THE GAME OF PETANQUE
by Lesley Dickinson
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Petanque or Boules is a game typically played in village centre or square, particularly in France, although there are variants all over Europe. The balls are tossed rather than rolled and this is therefore a more 'portable' game than lawn bowls, since no fixed and care-intensive green is necessary and the surface can be quite rough. Here are a couple of useful sites about this sport, of which I know nothing, as I am sure you have noticed :-) You will find the rules of Petanque here at www.petanque.org or here at www.britishpetanque.org Here is an extract from an email I received some time ago from Philip De'Ath at Clacton IBC (UK). 'Incidentally we also play petanque, but not so much nowadays since we took up bowls but we have been playing petanque for about 10 years. We began playing petanque when we were involved with town twinning (in Valence) and thought we would have a go at playing the French at their own game. We have also played with our other twin town, Biberach, in Germany and both Valence and Biberach have visited us at Clacton. Petanque is not quite so 'formal' as bowls as it is mainly played at pubs in England. We have had some enjoyable times playing petanque and formed friendships with players both in France and Germany.'
Lesley Dickinson
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