Life’s a boule as clubs team up for comp

THE pistes at the Ballarat East Bowling Club saw some collaborative action over the weekend with members of the Ballarat Petanque Club hosting their annual doubles competition.

The event saw 24 clubs represented with 48 players taking part in back-to-back matches on Sunday, and club president Don Collins said it was a well-attended tournament.

“It’s been a lovely day for our tournament and we’ve got teams from over the region and some from Melbourne,” he said.

“It’s a pretty hot competition because we’re looking at very even teams where anyone can win the day. Doubles is an interesting game in that you get three boules instead of the normal two.

“This allows you to do things like hit what we call a goldilocks ball where you miss with the first, almost hit the second, and then place with the third.”

The tournament saw regional representation from players from Smythesdale, Mount Macedon, Bendigo, Woodend, Grampians, and Maldon petanque clubs as well as metropolitan teams.

With Ballarat Petanque Club’s doubles event a regular part of their tournament calendar as well as their singles and triples competition, Mr Collins said participation is steadily growing.

“It’s a very popular tournament for us and people are very keen to come to Ballarat and stay in the region for this,” he said.

“We can take a maximum if 32 teams and normally we’d be completely full but this year we’ve agreed to allow another tournament to occur in Melbourne.

“Generally, we’re seeing a 10 per cent increase each year though. People love it because it’s a friendly tournament.”