1990 Pétanque League Secretary's Foreword 2009
The Pétanque
season is here yet again.
Sadly we have lost 4 teams this year. The Saddle from the Premier Division, who
have been with us from the very early days and have their names engraved on most
of our trophies through the years will be missed by many of us. The Trap "A" and
The Bell Ends hopefully will return next year with a stable venue, and The
Foxhunters I understand have other commitments. A very warm welcome to our 2
new teams the Crown 1 and Crown 2. The Quasimodos have moved and will now play
from the Bluebell at Hoby. As a direct result of being 2 teams down overall we
have byes in 5 of our 7 Divisions, however teams on a bye week are more than
welcome to arrange a friendly game with clubs in other Divisions sharing the
same fate.
The committee this year is unchanged and is: - Dave Cushman President, Jez Downie and Chris Fowler as Fixtures Secretary and Chairman respectively, Sylvia Payne, Vice Chairman; Ted Walledge, Treasurer, Mark Granatowicz, Secretary and Richard Garner as Competitions Organiser.
We are known as "The
Friendly League" and we
play for the enjoyment of the game and friendly socialising with other players.
However we play to a set of rules and almost all the queries, can be answered by
just reading the book. The league provides rules and fixtures in a book, before
the beginning of the season (the one that you collect on "Captains Evening"). In
this book are two sets of rules that are extremely comprehensive and very
fair... They are the main playing rules of Pétanque published by the FIPJP and
adopted by the EPA, and the rules of our particular league which include the
rules for the cup competitions and the pairs, singles, triples and mixed pairs
competition rules. In cases where there is a difference between the EPA rules
and the 1990 league rules then the 1990 rules take precedence. For the "purists"
there are a couple of FIPJP rule changes this year. Namely the Jack (Cosh) size
is limited to 30mm + or -1 mm, and when measuring from throwing circle to Jack (Cosh)
the measurement must be from inside the circle line as opposed to outside the
circle.
Coaching
There are Junior coaching sessions
held every Saturday Morning between 10 and 12 at The willow in Thurmaston The
East Midlands Pétanque Association have 2 Nationally accredited Coaches (both
C.R.B checked) who give up their time for free to coach the regions' young
hopefuls, so if you have children or grandchildren who fancy a try, just bring
them along its very informal and I guarantee they will enjoy it (and it wont
cost a bean). Any teams or clubs wishing to improve aspects of their game and
would like a structured coaching evening both Tony and Richard are happy to
oblige (for a small donation towards Junior equipment).
Apart from rules in the
books we have a
flexibility feature, whereby the two captains at any particular match may agree
variations of rules for the duration of that match. This is a matter between
captains and providing that mutual agreement has been reached then the committee
need not be informed of the circumstances or the rule variations. You will
notice this year that an extra page is in the book. This is for you to list all
of your team members names who are going to play in The league, cup, plate and
competitions and let us have that back as soon as possible as this has been
requested for our Insurance Policy purposes following an unfortunate fatal
accident in France. You will also notice that enclosed with your folder there
is a catalogue enclosed from Pétanque Promotions Ltd who are specialist
suppliers of Boule and Accessories which are owned by the English Pétanque
Association, their prices appear very reasonable (in the UK) as the
directors of Pétanque
Promotions do not receive any payments. Surpluses from sales and sponsorship
work are all put back into the sport of Pétanque in one form or other. Since
2002/3 PPL has put almost £24,000 into the sport mainly via the EPA.
The diary dates include "Committee Meetings", but they should really be titled "Members
Meetings" as it is the right of all teams to send a representative to such
meetings if they wish. 20.00 start.
Enjoy your Pétanque and see you on the piste! Mark