WELCOME TO THE OFFICIAL BLOG for La Pétanque Marinière in San Rafael, California. LPM has been an active Marin pétanque club since 1972 and affiliated with the Fédération of Pétanque USA, since 1975. We welcome people of all abilities, ages and nationalities to come and enjoy pétanque with us.

The Pierre Joske Courts are located on Civic Center drive in San Rafael. (click for directions). Casual games are played every Thursday, Saturday and Sunday from about 1 pm. Tournament play is usually held on the second Sunday of every month.

Please consult the links on the sidebar to the right for more information on clubs in the bay area, nationally and world wide.

If you would like to play but haven't any boules, please contact our President, Christine Cragg. They can bring some for you to use, as well as introduce you to the basic skills and techniques of pétanque. In addition, if you are looking to purchase boules but are unsure as to which size and weight are right for you, we have a range of different examples from which to choose.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

VOMPC-SONOMA

NorthWest Regional Mixed Doubles Sunday May 17, 2009

Depot Park, Sonoma Ca Start Time: 9:30 am
Entry Fee: $40 Per team
YOUR PAYMENT AND COMPLETED ENTRY FORM MUST BE RECEIVED BY THE CLOSING DATE
May 14th, AT THIS ADDRESS:
VOMPC P.O. Box 863, Sonoma, CA 95476.
Check or money order made payable to VOMPC


EVENT INFORMATION

Registration 9:00 a.m. Competition begins at 9:30 a.m.
Tournament questions? Contact Narin Garrett at 707.478.0458 or email nui3@mac.com
Hospitality questions? Contact Bill Thompson at 707.935.0990, or email thomsonb@earthlink.net
Sport questions? Contact Ed Porto 707.953.5497, or email edporto@sbcglobal.net
Coffee and Pastries in the am•Sandwich Buffet for lunch•Aperitifs afterwards

FPUSA REGIONAL REGULATIONS

1. New members must be registered with FPUSA by the CLOSING DATE above.
2. Members who renewed their 2009 licenses less than 90 days prior to the tournament are ineligible.
3. Pre-Registration with full payment is required for this event by the closing date noted above.
4. All players must have a current Release of Liability Waiver on file with FPUSA before participating.
Waiver forms will be available on site and must be signed, if necessary, prior to player check-in.
5. Every Participant must bring his/her Federation Card and can be asked to produce it by the tournament staff.
Appropriate attire and competition-grade boules are required for all players.
Closed-toed shoes are required except if a player has a valid medical reason.

- - - - - - -Print form below and send in with payment. - - - - - - -

NW Regional Mixed Doubles

Team Captain

2nd Player

Phone/Email

Club

Saturday, April 11, 2009

A Word From Fresno

Hello Boulistes,

As we begin to enter the summer months, let me invite you to Fresno,California for a few days or even a week of petanque. Fresno County is home to the three crown jewel of the national parks system too - Yosemite Park, Sequoia Park and Kings Canyon Park. Take a look at this video, click here.

Fresno County is considered to be the food basket of the United States. One example of that is wine. Fresno County produces more wine than any other county in the United States. If you visit us, I have to warn you that we might drink a bit of wine when we play petanque. While we do not grow tobacco in the beautiful San Joaquin Valley, you might, nonetheless, see someone smoking on the pistes. We encourage them not to do so and even tell them how bad it is for their health, and that it eventually will kill them, but then they just shoot our boules off the terrain. What's one to do ~ C'est la Vie!

Come to Fresno. Have some fun, eat our food, drink our wine and enjoy the finer qualities of life. Fresno is California's playground. Hey, we even have programs to help you stop smoking. Drinking wine though? Well, that's a more difficult proposition. You see, we have over twenty wineries within a 35 mile radius of our petanque terrain and almost all of them make really good wine.

Give it some thought and then visit us before the temperature gets to hot. By the way, click here
for our current Fresno boules newsletter. To view our Fresno orange edition boules newsletter, click here
.

See you down the road a ways,
Tim Channell, President
Fresno Petanque Club
(oh yeah, National Editor, FPUSA newsletter "The Score" - click here
)

p.s. All of you are doing a great job promoting petanque across the country. Thanks for all you are doing. I'll see you on the piste eventually, and I won't be smoking and I'll try to not be drinking wine either. Boule on sport fans..."California dreamin on such a winter's day."

Saturday, April 4, 2009

LPM APRIL TOURNAMENT

LENTILS/SAUSAGE PICNIC AND PANACHÉ TOURNAMENT
OPEN TO ALL - FRIENDS AND FAMILY WELCOME

Tournament fee: $7.00

Registration ends at 10:30

Lunch served at 11:30

Games begin at 12:30

Menu:
Lentils, Sausage, Salad, Brie and Bread
(Please bring your own plates and utensils)

***RESERVATION REQUIRED FOR PICNIC***
Reservation Deadline: Thursday April 16th
For reservations, call 415 479 5820 or aefron3@comcast.net


Thursday, April 2, 2009

"BOULE D'OR'" SAN FRANCISCO.

SUNDAY APRIL 5th 2009.

1 shooter + 1 or 2 players

Entree fee $7

Awards: 3 Prizes + Consolante if 12 teams

Starting time 10:15

Coffee and Cake in the morning

Info call the Krauer's # 650-755-2391 or cell phone 650-483-0732

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

LAPC Newsletter













Our pétanque friends in the southland have issued their latest newsletter.
Please stop by and
check it out.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Michel-Schlumberger


The American Wine Blog Awards have just been announced and Michel-Schlumberger is winner of "Best Winery Blog."

Michel-Schlumberger is based in the Dry Creek Valley. Its Benchland Blog, written by a handful of the winery's employees, is an attempt to describe where the winery is and why it matters, its "human terroir," as it likes to say. Recent postings include everything from a sales trip to Washington, DC to how effective owls are at killing gophers, never a vineyard's friend.

It provides useful insight into all the parts that go into running a successful wine operation, which, as anyone in the trenches of the business will tell you, is not as glamorous as it looks, Benchland's bloggings on petanque and fashion notwithstanding.

Monday, March 9, 2009

NorCal Cup results

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA COMMEMORATIVE CUP TOURNAMENT

It was a bit chilly yesterday, and questions arose as to whether it would clear up, but all in all it turned out to be a great day for pétanque. Congratulations to the winners and to all of those who helped put the tournament together.
In addition, La Pétanque Marinière would like to welcome our newest member, Tom Fair.


Tournament results:

Concours:

1st Place Tino Lofaro/Erin McTaggart – plaques and perpetual trophy

2nd Place Jean Etcheverry/Emily Etcheverry – plaques

Consolante:

1st Place Jean-Claude Etallaz/Genevieve Etallaz – bottles of wine

2nd Place Jean-Claude Bunnand/Yvette Ghione – bottles of wine

Thursday, March 5, 2009

NorCal Commemorative Cup

DATE CHANGE

Due to inclement weather over the past few days, the date of the
Northern CA Commemorative Cup has been moved to

Sunday March 8

All games start at 10:30 a.m. Remember to set your clocks AHEAD one hour.
Bring your own lunch.

Select Mixed Doublettes (1 man & 1 woman). Plaques, but no cash prizes.
In the event that a minimum of 16 competing teams for the entire tournament is realised, a consolante round will take place.
Apéritifs will be served after awards ceremony.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

FPUSA has a new look

Greetings boulistes,

We have a new website with a new look! www.usapetanque.org
It is the same web address, and our new webmaster, Dan Danielson, president of the Chicago club and board member has generously offered his time and considerable skills to help us continue what Jan Claire began years ago when he designed a site for the FPUSA.

With a different perspective our website has a different look, though, for now, the same information. As before, if you have comments or items you'd like to see on the site, please contact Frank, our always capable secretary who somehow manages to keep mountains of work reduced to mere molehills. Frank will coordinate with Dan to keep our website functioning with the latest information.

Thank you Jan, and thank you Dan. Two great friends of the FPUSA.

Joe Martin

Saturday, February 28, 2009

From Joe Martin, FPUSA

Hello Boulistes

Our new FPUSA newsletter is now online. Click here for the latest edition. We now have the newsletter back on a regular schedule and you will recieve a new edition every four months.

Each newsletter will have a major theme. This current letter focuses on marketing pétanque in your city and will give you ideas for spreading the word about pétanque in unique places in your community.

I hope you have a prosperous year and a great time playing pétanque this year. Hopefully i will see you on one of America's pistes one day soon.

Regards,
Joe Martin, President
FPUSA

Thursday, February 26, 2009

La Boule d'Or is 50 !!


Under the auspices of French expatriates Jean Krauer, Jean Bontemps, André Martin, the late Armand Squitieri, Charles Nicolas and others, La Boule D'or was born 50 years ago in San Francisco. Together with the founding of Le Mistral Club de Pétanque, founded in Boston in 1958, it remains one of the oldest and yet active pétanque clubs in the United States.

Please mark your calendars for the birthday celebrations to take place on May 30th and 31st.


On Saturday May 30th there will be a panaché doublettes tournament
and on Sunday May 31st, there will be 2 tournaments from which you can choose.
Either:
A: Select open doublettes OR
B: Melée triplettes, random drawn


All pétanque players are invited to come and celebrate La Boule d'Or's 50th birthday with what promises to be two exceptional days of Pétanque in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.

More details regarding tournament times, hotel suggestions, and meals will be forthcoming.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

pétanque vs bocce

A question often asked is "What is the difference between bocce, the Italian bowling game and pétanque?"
The difference is this: traditional bocce is more of a bowling game, whereas pétanque is more of a tossing game, like horseshoes.
Bocce players take steps before throwing, pétanque players stand still.
Bocce balls are usually rolled palm up, pétanque balls tossed palm down, so they get backspin upon release.
Pétanque balls are the size of an orange, hollow, and always made of metal.
Bocce balls are larger and solid, about the size of a grapefruit, colored (green & red are popular), and generally made of resin or wood.
Bocce has different variations as to court size and layout. The court should be smooth and flat; some rules call for wooden sideboards to make it an enclosed area.
Pétanque can be played on almost any terrain; most players actually prefer an uneven terrain to make it more challenging.
The counting of points and game tactics are very similar between the two games.
Overall pétanque is more flexible (no need to find a court), and the equipment is easier to carry around. For the record, there is a variation of bocce ("bocce volo") where balls are delivered palm down and metal balls are used. The players run-up in this one is spectacular, similar to "boule Provençale", the forefather of pétanque.

courtesy of Pétanque America

Saturday, February 14, 2009

NorCal Commemorative Cup

Now is the time to start thinking about with whom you would like to play in the upcoming Northern California Commemorative Cup Tournament. The tournament is being held this year on a Saturday so that in the event of rain, the event can be held on Sunday. Please check back for further updates.

Saturday March 7
-
Northern CA Commemorative Cup.

All games start at 10:30 a.m. Bring your own lunch.
Select Mixed Doublettes (1 man & 1 woman). Plaques, but no cash prizes.
Apéritifs will be served after awards ceremony.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

LPM Tournament

Join us for the first tournament of Marin's 2009 season!!


Saturday February 7 -

CANCELED
DUE TO WEATHER



Saturday, January 31, 2009

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

Sunday, January 25, 2009

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

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Monday, January 19, 2009

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!