New group launched in Princes Risborough playing increasingly popular French sport

Une journée fantastique

A little bit of France came to Princes Risborough last Saturday afternoon when 24 members of the Risborough & District u3a came together to play petanque (boules) in Wades Park. This was the first time for many of them and stemmed from an idea from Peter Dixon, who previously lead the badminton group, but is now looking for a less strenuous competition but still with a great social side.

Pétanque, is a form of bowls generally played on gravel-topped terrain, that is gaining popularity throughout the UK.

To start off players were divided into eight teams and allocated opponents and a piste to play on. These were marked off with red/white tape pinned to the ground with tent pegs, far from satisfactory but made for more fun with less predictable outcomes as boules bounced in different directions from that expected.

There is currently no facility in Risborough which now finds itself behind other towns such as Wallingford, Marlow, and others who all have thriving teams playing this game which, according to the governing body is one of the fastest growing games in the country at the moment with over 154 teams registered with Petanque England.

Peter wants to change this lack of local provision so recently presented a report to a meeting of the town council who agreed to ‘investigate the viability and feasibility’ of providing such a facility. Colin Roper, the President of Petanque England, the national body that represents the 154 clubs says that it is rising in popularity with women and young people and reckons that there are over 30,000 regular players now in the UK.

As many people have played in gardens and on beaches the group was lucky enough to have plenty of sets of boules to use, some were surprised how heavy they are (typically 650 – 800 grms) but soon got used to pitching them towards the jack along the 3m wide pistes.

Voices were raised with plenty of Oooooooh!’s and Aaah’s as boules approached then passed the jack but as the afternoon progressed Peter was impressed at how quickly the players adapted to the far-from-ideal surface and boules were landing within a few centimeters of the jack rather than over a metre away.

Half-time saw the completion of three of the four games taking place, the winning teams being those that reached 13 points first. One game was especially close with Team G on 12 points and Team H on 11 points when the last jack was thrown. H looked like being victorious until one of the last boules thrown secured the one point needed by Team G. Peter was in Team H.

However after some needed refreshments the teams reformed and took on new opponents before finishing the day just after 4.00pm. Team G having once again proved their capability by beating team F to secure a perfect 26 points.

Finishing off, Annie Ashton said: “What a great afternoon it was,” this was endorsed by Elspeth Banks who added: “I thoroughly enjoyed the Pétanque,” whilst Christine Allen commented: “I already look forward to the next session and hope I can remember the rules.”

The group intends to play once every two weeks until autumn arrives.

Any Risborough residents interested in playing can contact Peter by email.