Club

Fri 6th Jan, 2017 Issue: 85

1.

Solid numbers through the silly season;

It's hard to believe but even with the silly season dictating life styles for most

of us we still found time to play our favourite game and in numbers. The last Sunday before Christmas, 18th. Dec, was well populated with 23 participating (see previous Boulesheet). This was followed by good numbers on the following Tuesday (20th) and Thursday (22nd) with about a dozen or so for both days. Christmas day itself, again, was well staffed with the leftovers from the 'waifs and strays' event plus the Alexanders and family carrying on with boules in the late afternoon, about 25 or so played. This was followed by Tuesday (27th) and Thursday (29th), again with good numbers in the low teens including the extended Alexander family joining in and flexing their archery muscles in this newly discovered boules game. Anna, Owen, Maura and Mark took to the game with frightening ease! This was followed by New Years day, Sunday (1st Jan. 2017) with again some really solid numbers in the low to mid teens. Is there no respite, I hear you murmur, I am afraid not! Every day since the start of the new year has seen continued good turnouts partly triggered I suspect by the impending Wollongong event later this month with teams sparring against one another to gain some valuable team bonding time. My take on all this is that 2017 has started off with a bang and I suspect it will continue like this for the rest of summer and into autumn, and why not?

Minor Piste damage repaired;

The day before Christmas Canberra was hit with

some heavy storm cells that dumped large quantities of rain in small pockets across the city. There must have been a particularly heavy dump at Yarralumla that afternoon as we discovered for the first time some erosion happening at our piste at Weston Park. The heavy downpour caused some gravel to wash over the concrete edging and some channelling occurring across the surface. Nothing serious if repaired quickly as the piste was designed with a good cross fall that has worked well so far and will deal with most stormwater runoff situations. Catherine, Jim and Ivo saw to the repair work with rakes, shovels and wheelbarrow and within 45 minutes all was back in order. You might find some new loose gravel patches here and there where the odd barrow has been dumped and raked to fill a shallow depression. This may add another 'twist to the piste' and your game plan options!

2017 Have a happy New

Year with plenty of

Petanque thrown in!

Gravel runoff due to heavy rain is not such a big problem but when channels begin to form due to water scouring then action is required. Our piste has handled heavy rain situations very well but unusually heavy downpours have to be monitored carefully and action taken to fix any problems before they become big problems. The committee is on top of it and will keep up maintenance.

CPC - PR gig is on... It's time to expose ourselves again, in public! No, not like that, this is all above board and you will not be arrested I promise. The CPC has only one PR event of this type on its calendar. It's all about showing off our game to the wider community, talk the talk, giving people a try on a patch of gravel, hands on stuff, engage and encourage, give it a go stuff. All good fun. You will enjoy this, the atmosphere is great with lots of things to see and do while you are there. We will have an outdoor patch of gravel, chairs, gazebo, seating, pamphlets, boules and us of course. I am looking for 3 - 4 volunteers to man our stall for the day or a few hours if you can spare some. Please wear your CPC shirt and a big smile! Saturday, 25th March 2017 from 11:00am till 4:00pm at the Old Bus Depot Markets at

Kingston.

Gravel runoff

Channel forming

The fixers!

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OK, without causing any fear or panic!

It seems that some of our ladies discovered the tell tale signs of a snake

track crossing our Piste at Weston Park. Others say, not so, it was kangaroos fighting with their tails brushing the ground. Either way, please take note. There are plenty of snakes at Weston Park especially around the nursery, Brasserie Cafe and the English Garden, where we used to play Petanque many years ago. I vividly recall being told, that a snake was behind me on the path, a spot where only seconds before I had passed! On another occasion someone threw a shiny leisure boule and when it stopped rolling a snake slithered from the shrubs and proceeded to tap the boule with its nose before moving on. Needless to say that game was terminated at once! The bottom line is this folks, snakes are in the park and some caution should be exercised in spring and summer. Be careful when parking the car along the verge of the road and when crossing the grass to the piste. If you see a snake simply leave it alone and tell others, common sense stuff! All the snakes I have seen at Weston Park over the years have been brown snakes. A quick Google search tells me the 'common' Eastern Brown snake is not one to be trifled with. It's the second deadliest snake in the world, neurotoxin wise! By all accounts, it is a nervous, jittery customer when surprised and will strike when cornered or stepped on (fair enough) A scratch or a bite from 'Mr. Brown' is enough to seriously ruin your afternoon, big time. Better to keep an eye open just in case and avoid any dramas.

Hosie hoedown at Weston Park 2016; Intrepid Gary Hosie from the Boule Artistes in Sydney put on a fabulous Christmas Petanque event at Weston Park. Held on

a sunny Friday afternoon (02 Dec. 2016) - it was decided to use the gravel pathways as the piste proper rather than the sun scorched piste itself. This gave the whole event a Southern French village flavour. This was a corporate event organised by Gary Hosie for his ACTEW work mates and Defence personnel, and run by him with a little help from us in a coaching capacity and as custodians of the piste. For our services we collected a fee plus we exposed Petanque to a large group, mostly locals. Approx 80 people attended in a well organised, well behaved fashion with plenty of Petanque, drink, music and good food available. Well done Gary, and thanks to the CPC crew who turned up in club shirts and did a fabulous job in PR and coaching so many novices. It was all about crowd control and we have that down to a fine art.

Low hanging fruit. About 70 - 80 people attended.

Feeding trough...... Somewhere in the south of France? No, it's Weston Park!

The battle of Wollongong is about to commence!

Tuggeranong action and melting moments;

With Heike and Hanan completing their 2016 organising commitment at Tuggeranong, we now have a new controller. Enter

Antoine who has taken over the stewardship of Tuggeranong Petanque for 2017. We had our first afternoon of games on Saturday 7th January 2017. Braving 30° + plus temperatures, the true believers and sun worshipers - Ahmed, Heike, Pierre, Antoine, Hanan and Ivo threw boules from under the crab apple trees giving some patchy shade and partial relief from the cruel sun. I must admit it was a test of my under arm deodorant and that trickle of sweat down the back of my T-shirt felt like the Ganges in full flood, but we persevered. The 3:00pm start times will continue, every week, despite the heat and is manageable (Just) as shade increases from 3:00pm onwards. Its not for the faint hearted I agree but we are a tough bunch at the CPC and it is a great venue giving us an alternative surface to play on, not to mention the beautiful views of the lake and park. By 5:00pm, 50% of the piste is in shade and just about perfect. Once again many thanks to Heike and Hanan for 2016 and good luck Antoine for 2017. Bring a hat and at least 1 litre of water along.

11 CPC teams, 22 brave warriors, after action reports, casualty lists, blow by blow accounts, victories and defeats, trophies won, the agony and the ecstasy, the blood sweat and tears, all will be revealed in the next Boulesheet!

What the government has in mind. The central core is our new storeroom and both ends become seating areas. Guess who will be populating that?

Sunday 06th November 2106

On Saturday 21st January 2017, our piste at

Weston Park will be marked out with ropes to replicate as close as possible tournament conditions in preparation for Wollongong. By now most of us going to Wollongong have been paired up and we have started playing together as teams. Saturday 21st is for you to experience playing in a controlled tournament environment. All games will be played as per tournament rules and it is hoped that teams will start to apply tactics, team bonding, order of play strategies, fine tuning, practice, confidence building etc. It is expected that more experienced players will impart their tournament knowledge to those wanting it or needing it or simply as good advice freely given. The whole aim of the exercise is to improve CPC team skills and prepare ourselves as best we can for Wollongong. Starting at 10:30am

till about 4:00pm. You decide how many games you play or when you start and finish. In a nut shell, It's an open day of competition play for you to tap into and enjoy.

Duelling in the park with boules please!

Did you know that if you were challenged to a duel and declined you were branded a coward? To maintain family honour and integrity in society you simply had to duel and risk your life whether you liked it or not! The only consolation was, you had a choice of weapons. I would go for the boules this time round, swords and pistols do get a bit messy! Duelling was very popular in Europe amongst the elite and killed thousands. Thankfully those days have passed.

The Ladies lounge; I was once told by a non Petanque player that if boules were coloured then

Petanque would make a great spectator sport. No truer words have been spoken. Imagine if the technology existed and coloured dyes could be injected into the steel manufacturing process then you could have coloured sets of boules per teams. Even seasoned players would find that handy. If it were possible it would bolster the International Petanque's Federations push to include Petanque into the Olympics. Imagine England, with blue boules, versus, France, with red boules. Who knows, that may happen sometime in the future. In the mean time Both 'Obut' and 'Boule Bleue' have put out pink boules onto the market targeting a female clientele. Unfortunately they are coated with a pink lacquer that quickly disappears with normal use. Nice idea and they look great just out of the box. Having said that, I must admit that our President (Jim) has a set of 'black beauties' he bought in France that have maintained their black lustre without too much tarnishing over time so maybe we are getting closer to achieving coloured boules? Any CPC Ladies interested in a set?

G’day members:

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!!!

On Christmas Day I realised that we are much more than a bunch of nice people who get-together

to play pétanque. The “waifs and strays” Christmas Day picnic in Weston Park was held for the second year. This time the picnic was under “our” tree adjacent to the piste, and although club members made up the core of those attending, there were many other family and friends. Some came early and did not stay long, others came early and stayed late, and some just turned up for a game of pétanque late in the day. Over the course of Christmas Day 25+ people participated, and it was good fun, and there were quite a few kids to keep reminding us of the Christmas spirit. Some of our visitors also turned out to be very proficient pétanque players. It was a great day and I am sure that it will be on again next Christmas. Recently we have been getting some younger members, and I hope this trend continues. On the subject of younger members, thanks to Smitty for involving his whole family in our club activities, and a special thanks to Rhys for agreeing to do the bookkeeping when we hold our FSM pennant Sundays. It has also been pleasing to note that a couple of very close friendships have been formed through involvement in pétanque over the past year. There is much more to playing pétanque than throwing a metal boule around!!! To all our members who will be participating in the Australia Day weekend competition at Wollongong, good luck and have fun. The large number of our members who turn up in our blue and white club shirts always makes a great visual impact. Finally, the latest results of our FSM pennant are in the news box on the front page of our club website (http://www.capitalpetanque.com/). Cheers, Jim (CPC President

El Presidente