Botany Bay Pétanque Club
A very warm welcome and thank you for visiting our webpage.
The Pétanque Club is one of the Botany Bay Cricket Club’s Sections. Pétanque, which is sometimes called boules, is a sport that can be enjoyed by all the family. It can be played for fun in the garden, or more seriously, within a club up to Regional, National, European and World Championship level.
Games can be played in singles, doubles or triples formats. In singles and doubles games, players have three ‘boules’ each; in triples it’s one fewer. Boules are metal balls about the size of a cricket ball, each weighing approximately 700gm. Players take turns to throw a boule towards a small coche that is between 6 metres and 10 metres in front of them on the playing area, which is called a ‘piste’. The boules that are closest to the coche when everyone has thrown their boules score points. The first player, or team, to score 13 points wins the match.
Botany Bay Pétanque Club is a very friendly club with 50 members, where we play both social and competitive pétanque. With our increasing membership, we built a second terrain during Spring 2022, which has provided us with an additional three pistes. We meet every Sunday, Wednesday and Friday morning from 10:30am until about lunchtime. Club members are also able to use the pistes for playing boules at other times during the week. There is also a competitive melee, comprising four half-hour timed games, every second Sunday of the month, starting at 10:30am, throughout the year. There are prizes for the three highest scoring players each month and a special trophy is awarded to the overall winner at the end of the year.
Whilst the majority of members enjoy playing 'social' games of petanque, some members also play competitive pétanque in Division 1 of the Chiltern Region Pennant Mid-Week League. League matches are played Tuesday or Wednesday evenings during the summer.
Our members will be happy to welcome you and help you get started. No experience is necessary and we can even lend you some boules! There’s no charge for your first three visits to the Club, and, if you find you’re enjoying playing the pétanque, you can apply to join for a very modest annual subscription.
If you have any questions, would like to find out more, or, maybe, join us for a game and a chat, please get in touch by entering your details in the 'Get in touch' box on the left. We look forward to hearing from you!
Botany Bay Pétanque Club Committee Members
Role Name
Chairman Peter O'Brien
Secretary Roger Bryan
Treasurer Alison Trew
Club Captain Dave Dunkin
Additional Committee Members
Adam Demetriou (Vice Captain), Howard Sinclair (Vice Chairman), Michael Ioannou, David Carter, Liz Gumble
Pétanque competitions:
Last December, Dave Dunkin became the overall melee winner of the 'George Stout Memorial Trophy' 2022.
Pétanque links
Pétanque England (www.petanque-england.uk ) is the National Governing Body for the sport in England. It is officially recognised by Sport England and is a member of the world governing body for pétanque.
Chiltern Region Pétanque (www.chilternpetanque.org.uk), covers Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire.
The Pennant Mid-week Pétanque League website (www.petanqueresults.com/pmpl/index.php ) includes pétanque news, league results and standings, as well as local information about the Pennant Mid-week League.
There are a number of commercial websites where you can buy boules and related equipment, including www.pycpetanque.com and www.dcpetanque.net