LAMORINDA PÉTANQUE

Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez

Lamorinda Annual Red Beans and Rice Tournament

Mixed Triples
Sunday, November 9th
Registration at 10:00 Games Begin at 11:00
Lunch 12:00 – 1:00
Tournament Fee $5.00
Lunch $8.00
New Orleans Style Red Beans & Rice, Corn Bread, Cole
Slaw, and Southern Pie
Bring Your Own Beverage
Lunch By Reservation. Please Call:
Mary @ 925-283-2682
Brian @ 925-689-0293
Mimma @ 925-370-9358
Y’all come and let a good time be had by all !!!
Coffee before and an aperitif after the games
Prizes By Drawings

A Letter from our President

Greetings Members and Friends of La Pétanque Marinière ,

As 2008 draws to an end I can not help but reflect on the months that have so quickly flown by.

We sadly bid farewell to our dear friends and valued club members,
Armand Squitieri and Bob Winkley. They remain with us, in our memories of the gentlemen that they were and in their family members who continue to play with us.

The future of our terrain is still unknown. The County is committed to moving forward with the building and there is nothing definite on a site for relocation of our courts. The petition for protective rezoning of the parcel failed after too many signatures were disqualified for a variety of reasons. A committee of Board members remains in ongoing communications with county officials and we will give updates as agreements are made.

I would like to thank the LPM Board for the many hours of hard work they have so generously given to the club. Also, many thanks to those members who are not on the Board but willingly help with cleaning of the courts before tournaments or with preparation of the food during the tournaments. Your contributions are greatly appreciated.

The annual Business Meeting will be held Nov 15th, 6 PM, at Villa Marin in San Rafael. The event is free to members and $5.00 for non-members. Reservations must be made by Nov. 13. Contact Alain Efron 415-479-5820 or aefron3@comcast.net.

LPM 2009 dues are as follow: $30.00 adult / $10.00 junior (under 18) / $20.00 associate member. Dues must be received by Jan. 15th or a $5.00 late fee will apply. Make your check payable to LPM and send to Alain Efron, 23 Windstone DR., San Rafael, CA 94903. Or you could save the cost of a stamp and avoid the possible late fee by paying your dues at the Business Meeting. I hope to see you there.

Regards,


Christine Cragg
LPM President

Interclub Tournament '08

The 2008 Interclub Tournament was hosted by our Sacramento friends yesterday at their home courts at Mather Field. Teams from Willits, Sonoma, San Rafael, San Francisco as well as Sacramento showed up to compete. In all, approximately 4o players competed for the honor of holding the cup for the year to come. In the morning, players from one's own team competed against those of the other four to determine those who would qualify for the afternoon's final games. After the dust had settled, Sonoma came away with the Interclub Trophy.
Watch the slideshow here

World Championships

By Los Angeles Pétanque Club Reporter, Diana Jacobs

The excitement is building as the National Women’s Pétanque team warms up for a weekend in Samsun, Turkey. Sandra Bonneville (LAPC), Antonia Chavez (VOMPC), Diana Jacobs (LAPC) and Erin McTaggart (VOMPC) will be representing the United States in the World Championship. Our own Sandra will be competing in the shooting competition as well. Mary Albright is the Chief of the Delegation. Click here to see streaming video and updates on the event. We hope to get a glimpse of our ladies doing their all out best in the beautiful port city of Samsun on the Black Sea.
The Men’s National Pétanque team; Christian Triay (LAPC), Thuan Nguyen (LAPC), Pascal Corchia (LBDD) and Mai Nguyen will be representing the United States in Dakar, Senegal in November. Robert Pierre (LAPC) is the Chief of the Delegation accompanying them to the World Championship.
Click here to read more about the 44th World Championship in Dakar, Senegal.

For the complete edition of the latest L.A. Pétanque Reporter, click here.

The Kent Pétanque Championships

Kent County Showground plays host to 78 teams of European boules players all battling for top honours on the pétanque pistes above Detling.

suddenly, balls in every court

The following is not the most recent news story about pétanque, yet still a very good one and worthy of being repeated.

By ELIZABETH MAKER
June 1, 2003

DURING the week, the life of Morley Safer is a whir of interviews, writing, filming, editing and rushing around New York or traveling the globe preparing reports for the television program ''60 Minutes.''
But come Saturdays, at least in the summertime, Mr. Safer is usually at his Chester home doing the one thing he credits most for keeping him calm: playing petanque.
Jacques Pepin, a chef and author, spends his weekdays working on his public television cooking programs and jetting around the world to whip up recipes or speak for various causes.
But as soon as the snow has melted in springtime, Mr. Pepin can be found almost every weekend, from early afternoon often late through the night, indulging in his passion for petanque on the court he had built at his home in Madison.

Read the entire article here.

mcinnis park master plan

Jennifer Upshaw
Oct 03, 2008

Planners are dusting off long-term blueprints for north San Rafael's John F. McInnis County Park, envisioning a future that includes a new dog park, all-weather playing fields, pétanque courts, a huge picnic area and a children's playground. Built in the 1970s at the end of Smith Ranch Road, the 358-acre park, of which 75 acres are developed, boasts a 25,000-square-foot skatepark, two softball fields, two soccer fields, a canoe launch, four tennis courts, a group picnic area and nature trails. It is the largest county park, although 283 acres are protected wetlands.
The park is home to the McInnis Park Golf Center, a nine-hole executive golf course with a driving range, miniature golf, batting cages, clubhouse, pro shop and restaurant.
"This is something we had kind of in the workings for awhile," said Steve Petterle, principal park planner, who said the project mostly amounts to "tweaking" a handful of specifics in the park's long-term planning document, last updated in 2001.
"I think it's always a bit of looking at where we are and where we're going," said Sharon McNamee, director of parks and open space. Possible changes to McInnis include relocating a planned dog park away from the creek, moving a future children's playground to a larger area away from the batting cages and planning for new petanque courts and the dog park, assuming a proposed public safety building at the Civic Center displaces existing facilities. A large group picnic area is planned as well.
Also examined will be the installation of environmentally friendly synthetic turf to allow year-round soccer and softball, sports that pack the park in the summer.
"We're looking at how people use the park and how we can improve interaction between different groups by providing facilities that meet everyone's needs from as basic as shade to as sophisticated as artificial turf," said Cordelia Hill, principal of the Mill Valley landscape architecture firm Royston Hanamoto Alley & Abey, the group hired to help the county plan the project.
Sustainable features such as permeable pavements, bio-swales to clean storm runoff and protect water quality, alternative energy sources and building materials that reduce the park's "carbon footprint" all will be considered, Hill said. Designs will reflect social needs too, she said.
"Part of sustainability is creating spaces people want to be in and support their needs so that it works for the community," Hill said. Beyond broad concepts, details such as where the new additions would be located are open for discussion, planners said. After spending the summer meeting with community groups, homeowners, dog owners and sports leagues, county officials held a workshop last week to gain direction. A second meeting to exchange ideas is set for November. Final plans will go to the Parks and Open Space Commission in December. The Board of Supervisors is expected to review the changes in January.
No funding exists yet for the improvements, although the county hopes to build the dog park and pétanque courts in 2010.
Thursday's meeting, the first public workshop on the proposed ideas, drew dog lovers and sports enthusiasts, among others. Soccer field access for adults was on Alberto Godoy's mind.
"We've been playing here at McInnis for a number of years," said Godoy, assistant to the president of the soccer league Liga Latina. "Year round we're very limited in soccer fields in Marin," he said. "It's hard for adults - kids get priority."
Plans to build an enclosed dog park drew Santa Venetia resident Roger Kolodny to the workshop. He said he liked the idea, as long as the rest of the park stayed open to dogs as well.
"We need to make sure the regulations stay the same," he said. "There's a real need."
Bart Zachofsky, a signmaker and engraver from Mill Valley, and Verena Rytter of Novato, who is retired from a career in accounting, are avid petanque players. The two said the courts across from the Marin Civic Center are threatened by plans for a new public safety building, and should be saved. They said they didn't know if replacement facilities at McInnis would suffice.
"Will it be adequate? Will it be equal to what we have?" Zachofsky said. "We don't know yet - we have to negotiate."

A word from Joe Martin

Greetings,

The WCQT in Bryant Park, NYC, this past weekend produced a winning team to represent the FPUSA in the next World Championship, whenever it will be held. The winning team is the LBNY team of Jean-Pierre Subrenat, Xavier Thibaud, and Eric Bertin. It was a very well run event and we very much appreciate the efforts of LBNY that hosted it.
Read about the weekend's events here.

See you on the courts,

Joe Martin, President FPUSA