222nd Post

You've been framed !!!!

Hope you have enough ink for that score, Nigel!

Mike, to one side....considering his options.....

The paraphernalia of Boules......minus the dagger!

Welcome back....Kitty in action.  Newcomer Gerry learning from a master.

Lucky ye weren't standing there on Thursday night last when the tree fell!!!

On a dull, humid morning we had a turnout of eighteen players.  We welcomed Kitty back and Gerry had his first full outing having been present each Thursday evening and helping to clean / rake the pistes before play.  Both of them played very well.

In Shay's absence Richie and Sean playing together scored 50 apiece but Nigel has slipped into the  lead on 152.  Richie and John are his closest rivals.

NAMES	Week 4
Date:	Wed. 14/08/19
Game:	G.1	G.2	G.3	G.4	Tot.	R.T.
Bridget Holland	13	11			24	84
Brogan Whittle	12	13			25	81
Catherine Andrews	11	13	0	8	32	131
Colm Masterson					0	52
Dave Hughes					0	0
Dolores Ryan					0	0
Don O Riordan					0	30
Eileen Donnellan	8	5	7	3	23	130
Eilish Fitzpatrick	3	5	5		13	61
Jeanette Feeney					0	64
John Campbell	13	8	13	5	39	140
John Oman					0	0
Kitty Rowley	13	13	5		31	31
Liam Ryan					0	0
Maeve Linnane					0	88
Maureen Deane					0	0
Michael Daly					0	32
Mike Deegan	11	13	0	8	32	122
Nigel O Mahony	13	8	13	5	39	152
Pat Donnelly					0	32
Patricia Fitzpatrick	13	11			24	103
Richard Ryan	13	13	13	11	50	141
Sean Mahon	13	13	13	11	50	96
Shay Coyne					0	117
Sheila Nolan	12	13			25	138
Tom Donnellan	13	13	5		31	133
Tom Sheedy	3	5	5		13	68
Tony Watkins	8	5	7	3	23	96
Yvonne Reid	3	5	5		13	86
Gerry Wolfe	13	13	5		31	31

An interesting article from ...........The Telegraph..........August 2019

Pétanque for pensioners? French youth go ballistic for boules

French youth have fallen for pétanque amid a retro revival CREDIT:  GAMMA-RAPHO/ HANS SILVESTER

•  Henry Samuel, paris

10 AUGUST 2019 • 2:05PMOOnce the preserve of pastis-sipping retirees of Provence, the French pastime of pétanque, or boules, has become a surprise hit among the country’s youth amid a fashion for all things retro and a desire for simple, “authentic” pleasures, say experts.
Among France’s 302,000 registered boules players, some eight per cent are now “minors”, according to the FFPJP, the French Federation of Pétanques and Jeu Provençal - a sister sport.
“The young trend has taken off,” according to FFPJP spokesman Clément Meneghin, who said one of the key reasons was that pétanque is now played in PE sessions in many schools.
Schools are not the only breeding ground for future pétanque players; boules clubs in French universities are all the rage while many young workers slope off to a gravelly “terrains” during their lunch breaks to relax.
“Contrary to many group sports, pétanque brings together girls and boys with no pre-conceived ideas about the game,” said Mr Meneguin.
“We see more and more (young people) in competitions, Nicolas Fourrage, 20, a serious bouliste, told Le Parisien newspaper.

Pétanque appeals to the young as girls and boys can play together, say experts CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES CONTRIBUTOR/ANDIA

“After its democratisation in the 1980s and 1990s, pétanque has spread to other tribes since the 2000s, namely young people and ‘bobos’ (bourgeois-bohemians),” said Hervé Rofritsch, CEO of Boule bleue, the world’s oldest boules manufacturer.
Paris in the summer is awash with groups of young pétanque players lobbing boules and sipping beers into the night.
The gentle chink of metal balls on sand has become a familiar sound at Paris-Plages, the summer beach festival along the banks of the river Seine, but also in the Tuileries gardens and many other designated “terrains” around the French capital.
Formalised in 1907 in Marseille, pétanque consists of throwing metal balls at a smaller wooden ball known as the “jack”.
“All you need to know is how to throw the boule. It’s not complicated,” said Clotaire, an eight-year player at Paris-Plages taught by her grandparents in southern France.
For Patrick André of the Boule museum of Marseille, the surge in popularity among the young is linked to a trend for all things retro.
“Young people want to get back to authenticity, to simple things,” he said.
According to writer Jean-Laurent Cassely: “Today, everything that is popular, a bit old-fashioned or even out-of-fashion is considered authentic as long as you can revisit it according to today’s cultural norms."
“For a young person from a big city, pétanque appears almost exotic.”

Paris in the summer is awash with groups of young pétanque players lobbing boules and sipping beers into the night CREDIT:  ANITA POUCHARD SERRA/ ANITA POUCHARD SERRA

Sami, 23, an employee the Vedettes du Pont-Neuf, boats that ply the Seine, said: “Pétanque seduces the young because it symbolises relaxation and sociability. There’s no tension.”
It has even been hailed by one Buddhist master as a great tool for meditation.
However, recent events in the upper echelons of the game suggest that it can be far from genteel.
In 2014, a team from northern France pulled out of the world boules championship, an annual international event held in Marseille, after claiming to receive death threats from local rivals who promised to “rip off their heads” unless they let them win.
The sport also suffered from a spate of “bouliganism” - players coming to blows over a game - often fuelled by heavy alcohol consumption.
In January, the world of pétanque was rocked by accusations that Belgian players use cocaine to give them a performance-enhancing edge in international matches.
More than 20 million French people play pétanque occasionally, with about 400,000 regular contestants in 7,000 clubs. France had hoped it would be declared an Olympic sport in time for the 2024 Paris Olympics, to no avail.
The game is also catching on in England, which now has nearly 200 clubs, according to Pétanque England, formerly the English Pétanque Association.