Pétanque in Tacoma, WA

KATHLEEN MERRYMAN; THE NEWS TRIBUNE

It is a sad fact that a language learned in school rusts faster than the affection for it does.

Without the opportunity to speak it, all the hours of vocabulary drills and declensions seize up in a mass of poorly maintained education.

At least that’s what happened to my French.

I am of the generation that learned French because it was the language of diplomacy and grand literature, not to mention quite a bit of good food and opera. We were brought up to appreciate the grace of its vocabulary and its ties to Greek and Latin. No one really expected us to speak it, unless we got lucky enough to backpack across Europe, or to afford haute cuisine.

To read the rest of the article, click here

County Safety Building Progress

AN EARTHQUAKE is not going to wait for Marin County's budget outlook to brighten.

The county needs to move forward with plans for a new public safety building, even though the first phase is expected to cost $57 million. The county has $30 million set aside for the project.

The Marin civil grand jury has strongly urged the county to expedite construction. The government watchdog reached its conclusion after taking a close look at the county's plans, the proposed site and the need to house local emergency services, personnel and equipment in a building that would be engineered to withstand the large quake. Read the full article here

Fresno December Newsletter

Don't forget to check out
Fresno Pétanque Club's
latest newsletter.

2009 Bay Area & Beyond Calendar

Bay Area & Beyond, 2009 Club Schedules

CONTACT the HOST CLUB about EACH EVENT for more SPECIFIC INFORMATION or possible CHANGES
Red Lettering indicates FPUSA sponsored tournament

DATE	CLUB	EVENT
January 18th Sunday	Menlo Park	Random Mixed Games
January 18th Sunday	San Francisco	“Galette des Rois” Random Doubles
February 1st Sunday	San Francisco	Carrousel 2x2 - change partners each game
February 7th Saturday	Marin	2 Men + 1 Woman, Select Triples Rain date – February 8
February 15th Sunday	Menlo Park	Random Mixed Games
February 21st Saturday February 22nd Sunday	Boca Raton	FPUSA, National Men’s Singles and FPUSA, National Women’s Singles FPUSA, National Mixed Triples
March 1st Sunday	San Francisco	Select Mixed Triples (2M & 1F) + Consolante (if 10 teams or More present)
March 7th Saturday	Marin	Northern CA Commemorative Cup Select Mixed Doubles (1 man + 1 woman) Rain date – March 8
March 15th Sunday	Menlo Park	Random Mixed Games
March 28th Saturday	Sonoma	Season Opener 4-Boules Singles & Soup Rain date – March 29
April 4th & 5th Saturday & Sunday	Boca Raton	FPUSA, Woman’s World Championship Qualification Tournament
April 5th Sunday	San Francisco	1 shooter + 1 or 2 pointer – 5 games
April 11th Saturday	Marin	Lentils & Sausage Picnic Panaché format – Open to All
April 19th Sunday	Menlo Park	Random Mixed Games
April 25th Saturday	Sonoma	Select Mixed Doubles + Potluck Lunch Rain date – April 26
May 3rd Sunday	Sacramento	FPUSA, N.W. Regional Mixed Triples
May 9th Saturday	Marin	Tête a Tête – Men’s Tournament Tête a Tête – Woman’s Tournament
May 10th Sunday	Menlo Park	Mother’s Day Picnic with Random Mixed Games
May 17th Sunday	Sonoma	FPUSA, N.W. Regional Mixed Doubles
May 17th Sunday	San Francisco	Select Mixed Triples (2 men + 1 woman) + Consolante
May 31St Sunday	San Francisco	Club’s 50th Birthday > 1959 - 2009 Concours (A) Select 2/2 - Trophies Concours (B) 2/2 Mêlée – Trophies 1 Gift for all players present!
June 7th Sunday	Sonoma	BBQ Lamb Picnic Party & Pétanque
June 14th Sunday	Marin	Annual Steak Picnic Panaché format - Open to All
June 21st Sunday	Menlo Park	Random Mixed Games
June 27th Saturday June 28th Sunday	Portland, OR	FPUSA, N.W. Regional Select Triples FPUSA, N.W. Regional Singles
June 28th Sunday	Sonoma	Sonoma Cup – Select Triples
July 12th Sunday	Sonoma	Ravenswood Bastille Day Grand Concours de Pétanque – Random Triples
July 12th Sunday	San Francisco	Fete de l’armistice – Random Doubles
July 19th Sunday	Menlo Park	Random Mixed Games
July 19th Sunday	Marin	LPM ‘Members-Only’ Tournament Format to be determined – Pot Luck Lunch
July 25th Saturday July 26th Sunday	Lamorinda	FPUSA, National Men’s Doubles FPUSA, National Women’s Doubles FPUSA, National Mixed Doubles
August 9th Sunday	Marin	FPUSA, N.W. Regional “60+OVER” Mixed Doubles
August 16th Sunday	Menlo Park	Random Mixed Games
August 16th Sunday	San Francisco	2/2 Select Open + Consolante (if 12 teams present)
August 23rd Sunday	Lamorinda	Select Doubles
August 30th Sunday	Sonoma	Wine Makers Picnic & Mini Tournament
September 5th & 6th Saturday & Sunday	Sacramento	Annual Emil Furlan Tournament Select Mixed Triplette
September 13th Sunday	Marin	Annual Leg of Lamb - free to Members Panaché format – Open to all
September 20th Sunday	Menlo Park	Random Mixed Games
September 20th Sunday	San Francisco	Concours (A) Men’s 2/2 Select Concours (B) Women’s Mêlée des Mêlée
September 27th Sunday	Sonoma	VOMPC Open Championship Select Triples
October 4th Sunday	San Francisco	FPUSA, N.W. Regional Doubles
October 4th Sunday	Sonoma	Oktoberfest – big feast – mini tournament
October 10th Saturday	Marin	Random Doubles
October 11th Sunday	Lamorinda	FPUSA, N.W. Regional Mêlée Triples
October 17 & 18 Saturday & Sunday	Sonoma	Wine Country Open – Select Doubles Qualify Saturday – Finals Sunday
October 18th Sunday	Menlo Park	Random Mixed Games
October 18th Sunday	San Francisco	Interclub Tournament – clubs must present an even number of players – minimum of 4 Pre-registration Required
November 1st Sunday	San Francisco	1 Shooter & 1 or 2 Pointers – 5 games
November 7th Sunday	Marin	Tournament a la Mêlée Rain date – November 8
November 15th Sunday	Menlo Park	Random Mixed Games
November 28h Sunday	Sonoma	Random Doubles – Potluck Lunch
December 6th Sunday	San Francisco	“Panier de Noel”. Carrousel 2x2 Apéro - Potluck Lunch

Generally, the following holds true:

1st Sunday	San Francisco	La Boule d’Or Pres. John Krauer 650.755.2391 or French call cell 650.534.4785
2nd Sunday	San Rafael (Marin)	La Petanque Mariniere Pres. Christine Cragg 415.302.5069 www.cochonnetmarin.com www.petanque-marin.blogspot.com
3rd Sunday	Menlo Park	La Boule Joyeuse Pres. Dolores Ebollito Info. Monique Martin 650.369.9475 LaProvencale1@aol.com
4th Sunday	Sonoma	Valley of the Moon Petanque Club www.vompc.org Pres. Michael Cooper - me_cooper@sbcglobal.net Secretary: Tom Bricca - tombricca@comcast.net Info. Hotline 707.258.3450
As Announced	Lafayette, CA. - Contact Lamorinda Club Pres. Mary Albright 925.283.2682 Or Brian Murphy 925.689.0293 Casual Play every Sunday - all year - begins @ 1pm Winter / 3pm Summer
As Announced	Sacramento	Club Francaise de Sacramento Pres. Colette Evans 916.362.0509 Info. Kevin Mcgill / mcgillfam@gmail.com www.petanquesacramento.net
As Announced	Willits Boules Club	Pres. Mickey (707) 972-1917 Pres. Contact: Lawren Giles 707.459.1911 dmarshall@pacific.net
As Announced	Oakhurst, CA - Oakhurst Club - Pres. Manny Sanz Casual Play held Saturday mornings 9 A.M. – year ‘round and Wednesday evenings 5:00 P.M. – April through October www.oakhurstpetanque.com
As Announced	Fresno, CA - Fresno Petanque www.fresnopetanque.com Pres. Tim Channell Contact: timchannell@sbcglobal.net

- CONTACT LIST FOR SPECIFIC INFORMATION AND CHANGES OF EVENTS -

Use this as a general guideline for where and when to play.

There will be possible changes throughout year

Please contact individual Clubs for current information!

from Ed Porto

Greetings FPUSA Club Presidents et al,

I hope that 2009 is off to a good start for you and your clubs.

2008 was another great year for FPUSA and our membership - more clubs, more members and more events! Appreciation goes to all the host clubs and volunteers who made it all possible. We expanded our Regional program to include Melees and Mixed Triples. Our National program took on a new look as well. With Men's Doubles/Women's Doubles/Mixed Doubles and Men's Singles/Women's Singles/Mixed Triples combinations, our members enjoyed a variety of single-day tournaments on two national tourney "weekends."

There was great competition at the Qualifier in New York last September, with the winners decided in a 13-12 come-from-behind victory in the final. Congratulations to Jean-Pierre Subrenat, Eric Bertin and Xavier Thiebuad of La Boule New Yorkaise for their excellent play and teamwork. They will be good representatives for us in 2010. Lastly for 2008, in California, FPUSA hosted a "60 and over" group from the New Zealand Federation. What a blast it was! And many of our senior members in the Bay Area, Oakhurst and Southern California got a chance to play in a true international competition and make new friends.

Internationally, our US Women's team of Diana Jacobs and Sandra Bonneville from LA and Erin McTaggart and Antonia Chavez from Sonoma faired well in Samsun, Turkey last October, taking 3rd place in the Coup des Nations. Thanks go to Mary and Bill Albright for accompanying the team and especially to Mary for being our delegate and helping the team in so many ways. In November, our Team of Thuan Nguyen (LA), Christian Triay (LA), Pascal Corschis (Palm Desert) and Mai Ngyuen (LA), along with Coach Ly Ngyuen (LA), competed in Dakar, Senegal in the Senior World Championship. Robert Pierre, making the trip from his "post" in France, was our official delegate. Special thanks go to Robert, our International Events Coordinator, for his service as delegate and for his work in providing our members the information and contacts they need to compete in various international events.

As for the upcoming season (which has just begun in Florida over this past weekend), we have further expanded our Regionals to include Singles and, based on the popularity of the New Zealand competitions, a "60 and over" Mixed Doubles (or Mixed Triples). With the Regional melees, and "over 60's" events, the idea is to expand the pool of potential medal-winners beyond the top competitors and to give new players a chance to compete for a medal with the better players .

Our National program will be focused in Boca Raton, with the Singles/Mixed Triples weekend (Feb) and the Women's Qualifier (April) and in Lafayette, CA who will be hosting the Doubles weekend on their new courts in July. Unfortunately, there will be no Senior's Qualifier as the 2009 WC was postpones to 2010, therefore there is no need to qualify a team.

I look forward to seeing many of you this year - at your place or mine!

Best Wishes and Enjoy Petanque!

Ed Porto
FPUSA Nationa Sport Director

Pétanque in Laos

Pétanque is one of the most popular sports in Laos. The game is very easy to play, and is one of the most cherished pastimes of the Laotian people. Click here to take a closer look at Soulasith Khamvongsa, the nation's petanque hero.

Pétanque is a sport played by all ages and both sexes the only sport in which Laos has made any sort of impact on the international stage.

Soulasith Khamvongsa has won medals at the South-East Asian Games, the Asian Pétanque Championships and is considered to be amongst the top 40 players in the world. He is arguably Laos' most successful sportsman. At the age of 17, he was chosen to represent Laos at the 2001 South-East Asian Games in Malaysia. It was the first time that Pétanque had been included in the Games and Soulasith led his nation to gold in the Doubles event.

Soulasith Khamvongsa, Pétanque player said "Pétanque has been popular in Laos for a long time, ever since the French brought the game over. But Pétanque's popularity really took off after we won that gold medal. When we got back I travelled around the country and played lots of exhibition matches in various villages. That was great fun."

Soulasith's success has been phenomenal. It was only the second time in 42 years that Laos had won a gold medal at the Games. Still at the age of just 24, he believes that he has yet to reach his peak in the sport. There are still lots of potential medals to win, starting in front of his home crowd at next year's South-East Asian Games.

In order to locate more talented players, the Laos Pétanque Federation is using local competitions to spot people that could make it onto the national team. The hope more Laotian petanque heroes will make their way onto the international stage.

Women's World Champions

VOMPC'S Chavez, McTaggart help USA take impressive Women's World 3rd Sonoma's Antonia Chavez (r), and Erin McTaggart (l), are members of the Valley of the Moon Pétanque Club who, playing for the United States women's team, recently competed against 35 international teams at the 2008 Women's World Pétanque Championships in Samsun, Turkey.
Click here to read the full article.

Happy Holidays 2008

Christmas and it's traditions don't always bring visions of joy and happiness to everyone, so keep in mind that when you are out looking for that perfect gift...that love is the easiest gift to give. It's simple...it's elegant...and it lasts a long time. It's always brand new...and if it's returned, it brings more joy. At this time of the year, let us reach out and forget all of our bitterness toward our fellow man, extending to him or her our true hand of love and friendship...because love brings hope, and hope removes doubt, and without doubt, there is no uncertainty.

La Pétanque Marinière would like to wish all of you, wherever you may be, and however you may choose to celebrate it, the most joyous holiday season filled with family, friends, laughter and good health.

Remembering old times...

Here's a great foto, taken a few years ago, of some LPM members enjoying a nice game of pétanque on what appears to be a sunny winter's day, sent in by our own Monique Bricca.


If you have any old fotos or print nostalgia you would like to share, please contact us at: petanque.marin@gmail.com

Fresno Pétanque

Hello Boulistes,

Fresno, California Petanque Club's monthly newsletter is now online. To view our NOVEMBER edition click here.

Come to Fresno and play petanque with us soon. See you on the piste!

Happy Holidays

Tim Channell, President
Fresno Petanque Club
559/352-4142