A very successful event was held on Saturday Oct 6th with a record 25 teams participating.

The winners were the trio from St Kilda Club - Alexis Susser, Vikash Jaunky, Christophe Moretti in a close final against Jean Francois Veyssiere, Nicolas Demunck and Stephane Langlois also from St Kilda.

Special thanks to our major sponsor PRD Real Estate and to the numerous local businesses that donated goods for the Raffle (Thanks Gordon for all that work.)

​A great day.

Smythesdale took two teams of five to the NW Regional Cup at Avoca on April 23rd.  The unusual tournament schedule with teams of two and three rotating through the day left some of us befuddled but it was a great day all round.  Winners were one of the Grampians teams.

Dave and Jeff did well at Caulfield in April to come runners up in the national Over 60s Doubles Titles.  Pictured with their medallions.

Well not exactly but they did come fifth in the Victorian Doubles Championships in October down at Weird Entertainers PC.

Our first tournament was a great success only sightly dampened by the strong wind at times. But the organisation went really well.  We were honoured in the large number of quality players that turned up to play.  Some of the best in the country!

The results are available here.  Click on the RHS to see the three sections.  You’ll see from the Principale that the top four teams comprised some of the best players in the State.

Our four teams did pretty well too.  Clive, Michel and Peter Wells (filling from Woodend) ranked 11th. John, Robyn and Kaelene came in 12th followed by the Daves and Rory at 14th then Jeff, Jack and Graeme at 15th.  We were all on two games won out of five.

We broke even on the cost of running the tournament (most of the fees went out in prize money) but made a good profit on the raffle.

A big thanks to Andre Deramond who did a great job on managing the rounds and results.  Thanks, too, to our sponsors; Nintingbool Winery, Smythesdale Pharmacy, PRD Ballarat Real Estate, Courthouse Hotel, Quality Wool and Ballarat insurance brokers.

We are pleased to announce that the Smythesdale Petanque Club is running its first Tournament at its new Home.  On Oct 15th. See details in flyer attached.

There are over 50 Petanque Clubs in Australia with over 1500 licenced players. Many more play the game socially.

The Smythesdale Petanque Club  is a small but active group who play the sport.  The Club was established about 2 years ago and now has 27 members.

Members of the club have played in tournaments in Victoria and around Australia but until now the Club hasn't had a home of its own. Members have played on home “pistes” (the ground that Petanque is played on).

However that is about to change as the Club takes up residency in an underused section of ground at the Woady Yaloak Recreation Reserve in Smythesdale.  The Reserve Committee of Management has agreed for the Club to use the ground at the front of the stadium. This area, originally the official entrance to the Stadium, had fallen into disrepair in recent years.

Now the Golden Plains Council has agreed to clear the area of weeds and lay some gravel onto the area.  This will allow the Petanque Club to play up to 10 consecutive games across 10 pistes in the area whilst making use of the facilities of the Reserve.

At the same time the cleaned up area will be usable for other Recreation Reserve user groups and the adjacent primary school for other activities.

The Petanque Club will be kicking off use of their new home with their inaugural Annual Tournament on Saturday Oct 15th when about 100 people are expected to attend from around the State.

We had three teams at the Avoca Doubles this year.  Dave Williams and Dave Walker won two of five games ending with a ranking of 13 out of 24 on the Saturday.  Michel and John Sexton won one. Rory and Jeff Langdon won one also. Stiff competition!

On the Sunday the Daves played in the Doubles Melee both ending up in the middle of the rankings

SPC took three teams to the 20th Coonawarra Clash tournament. Dave Williams, Dave Walker and Jeff Langdon; Michel Morisset, Graeme Houghton and Sam Grumont; and Rory langdon, John Waters and Toby Woollard.

On the Saturday The Daves won four of six, Team two won one and Team three won three.  The Daves missed out on the Principale by one point so all three teams played in the Sociale on the Sunday.

The Daves won two of four on the Sunday, Michel et al won three and just missed out on the semifinal of the Sociale. Rory et al won two.

A good time was had by all. This event - perhaps the biggest in Australia - will move to October in 2017.

The Daves and Sam, unbeaten on the Saturday, came in third in the Principale.

The Daves and Sam were unbeaten on the Saturday after six games and were the top ranked team.  On the Sunday they lost the Semifinal and went on to win the play off for third.

Michel, John and Graeme won three of six on the first day but went so successful in the Consulante on the Sunday loosing two of three games.

Jeff played with two members of the Apollo bay club Peter and Bob. They were outplayed on the Saturday only winning one game. But in the Consulante on the Sunday won all four games to get to the final only to be beaten 13 to 10.