Greetings Marin Members

On Saturday, at the last Board Meeting of 2008, we welcomed our new 2009 Board Members - David Render, Emily Etcheverry and Roger Mattei. The meeting was a little over an hour and a half long - good ideas were presented and several decisions were made.

I am happy to announce that we now have a Director of Sport - Roger Mattei and an Assistant Director of Sport - David Render. Thank You! - to both gentlemen for accepting these positions.

One of the issues that the Board has been discussing is how to better represent the interests of the general membership. Two changes will be made in our 2009 format.

1) The Board Meetings that take place during good weather are held at our courts. These meetings will be open to the general membership. I will send, by email, an announcement of the date and time before each month's meeting. All members are welcome to observe these meetings and there will be a time for 'member comment' near the end of the agenda. Because of time constraints, the comments made during the 'member comment' section of the meeting will not necessarily be discussed that day. If not discussed at that meeting, they will be noted for discussion at future meetings. If you have an issue that you would like to see on the agenda simply reply to my date-and-time-announcement email, telling me what it is you would like to have the Board address. We will do what we can to fit it into that meeting's agenda.

2) It has been decided to make the minutes from each Board Meeting available - by email - to any member wishing to have a copy. Alain Efron has sent a notice regarding this decision. If you wish to receive a copy, simply reply to Alain's announcement stating that you would like to be on that email list. If you would like a copy and do not have email, please ask a member, who does, to print a copy for you.

If you have any questions, I can be reached by email: petanque.marin@gmail.com or phone: 415-302-5069.

Regards,
Christine Cragg
President, LPM

Ancient arena in central Paris

By Matt Luna/IHT Paris

While walking down rue Monge in the 5th arrondissement, an old stone entrance caught my attention. Of course, Paris is a historical city, but this structure seemed out of place among the storefronts and apartment building doors. Passing through the entrance I found myself in an old Gallo-Roman arena that quickly removes one from the 21st century. MAP
Les Arènes de Lutèce was built around the end of the first century A.D., and was the site of gladiator contests, comedies and drama presentations. The old stone structures, which once could accommodate about 17,000 people, were partially destroyed by barbaric invaders in the 3rd century, then rediscovered in the mid-19th century during the building of rue Monge.
Click here to read the full article.

44th world champions

Champions du Monde 2008: FRANCE B
Thierry Grandet-Bruno Leboursicaud-Henri Lacroix-Philippe Suchaud Foto: Claude Stirmel

click here to see more on the final games of the 44th World Pétanque Championship

click here to see more of the final games of the Nations Cup where Spain came away the winner beating Sweden 13-10

LPM 2009 Board

La Pétanque Marinière would like to announce and welcome, three new members to the board for 2009. They are (l-r) David Render, Emily Etcheverry and Roger Mattei. Sadly we say goodbye to our Sport Director, Gilles Karpowicz and Assistant Sport Director Jimmy Flour. We thank them for their invaluable contributions to the club and extend them our best wishes for all of their future endeavors.

44th world pétanque championships

The games are underway in Dakar, Senegal. For more information and to follow the action, click here to enter the official event website

vietnam pétanque

Viet Nam clinch silver medal for Asian Pétanque in Kaohsiung

Huynh Cong Tam and Tran Van Be took home the men’s doubles silver medal at the Asian Pétanque (iron ball) Tournament in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Vietnamese players also grabbed seven bronze medals in the championship.
Thailand dominated the championship with a total of six gold medals.
It is expected that pétanque will be added to the event line-ups at the Asian Indoor Games in Viet Nam and the Southeast Asian Games in Laos next year.

Lamorinda red beans & rice

Today in Lafayette, pétanque players were "transported" to the south of France and the southern state of Louisiana, at the same time, for Lamorinda Pétanque Club's annual red beans and rice festivities. There was a triplette panaché with the prizes being awarded by raffle tickets, two awarded to the winners of each game, and one to the losers of each game. As is evident in the slide show, Lamorinda's courts are not laid out in the standard 15 x 5 meter rectangles but rather a provençal style terrain casually wrapping around trees, stones, benches and picnic tables. La Pétanque Marinière would like to thank all of the Lamorinda members for all of their hard work in putting on such a nice event.

Click here to watch the slideshow

november 2008 tournament

The last tournament of 2008 took place Saturday. There were 12 players who took part in the doublettes panaché. The weather looked upon the precedings with favor, as only a slight drizzle was apparent for a short time. The talent was fairly closely matched as several teams battled throughout extended games. All in all, it was a quite a convivial way to end the 2008 competetive season. Click here to watch the slideshow.

st. mark's school

Sally and the children from St. Mark's School came by for their annual visit on Friday. About thirty children showed up to play pétanque, to learn about the history of the game and receive pointers from our resident experts, Louis Toulon and René Di Maio, among others from La Pétanque Marinière. LPM hopes that everyone had a good time and looks forward to seeing them soon at the courts. Who knows, perhaps there are some future pétanque champions in the making. Click here to watch the slideshow.

LPM Tournament

Join us for the last tournament of the year.

La Pétanque Marinière will hold a doublette panaché tournament on

Saturday November 8, 2008

Registration closes at 10:00 am sharp. Games begin at 10:30

Tournament entry fee: $7.00 per person

Bring your own lunch

soft pétanque

A perfect reason to have your own set of

La Moule indoor pétanque boules

A revolution in pétanque
from PetanqueMolle