagnes. A very large terrain but most of it extremely smooth with only the finest powder coating. An absolute classic ”marble players” terrain – you only had to give the boule the slightest nudge and it would roll and roll and roll… I found it very difficult to get to grips with but it obviously suited the older population as virtually no effort was required.

Whereas rolling shots are very much frowned upon at most clubs, here they were quite common place. They suited the terrain and the abilities of the older players.

Although we started reasonably well, I’m afraid it didn’t last and we had a bit of disasterous last end, 11-8 down: the opponents had a boule right in front of the jack. The boule clearly needed to be shot but the other two wanted to point. The guy who had been shooting – not terribly well, why we were losing – pointed two boules, inevitably behind. I wanted to shoot but our lady pointer said, “I’m shooting” and played a rolling shot which took out our only close boule. She then played a ”frustration shot” off the terrain. I couldn’t get anything closer and we lost. They blamed me for bad pointing…

Roadside

Here in Istrès, they even use boules to stop the traffic from mounting the pavement!

Istrès: Ben

This is Ben, one of the regulars at Istrès. A really friendly, laid-back guy, with a wonderfully gentle, relaxed shooting style. Plenty of hits and lots of carreau. We had one game together which went to 10-all before we scored 3 more points. I only thought we’d scored 2 but everybody insisted it was 3 and we shook hands!

They’ve actually got 4 main areas at the club, which has all been refurbished by the council. One are is very smooth and is only used for Le Jeu Provençal. There is a new area which has just been tarmaced and given a coating of stones. They have to wait until next week before playing on it. The area where everybody was playing was a ‘natural’ area, next to the lake. Very uneven, lots of stones – surprise! – and the obligatory drain cover.

Istrès drain

Wavy drain

The close-up shows how many stones. This terrain was much harder to point on. Most of the players used a high-lob but there were lots of ”bad bounces” due to the very large number of stones. It was a terrain that really rewarded good shooting but you had to be boule-to-boule to succeed.

Now you see it...

I managed to get one pic of a successful shot – again, it gives you an idea of how rough the terrain is – in total constrast to Cros de Cagnes!

... now you don't!

The boule-dozer preparing the new terrain.

Boule-dozer

New terrain

This was the main section of the new terrain, marked into 8 terrains for competitions. Because of the width limitations, the markings were diagonal to give extra length.

Blue terrain

Istrès buvette

The new clubhouse – Brighton council, take note!!!

Ben at work

Ben at the bar.

Registration

And at the registration desk.

Masters

This guy is one of France’s top players, from the local club at Miramas, he’d come over for the Friday night comp. I forgot to ask his name but we had quite a long chat, he was very friendly, albeit with a strong Midi accent (!) and talked about many of the championships he’d played in. He said he usually played as the Milieur (middle player) but was shooting in the evening Doubles comp.

Istrès

Shooting

Here he is in action – body hardly moving, just an extremely straight and fluid arm movement. Again, the boule just seems to ‘float’ through the air before landing on the target boule,

La belote

Again, belote at Istrès. I played in the Doubles comp with a young French-Moroccan guy, Mehdi and we were against the two young guys here playing belote. Neither of us were brilliant shooters – essential really on such a difficult terrain and, although we put up a good fight, we lost 13-8 to a much stronger team.

We were then in the ‘consolage’ where were played two young teenagers. The youngest was a very good shooter and I’m afraid it was time for an early bath…

Before the comp started there were lots of families around and lots of young children who could hardly hold a boule but they were all shooting – that’s the way to start playing pétanque!

À bientôt

Ray Ager

Villefranche Boules

Just a few pix from Villefranche. And if you think that terrain looks a bit rocky, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet…

Villefranche players

Some of the guys I’ve been playing with at Villefranche this week. There is a club with marked out terrains but also an adjacent public area where a group gathers every afternoon – that’s where I’ve been playing.

Villefranche game

From the photo, the terrain looks fairly flat. However, it isn’t – there’s a general slope towards the sea and like the DUC, a mixture of some even patches but plenty of stony areas as well.

In addition, there are quite a few ‘rocks’ in the terrain. Here’s a closer view:

Villefranche rocks

The jack would often be thrown such that there was a group of rocks half-way between the circle and the jack. If you landing on a rock, your boule was guaranteed to go flying off, if you rolled across the rocks, the odds were that your boule would be deflected. Again, most players used a gentle lob to avoid the stones but with sufficient control to stop the boule near the jack – quite tricky when there was a downhill slope.

Villefranche

Nearly a Fanny in 3 ends

Most of the games played were Triples but I did play one Doubles game where ”we nearly got a Fanny in 3 ends”. I was pointing, playing with Jeannot, who was shooting. We won 4 points on both the first and second ends to give us an 8 – 0 lead. The jack was thrown for the third end and I pointed ”un point à l’anglais” – about 1m to the side of the jack (see the Lexique).

Again, there were quite a few stones on the terrain, a hump on the line to the jack and the downward slope that my boule had taken. To everybody’s surprise, the opponents played all 6 boules without beating mine (!) leaving us 5 boules to play for a Fanny in 3 ends. There was one boule on the line in front of the jack which we shot, leaving a clear path to point in. But we didn’t get another boule in either, meaning nobody get closer than my first boule which was 1m from the jack! 9 – 0.

I think we’d seriously worried the opponents because, little my little, they started scoring… Can you guess the final score? 13 – 9 to them – we didn’t score another point!!! I don’t think I’ve ever seen the opponents so relieved.

Villefranche by Day

Most of the time I’ve been pointing but I was allowed to shoot in another Doubles game. I was playing with Claudie (in the blue check shirt, above) who had been shooting. Like many of the retired guys in the group who play every day, he’s still a pretty mean shooter, hitting a good 80+% of his shots. We’d won the first game and he decided he would point and let me shoot for la revanche - the return match.

I’m relieved to say I didn’t do too badly and there was a buzz going round the terrain, ”the English guy can shoot!”. It was really appreciated when I managed to shoot all 3 boules in one end, gaining a lot of appreciated comments from the other players and spectators. Luckily we won that game too, so I hope I might now be allowed to shoot occasionally!

What is noticeably is what a good standard of play the retired players still have. They are no longer the ‘crack’ players who go in for all the competitions but they still play regularly. Many will have been pointing all their lives and do so with incredible accuracy on very tricky terrains.

When I played at Le DUC, I played with a young shooter, Julian, who hit virtually everything. A beautiful, gentle relaxed lob, always boule to boule and with his own boule nearly always staying in the head. But the older guys are still pretty good too! Again, they’ve perfected their technique over a lifetime’s play and are still pretty accurate. Very impressive.

Report by Ray Ager

At Le DUC de Nice

Just a quick report and a few photos on playing at Le DUC de Nice – ”with Philippe Suchaud”…

Welcome to the DUC

Le DUC entrance

OK, there’s a little bit of ”Journalistic Licence” here – I did play at Le DUC de Nice, the home club of World Champions Philippe Suchaud, Henri Lacroix and, formerly, Philippe Quantais, who has now left Nice. I’m afraid none of them were there in person when I played but there was a large Obut poster showing the shooting action of Suchaud. I’m with Alain Montoro, who has run the club for the last ten years and has made it so successful.

It’s not the easiest place to find, tucked away behind some houses in the north of Nice. But it was well worth the visit. I was made very welcome and we played 3 games, winning 2 out of 3. Here’s a picture of the guys I played with:

Le DUC players

I played with Julian on the right, who was a terrific shooter and Hervé who is next but one as the middle player, with yours truly pointing. It took a few throws to get a feel for the terrain, which, like most terrains in Provence, was not the easiest to play on. Here’s a picture to give you an idea:

Le DUC terrain

Although there are a few smoother spots, most of the terrain is covered with small stones, plus some slight dips and slopes. Here’s a close up, to give a better picture:

Le DUC close-up

If you tried to roll the boule, it would invariably get deflected and/or ‘fuse’ on a stone and pick up a lot of speed. Everybody played either a gentle lob or some played extremely high lobs but so gently that the boule seemed to hang in the air before floating down to, hopefully, stop dead. Even then, if you landed on a stone, the boule would fly off.

I’ve always had a bit of a tendency to throw the boule too hard and this really made me throw gently. Fortunately after a few throws I did manage to get the hang of it and was complimented on how well I was pointing – and we did win!

Le DUC circles

Every terrain had 2 plastic circles, one at each end, and everybody used them, mainly, I think, to save drawing circles and to avoid any confusion over where to play from.

Alain very kindly took me down into the ”storeroom” where there was a HUGE collection of trophies from over the years. Pride of place was taking by the massive ”French Cup for Clubs”.

French Cup for Clubs

The close-up below shows that Le DUC have won it 5 times – a very impressive record.

5 wins

I would just like to say how welcome the players made me feel and it was an honour when they invited me back for the rest of the week.

All I need to do now is find a place to stay permanently!

à Bientôt.

Report by Ray Ager.