daThis year we weren't able to conduct our annual Morisset Cup Open Triples tournament.  However we were able to invite some players from local regional clubs to come and play a pop up game on the Saturday 31st Oct.  We had representatives from four clubs - Smythesdale, Ballarat, Grampians and Woodend.  Some pics follow. The wining club was Grampians!

The Ballarat Times did a cover story on the Club on Oct 15th.  The photos below were taken for that article.

During the COVID lockdown where we could only exercise with one other person we ran a singles tournament over a couple of weeks where two people played each other in a public space (with Council approval and a friendly police visit).  The season's performances are in the following table (if you can read it! Try clicking on it!)

Finals were held on Sep 16th with Chis playing Jack in one semi and John playing Andres in the other. Chris and John played in the final with John being the winner!

Congratulations John.

Things have been quiet playing-wise over the COVID lockdown but some members have been busy making some home-based pistes.  Pictured are new pistes from Gerry and Andras.

Our Xmas Party was held on Friday 13th at the Rec Reserve. We had about 25 members attend and a great time was had by all.  Some photos below.

Our annual tournament was again successful this year with 18 teams (4 others dropped out at the last minute) competing in pretty horrendous weather - strong winds and very cold. Luckily there wasn't a lot of rain and the comp finished in good time.

All results are available at MyPetanque.com

The raffle was a big success with so many excellent prizes donated by Club Members. Some photos below.

Click on them to get the full picture.

  Individual results from Sunday Oct 6th 2019 saw the first of our annual family days where club members (licenced and social) and their friends gathered for a day of Petanque and friendship.  It was a great success with over 40 people attending - 36 of them playing petanque.  It was Clive's idea so a big thanks to him.  Much work in organising the event went into it particularly by Gordon (who bought a fair few to the day!). Big thanks to Gordon.  Also Beryl who organised the food.  Excellent BBQ food it was too.  Everyone chipped in to get the lunch done and the clean up at the end of the day.  Winners of the Inaugural Doubles championship (using the rules of the day) were Big Dave Walker and John Sexton.  The day was a fundraising one for the club too.  Thanks to the sponsors who donated gift Vouchers to the winners and some others. Some pics below. Click on one and you can scroll through the others in a larger format. Individual results at the bottom.

The four new benches were installed recently by Club Members. They were partially funded by the Club and The Golden Plains Council.

We are lucky to have one of the only undercover pistes in Australia at our Club due to the wonderful work of Club member Clive Williams.  As a result we get to play pretty regularly over winter.  heres are some shots.

This year we are introducing an Intra-Club Annual Doubles Tournament.  This will occur on Sunday October 6th. The comp is open to Club members - licenced and social - and their friends and family.  It will be an out of the hat set of four games with the highest aggregate being the winner.  A BBQ will be put on by the Club as well.  Put the date in your diary.

Our Annual Triples Tournament will be on Saturday October 26th this year. This is open to all comers.  

Previous winners:
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2016: Stephane Langlois, Louis Fennolar and Laurent Fossaert
2017: Brian Fitzpatrick, Glen Bovell and Dave Walker
2018: Alexis Susser, Vikash Jaunky and Christophe Moretti

The Club was successful this month in receiving another grant form the Golden Plains Shire Council to allow us to add four more bench seats to the Eastern side of our pistes area (in the shade in the pic below).  This will happen before our annual tournaments in October.

Many thanks to GPS for their continuing support.

It was a great day at Gordon and Pam Oliver's place to celebrate Bastille Day and our Bi-Annual Championships despite the extremely bad weather that prohibited the playing of petanque (except for a few diehards).

Photo gallery below in random order. Click on a pic for a bigger version.

Club Champion was Jeff Langdon with past champions Michel Morisset and Chris Przygoda coming in close second and third.  Most improved was Phil Blake.

The food was fantastic with everyone being given a particularly French dish to prepare  - too many to mention here but everyone really enjoyed the food and the conviviality. We even sang the French National Anthem with great gusto with words provided by Graeme and Sue Houghton!

Special thanks must go to Gordon and Pam and their family who put in an amazing amount of work to make the day the success it was. Also thanks to Gordon and Clive who presided over the presentation ceremonies. And to everyone who attended and supported the Club's activities.