Sat, 1st Apr, 2017
Issue: 90
Club
'You got to be kidding me!'
Brollies are us!
'to the left of the puddle please'
You could be forgiven to think that certain members of the CPC were rehearsing for the sequel of 'Singin in the rain', you know
the one with Gene Kelly doing that classic singing number whilst dancing with his umbrella in a downpour. Yes, folks 6 CPC
members were caught on camera standing in the rain on Thu. 23rd March at Weston Park. We started playing in drizzle but by
mid way through a triples game it was pouring steadily. As no one else mentioned it, I thought it would be prudent to suggest
to all that we stop for a while and shelter under the trees. This suggestion was quickly quashed with a rather determined
comment by Jennifer stating clearly that once a game starts it has to be finished! I thought it wise not to pursue this thought
process any further and continued playing. So we played on and finished the game! I often wonder, what do people think who
drive past seeing us standing in the rain, focused on something intently on the ground. Maybe they think some bizarre religious
cult is in session, a crack deal going down, inmates from the house of the bewildered running loose! I just hope no one rings up
the police and has us arrested for further enquiries and psychiatric assessment!
How do you measure success? In reference to our efforts at the Participate Connect Expo (Saturday 25
March, Kingston Depot Markets) this is always hard to quantify. If you measure it as an exposure of the
game to the wider community then it is definitely successful, if you measure it as a recruiting drive then it
is not. We had a steady trickle of enquiries and we gave out about 40 or so dockets with our information.
We were busy enough, actively promoting on what can best be described as a bad weather day with a
noticeable reduced public attendance this year. Due to bad weather we were forced indoors by the
organisers which limited the impact of what we do , there is nothing like a bit of hands on stuff which has
proved so successful in previous years. Despite this I think we should continue to do this kind of thing as
the Expo is by far the best platform for us to showcase our game and sport. Keep in mind that both Seb
and Jennifer were recruited at events of this kind, so even if we pick up only one or two I see our mission
as having been accomplished. Thank you very much to those who participated this year, Adele, Rhys,
Jennifer, Callum, Smitty, Heike, Robyn, Ahmed, Osako, and Jim.
Easter Sunday
(Sunday 16th April) is a Petanque ON day!
CPC and ALLIANCE FRANCAISE connection once more.
The CPC has re-established its connection with Alliance Francaise mainly due to the involvement of the current charismatic
director of Alliance, Patrice; who also happens to be a new member of our club. Patrice is a likeable fellow, by far the best
player of the game ever to join our ranks and it was he who suggested and invited us to once again attend Alliance functions in
a petanque recruiting and demonstration capacity. Catherine, Jim and Ivo duly performed one of these functions on Friday
31st March at Alliance Francaise headquarters in Turner. Despite Patrice's official commitments he managed to play several
games with us demonstrating once again his superior petanque skills. However Patrice's determination to play with us was not
matched by others so it was a limited and questionable affair at best. Despite this we will continue to work with Patrice and
Alliance in more petanque targeted events in the future. The French connection continues!
Constitution rethink and possible tweak;
A recent Spate of absent committee members has caused the cancellation of a scheduled committee meeting due to the
inability to form a quorum. The recently amended constitution states that we need 6 and we only had 5 in town. Luckily there
were no pressing issues that needed urgent attention but we need to address this 'quorum numbers' issue as there will be
further absences later this year as committee members flee Canberra in winter! No doubt we will discuss this at the next
committee meeting in detail and I suspect there will be another special meeting called where the possibility of a reduced
quorum size will be canvassed to the membership. Whatever happens we will find a fix so that committee meetings can
continue regularly even with several committee people absent. We will keep you posted on that one.
Come and try afternoon success ~ Sunday 2nd April;
I
take back what I said in the above article about recruiting numbers. It turns out that we had 6 new people turning up as a
direct result of our efforts at the Connect and Participate Expo the week before (Sat. 25th Mar). Combine this with 18 regular
CPC members on hand to guide the new recruits, all was set for an afternoon of good fun, and a good mix of new 'Come- ntry' players with rusted on CPC members. Club members scores were kept and tallied by our chief coordinator, Rhys who
continues to be very helpful in such matters. Our FSM (First Sunday of the month) event combined smoothly with our Come n-try' event without any hiccups or glitches . The new players quickly adapted and my guess is that several new members will
join the club over the coming weeks. When novices start asking questions about buying boules on their first day out you know
things are tracking well. All in all a very successful afternoon.
New Member;
To all and singular, please welcome our newly minted member, Robbie, who hails from WA and has transferred his
membership to our club from a petanque club in Perth. Good on you Robbie, pleased to have you with us. I am not sure if you
are CPC member 52 or 53 and before you tattoo that number on your body please check with our Treasurer!!
Petanque elite to visit CPC
It seems that we will be visited by a highly ranked French
Petanque player who is currently visiting Australia. He will
play games in Sydney but has expressed interest in visiting
Canberra and has contacted us to see if he can meet and I
assume play some games with us. A quick Google search tells
me that Didier CHASSOT is currently ranked No.45 in
France and is the current champion of the Dardogne and
Yvelines regions of France. This puts him in a class of his own
compared to us humble practitioners of the game. However,
if we do get a chance to play with him, let's see how many
points we can steal from him if any! Probably more
importantly it will be great to see how the game is played at
the elite end and no doubt we will hang on every word he
says about the game in general and any tips on how to
improve our games. Come and rub shoulders with Petanque's
elite on the 22nd April and several days following that. I will
post further updates as they come in. Exciting stuff!
Toilet block refurbishment started;
Work has commenced on the WP toilet block refurbishment
into a public shelter with seating. Although a public space
and therefore for anyone to use, this new facility will mostly
benefit us as I don't think many others will find it useful in
that particular location. Our dedicated CPC storage plus
power and water will be located there. At present all our club
property is dispersed amongst the committee members and
I for one will find it useful to return the cabinet and trolley to
our new storeroom when it is completed.
The Alexander Doubles Competition
Sodden deluge!
Sunday the 9th April 2017 will go down as a 'Sodden deluge' day. Scheduled as the day for running our favourite CPC event,
the 'Alexanders competition', it goes without saying that it was duly cancelled for reasons best shown in the image above.
Despite this 15 people did turn up in a desperate attempt to defy the weather Gods but no such luck as it just kept on pissing
down all day. Jim, wisely called the whole thing off to be rescheduled at a later date. So nothing to report dear readers except
that our piste looked immaculate due to Stuart sweeping it several days beforehand and with line markings lovingly sprayed
by Jim on the Friday before (see picture above and below)
Oh, by the way, I was reading the Constitution this afternoon and in very small print, right at the very bottom of the
document, it states clearly that failure to run the Alexanders competition on the designated day does mean that the trophy
will be returned to the previous winners, Donna and Ivo! I know, it came as a surprise to me !!
~ Seriously; ~
Catherine and Jim are working on an alternative day right now. Let you know very soon, probably in this issue!
Misc. pics!
Demolition has begun. The builders have started the conversion of the
Jim draws a line in the sand. Trialling the new
line marking machine prior to the Alexanders
competition. This is by far the best way to do
this kind of thing, eliminating the trip hazard
ropes. This format is the way forward and the
CPC will adopt this method for future events.
disused toilet block nearest to our piste. They have 6 weeks to complete
this so hopefully by mid May we will have our storage back with the added
bonus of a water tap plus power point for our use. 2 sheltered seating
areas under the roof will complement the whole project. The storage is
strictly CPC but the rest is a shared public facility. The bottom line is this
folks, we will be the biggest users of this space as I am sure most families
using the park prefer the other BBQ's and shade facilities closer to the lake,
kiosk and toilets. I see this space being useful when we have rain showers,
command post for tournaments, pre and post game meeting area, plus our
storage facility with the added bonus of water and power for a cup of coffee
in winter. All good for us!
Tuggeranong ends and farewell to Pierre;
It is with great sadness that I have to report that regular play at Tuggeranong has come to a halt. We are simply not getting
the numbers. In the past few months it has been Antoine, Pierre and Ivo who have attended regularly. To add to this, it is
also with great sadness that I inform the club that Pierre (who only played at Tuggeranong) is leaving the club to return to
France. With Pierre out of the loop it is pointless to continue. Farewell Pierre, we will miss your participation, your good
natured approach to the game and superb shooting skills, 'au revoir mon ami'. Thanks Antoine for persevering with
Tuggeranong, you gave it your best shot, I respect that! I also agree with Antoine that Tuggeranong has many fine qualities
and that we should not abandon this location entirely. I am hoping that in the future we will revisit and open Tuggeranong
again to regular play. In the mean time if you want a game on Saturday at Tuggeranong, give me a call (Ivo) in the morning
and we can then organise players (ring around) for a game or two in the afternoon on a 'on and off' basis.
Umps,
The umpiring course is still scheduled for Saturday 13 May. We are still in conversation with Andre Deramond about the
exact hours the course will take. Thanks so much to everyone who has put up their hand for this.
article byCatherine
Maybe we have a future star in our club?;
I played with Callum a few weeks ago, and his excellent pointing made Ahmed
and Storm look nervous. As the game progressed, so did Callum's accuracy,
and Ahmed and Storm looked even more nervous.
We stayed focussed and happy, and cleaned up our experienced opponents
13 to 3
.
Winners are grinners. Well done Callum.
article by Catherine
Nervous!
Good numbers midweek!
We are achieving 7 to 10 players with the occasional 11 on our regular Tuesday and Thursday afternoon time slots. The
ladies are hitting 6 - 7 on Wednesday mornings. ITS OFFICIAL - WE HAVE 52 CONFIRMED CPC MEMBERS
I was looking for a few more articles and low and behold
this one popped into my inbox. Well done Jean and Barry
for picking up a few bottles of the red stuff as a reward.
Gary Hosie flanks both our CPC heroes. Gary is the driving
force behind Boule Artistes in Sydney and a person who I
think has done more for 'grass roots' petanque in Australia
than anyone else has. His philosophy of making petanque
accessible to all especially at the beginners end rather
than pampering to the elite end is something I have taken
onboard and admire very much. Obviously no rain in
Sydney last Sunday!- Thanks also Jean for doing some
valuable PR bonding work on behalf of the CPC.
Hi Ivo,
Something for the Boulesheet.
Barry and I made the finals in B Section at Boules Artistes
Village Doubles at the Randwick Boulodrome on Sunday.
It was close, 13-10 playing against a sharp French
shooter. A challenging terrain set amongst native trees
with the facilities of the South Coogee Bowling Club
nearby.
cheers, Jean
G’day members:
Autumn is my favourite season in Canberra, the
exception as far as pétanque is concerned is when
it rains, and it rains and it rains some more. That is
what happened last Sunday when the Alexander
Competition was scheduled. We were amazed that
so many members turned up in such lousy weather
conditions to see if it would be going ahead. For a
while we though that we might be able to schedule
play to start a bit later, but the rain kept coming so
we had to postpone it. This competition will now be
held on May 14th. This is Mothers Day and is the
next available date that Catherine and I have
available to run it. We can also celebrate all our
pétanque mothers on the day. We ask any member
who has a connection with the weather gods to put
in a good word for us for fine weather on the 14th.
The club recently had a stand at the Connect and
Participate Expo and our presence seemed to have
been well worthwhile, as most of the newcomers
who came to our Come n Try Day were people that
we had spoken to at the Expo. The April FSM
pennant scores have been tallied and Janette
finished the day with the highest score for the
ladies, and Mark S top scored for the men. After
five months of FSM pennant competition, Catherine
and Seb are the top scorers, and Robyn and Mark S
are in second place. Hope you all enjoy your Easter
break, and remember for those in Canberra that
there will be pétanque on Easter Sunday.
Cheers
Jim (CPC President)