KENT PETANQUE ASSOCIATION

Transcription

1 KENT PETANQUE ASSOCIATION ISSUE No.54 DECEMBER 2010 At Hartley Country Club on Thursday 16th November..a total of twenty members attended, ten of which are members of the management committee.a total of twenty from an overall membership of around 800. The attending 20 members voted unanimously in favour of a 400 per person share-out for themselves, from the extremely healthy KPA funds.only joking! The Chairman s report from Martin Eggleton covered all the main events of the year and a recognition of the individuals who gave their time in helping the KPA to be the successful organisation that it is. A two minute silence was held in memory of KPA members who had passed away in the last year. Martin announced that PAUL HARDWICK has been selected for the KPA 2010 Chairman s Trophy awarded for the amount of work and effort that Paul has given to petanque in Kent. Treasurer Ken Buchan provided accounts for the year showing that the KPA General Fund stands at and the KPA Junior Fund stands at The accounts were accepted by the meeting subject to being audited by a third party. KPA subscriptions for year 2011 are to remain at 6 for adults, the Treasurer was not aware of any changes to the EPA subscriptions for 2011, however members will be advised accordingly of any announcements from the E.P.A. The KPA Management Committee for year 2011 will be. CHAIRMAN Martin Eggleton TREASURER Ken Buchan (Villager P.C.) SECRETARY vacant position WEB MASTER Andy Mills ( Crown Chislehurst P.C) GAZETTE EDITOR Ron Yates ( Hartley Country Club P.C.) KPA GAZETTE Page 1

2 NOTES FROM THE KPA A.G.M continued Remainder of the Management Committee will be made up of the following. David Baxter (Hartley Country Club P.C.) - Eric Hatfield (Lordswood P.C.) - Mick Weston (Lordswood P.C.) - Richard King (the George P.C.) - Annette Eggleton - Peter Abbitt (Whitehouse PC) - Rowland Jones (Meadow P.C.). The 2011 Playing Sub-Committee will be Chaired by one of the members of the Management Committee. There were motions submitted by the membership. Another other business included...maybe consideration should be given to scheduling the Kent Classic at another time other than August, as the August date for the last couple of years has clashed with several other competitions...generally accepted that the costs for Kent teams to stay the weekend at Pontins for the English National Regional Championships would continue to rise each year, recorded that Pontins provide cash assistance to the EPA for the weekend in the order of 5000/ advised that as a general rule the KPA did not support teams qualifying for the Home Nations Competition...it is the intention for the KPA to support Kent teams financially for National duty where it is deemed sensible to do so. NORFOLK SQUARE W2 GEORGE JARRET of Meadow P.C. provides more clues as to what was happening in Norfolk Square in the 70 s. The photo is taken from the front cover of the Pernod Book of Petanque by Maurice Abney Hastings, and George confirms that the player under the umbrella is in fact MICHELLE HOUR- CASTAGNOU. The fellow in the yellow shirt is Doug Curtis a long time square player who often partnered Michelle and Richard Elvin as being one of the strong square teams. George suggests that the lady in the picture went by the name of Ann-Marie, but he is not sure. Also one of the original square players Jean Marc Constantini often played with Patrick Tavignot and teamed up with Peter Schmidt to play as a GB team at Southampton in Doug Curtis and his wife Bridie, who also played, moved to France some years ago. Thanks to George for the above info.the Gazette would gladly welcome any other stories about the early days of petanque in Norfolk Square. KPA GAZETTE Page 2

3 WILLIAM BUNTING 9th Sept th Nov Sadly William is no longer with us. A long time member of SEAL P.C. Serious players and regular petanque players throughout Kent will remember him as a friend, or competitive acquaintance, but few will not have come into contact with him one way or another. A larger than life character with very strong views on the social and sportsmanship principles of petanque. William s wife SUSAN has kindly provided a few notes about William that shed a light on some aspects of Williams life.. We 'discovered' petanque while on holiday in France in It rang a bell that I had read something in the Sevenoaks Chronicle regarding it being played locally in Seal. The article would have been about the twinning with Montreuil. We played most evenings during that holiday and bought some dog boules because we would never be playing competitively would we? The following April the club had an open day to attract new members which we attended and William, Oliver and myself joined. William played league from quite early on and I followed later. He was secretary of the club for about 5 years and went on to be Chairman for I think about 10 years (Peter will be able to confirm). William was pivotal to maintaining our link with Montreuil during a difficult time within the club and also formed albeit for a short time a link with Schorpien PC in Gent. I believe he began playing in Division 6 with Team 3 and they made their way through the leagues and did play in Division 1. He very much enjoyed attending Bracklesham. He ruptured his Achilles tendon in July this year preventing us visiting Montreuil the following day - we had just collected our euros! This injury also meant he missed a lot of the petanque league this year although he was able to make a few matches towards the end of the season. I believe we won the last one. The last open competition we took part in was at the British Sugar Corporation at Bury St. Edmunds in May where we ended in the medals and gave Marion (Pen-y-Coed) and partner a run for their money! To say William enjoyed petanque would be an understatement. I feel petanque has lost a very sociable player who was larger than life and recognised by so many even if it was for his "jambuster" shots! During the last few years William made a point, to those who would listen, bemoaning the fact that Kent players were missing an important social and competitive occasion in not playing regularly in the Sunday open competitions, with apparent interest only in the Wednesday League games...time shows that William had a point, last summer saw fewer Kent players playing in open Sunday competitions. William will be remembered. Kent players thoughts and condolences go to Susan and Oliver. KPA GAZETTE Page 3

4 Excellent turnout of over 50 players, at Hartley Country Club on Thursday 25th November. The meeting was chaired by the League organisers of Colin Senneck President Mick Nash Secretary Ken Buchan Treasurer THE PRESIDENTS ADDRESS I would firstly like us to remember William Bunting of Seal P.C. who sadly passed away this month and all other members of the petanque family no longer with us. William Bunting was a stalwart of Seal P.C. and he was probably upset more than anyone else when the oldest KPL club still playing had to leave their long time venue, the Crown P.H. These are challenging times for pubs and this puts pressure on our petanque clubs as playing areas come under threat. Perhaps players should seek more energetically than previously, venues other than licensed premises. The game does not have to be played at a pub. As fewer people use pubs, inevitably less people see our game being played. However, it is a responsibility of players to support their landlords who are providing the facility to play the game. I implore teams to bolster clubs nights and support competitions to help make our game viable. As a side effect to this, their game is sure to improve. Funnily enough, the more you practice, the better you tend to get. Some are seeking to freshen up or revise the way the league is conducted and we have some proposals to vote on tonight. These proposals cast light on the spirit of the game. Winning at all costs is not appropriate to amateur sport and just because a club can t get the best team out is not a reason for postponing a match. Manipulation of players availability is unfair on honest clubs and does not produce a proper reflection of club strength or a teams positioning the table. The League Management always attempts to be reasonable but this attitude must not be taken advantage of. In my experience whenever rules have been relaxed to help clubs out, advantage is immediately been taken of the new position. Congratulations to all those teams who achieved success this year. Meadow P.C. has resumed their usual top position, but Lordswood must surely be the Club of the year by managing to get four of their teams promoted. The League seemed to run pretty smoothly this year and this is thanks entirely to all the hard work that Mick Nash puts in on our behalf. He has been innovative with the electronic reporting of scores and with the help of Alan Cregeen, has devised a really modern recording system which makes everything a lot simpler. Ken Buchan keeps our accounts in order for which we are all grateful and makes sure that we have enough money in the kitty to buy prizes etc. Personally I am already looking forward to next season but would like to see player and Club numbers increase. Let us all put extra energy into our efforts to spread the Petanque word far and wide throughout the county. COLIN SENNECK PRESEDENT K.P.L. SECRETARY NOTES Encourages players and Clubs to use the KPA web-site and the Winter League file for latest information, fixtures and scorecard, and un-played matches. TREASURER NOTES Funds of the KPL at the end of the year stand at Importantly a vote was carried to increase entry fees for teams from 20 to 25 for next year. PROPOSALS Nice to see a healthy number of proposals from players and Clubs, most were rejected, but nevertheless it does show genuine interest. continued KPA GAZETTE Page 4

5 KPL AGM continued Proposal by the Bat & Ball P.C. accepted as follows. up to 8 players could take part in one team in a League or cup/plate match. The team would start with two triples and up to two substitutes. A substitute could be introduced once between ends of a game and at that point those 4 players would remain together for the evening. Any 3 of these 4 could start the second game and the fourth could still be introduced as a substitute during the second of their games. The other triple with an optional fourth would partake in the same way Proposal by the Secretary Mick Nash accepted as follows SCORECARDS 1. The official scorecard will be in such format as the League Secretary may from time to time determine. 2. The home team will submit the official scorecard to the League Secretary using the Kent League scorecard on the web-site. 3 Each team captain is responsible for ensuring the correct details are on the card when they receive their copy of the score. 4 Scorecards must be with the League Secretary within even days of the fixture played and non-receipt of scorecards within the required timescale will result in the home team not receiving any score. The away team will receive their score where this can be established. 5 The League Secretary accepts no responsibility for non receipt of e-scorecards. Finally KPL prizes and trophies were presented to teams. New for Michel Morel of the CARREFOUR PETAN- QUE CLUB Jersey, advises that next year there will be a NEW competition on Jersey on the May Bank Holiday on the Monday after the usual competition held by the Jersey Petanque Club. This NEW competition will be held on 2nd MAY 2011 at the Carrefour Club at the Nicolle Centre La Route de St.Jean St. Lawrence Jersey JE3 1NE. Healthy cash prizes for this Triples competition. For further details contact Michel Morel at..michel.morel@rocketmail.com Very early in the New Year, the KPA will be compiling the playing calendar for next year, which is not so easy as it sounds, because all the first entries and dates on the calendar come from the EPA. around which the Kent fixtures, competitions and events are scheduled. If your Club will be holding open competitions next year, please GO TO - - Michael Gear Norma Parkway Andy Pucknell George Jarrett Mick Jennings for providing reports and pictures and bits for this issue of the Gazette contact the KPA so that your competition or event does not clash with another on the same day. Also.it is likely that there will be a couple of new teams for the KPA Summer League next summer, and don t forget the new subs are 25 per team. KPA GAZETTE Page 5

6 A cheque to the value of is handed over to the ELLENOR LIONS HOSPICE by MICK JENNINGS a member of Hartley Country Club Petanque Section. Money raised from the sale of his first book BELIEVE IT OR NOT about to be made into a film. MICK is pictured 4th from the left with one hand still clutching the cheque. The lady on the right, slightly overcome with awe in the presence of Mick, proudly displays her copy of Mick s book that she has purchased for the very cheap price of The 1200 did not come easy for Mick, but by way of several days standing by his sales stall, in all weathers, outside supermarkets with his trusty scabby dog on a long piece of rope.your copy can come a lot easier by telephoning MICK on. Tel or at michael@jenningsmichael.wanadoo.co.uk At Tovil Workingmen s Club. A total of 14 teams braved the elements. The main competition winners were the Scarlets, Peter Iles and Mike Capelin (Lordswood P.C.) who beat the Frogs, Bob Gaywood and Jean Louis Guiot (Hartley P.C.) with a score of The Plate winners were R & A Rob and Alan (Share and Coulter PC) who beat the Sweeney Nick & Terry (Tovil PC). Clubs represented were Harriers PC, Hartley Country Club P.C., Lordswoods P.C., Meadow P.C., Share & Coulter P.C., and Tovil P.C. Many thanks to Barry for running his last competition for the Harriers and to Jane and all the Tovil helpers. Report by Harriers Chairman MICHAEL GEAR And Michael makes an important point that we should all consider. in view of the considerable lack of support for our tournaments during the past year, Harriers P.C. will have to consider reducing their 2011 tournament schedule A sentiment shared by several Clubs and players.players presence is not expected or required for all Sunday competitions, but attendance at 2 or 3 random competitions by all KPA members would be nice..teams from Ditton P.C. and the Share and Coulter PC have given a few competitions a try this past year. KPA GAZETTE Page 6

7 Latest Christmas news from France from Norma and Stuart Parkway, ex Kent players who upped sticks and went to live near Beziers a couple of years ago. Norma explains how she integrated herself successfully into the local French petanque community, which may be of interest to other Brit petanque players thinking of moving to France. SYLVIE & NORMA We, (Stuart and I) both joined the Colombier Petanque club when I was approached by Sylvie and Arlette to play with them in the 2008 ladies triples Championship of the Herault, and you have to all be in the same club. I had played against them on a number of occasions but did not really know them, I was flattered to be asked although I was not sure about their standard of play but beggars cannot be choosers. We played one game in the run up to the Championship in 2008 and then played the competition in dreadful weather starting at 9am in the morning.. The conditions were bad in a muddy car park and Arlette had sciatica so after missing her first 3 shots I took over, we remained in that sequence for the rest of the competition. As the forecast for the next day was also rain they opened the indoor boulodrome to have the ¼ semi and final of both the ladies and the men s competition, lovely and dry. There were about 200 spectators including the president and 4 other officials from the Languedoc, brilliant as and we flew through the ¼ and semi to lose to game 11 in the final. I think that Arlette blamed Sylvie for losing that game as she played 2 bad boule the last end and as the score was it was a bit tight. She changed to Bezier club the next year and as there were no other strong lady players in our club we have not played in the Championship triples since. Sylvie and I qualified for the ladies Championship last year but lost in the finals, this year we do not have to qualify as we get automatic entry by winning the secteur (region) Lets see if I can explain the format. There are 16 secteurs (districts) making up the region of the L Herault total of 114 clubs and 17 clubs are in our secteur and these all play against each other and the winner of each secteur play for the Championship of the L Herault region. There were about 36 ladies teams competing to win the Championship of the secteur. I played in the National ladies doubles at Bessille for the last couple of years and have got knocked out in the semi s twice, last year I played with Sylvie 48 teams and the first year with another lady called Nevine(52 teams). I just looked at the website and have seen that that a couple of the ladies who won a National this year we took out in the ¼ finals the year before, well we do keep coming up against the same strong teams. What was brilliant was that Sylvie and I this year took out our ex triples partner Arlette in the ¼ finals at Bessille she was gutted! If you look up Norma Parkway on Google there are lots of articles that include the Bessille information.. I think its about time that we won Bessille we just need to get to that bloody final. Sylvie does not really speak any English but we get by and she is such a nice person but does sometimes get annoyed with herself if she plays a bad boule, the terrain is very important with Sylvie as she cannot lob very well. Well had better go as we are playing in the boulodrome this afternoon in a big doubles competition, shame its in doors as its sunny and about 14c outside. NORMA PARKWAY KPA GAZETTE Page 7

8 SMOKOE TIME No-one-about Too loud Knobby! MARTIN What time does the bar open I m soaked ANDY PHIL stop dropping your bloody ash on my head KNOBBY GORD KNOW S I VE TRIED MY BEST! Played by the HARRIERS..Petanque and a jolly good time. MICHAEL GEAR the erstwhile chairman and disciplinarian runs the Harriers with a rod of iron..fair but always firm. Michael famed for one of the most original Petanque team names for a Sunday competition a few years ago, called sod-the-gardening. KPA GAZETTE Page 8

9 José Luis Navarro advises of three major open competitions in Spain in the Summer of 2011 at the Santa Susanna Club located as shown above. The open competitions are EASTER from 21st to 25th April WHIT MONDAY from 11th to 14th June AUTUMN from 23rd to 29th October For further information go to Do not go together! Of the few organised Christmas petanque events most have been cancelled due to the snow and extreme low wintery temperatures. The annual Christmas Hamper competition at Meadow P.C. has been cancelled twice due the weather and might reappear some time in the New Year. Mick Nash talks of many postponed KPL Winter League matches being postponed due to the weather and is hoping that teams will rearrange games in the New Year to get the League schedule back on track. Have heard tell that the Grand Fromage of Kent Petanque and his delightful wife Annette are about to join a new Club, probably before the New Year. Martin (Chairman of the K.P.A.) and Annette Eggleton have been un-attached (in Petanque terms) for the past couple years and have decided to tie the knot with a new Club. KPA GAZETTE Page 9

10 EMBROIDERY DEPOT are able to supply and machine embroider a wide range of polo shirts, T shirts, sweatshirts, rugby shirts, fleeces, jackets, caps, bags, towels, flags and other garments, sew-on or iron-on badges. EMBROIDERY DEPOT can offer up to 15% price reduction for PETANQUE CLUB orders. ALAN CREGEEN proprietor. EMBROIDERY DEPOT 28 ELVINGTON ROAD DOVER KENT CT15 4EQ Tel or sales@embroiderydepot.co.uk HOLIDAY VILLA AVAILABLE In the village of Diano San Pietro - fully furnished 2 bedroom villa is approx 2 miles from the Mediterranean beaches of DIANO MARINA nearest airport is Genoa for full details contact JOHN SUGUATO Tel See also Gazette Issue 50 for full report KENT & SUSSEX WINDOW CLEANING AND GUTTERING CLEANING COMMERCIAL & DOMESTIC RELIABLE & FRIENDLY SERVICE PROVIDED COMPETITIVE PRICES GIVEN FOR FURTHER DETAILS OR QUOTES PLEASE CONTACT or All you need for petanque supplies from the on line brochure. Boule accessories trophies bags and clothing. Tel Shop and Sales Office at Pen-y-Coed Petanque Up Street Bradwell Bury St. Edmonds Suffolk IP31 1AA The KENT PETANQUE GAZETTE is edited by RON YATES. Any item of news for inclusion in future editions should be sent to ronyates6@btinternet.com The views expressed in the KENT PETANQUE GAZETTE are those of the editor and contributors only, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the KENT PETANQUE ASSOCIATON or the ENGLISH PETANQUE ASSOCIATION E & OE KPA GAZETTE Page 10