2013 - a busy year so far

Any regular readers of this blog have probably disappeared through inertia on my part so for that I apologise.  With so much going on recently my own blog has suffered a bit but that should change from now on.

In October 2012 I was elected President of the Scottish Petanque Association, a real honour but it is not without its challenges either.  I have to say the SPA has a great team at its helm - some real 'do-ers' - which does make the job a pleasure.  We have the task of promoting what is very much a minority sport and this can be a thankless task.  However I am pleased to say that we are gradually making in-roads where budgets and time will allow.

Our biggest task  is to increase take up of our sport in Scotland.  Much of my activity this year has been focused on meeting people who are interested in introducing petanque to their community.  This typically involves arranging open days with petanque 'come and try' sessions or competitions.  Enquries from new groups have been strong this year (a total of 4 groups dotted around the country) and we are in regular contact with all of them.

At my own club this year has been very busy, not least because we built our own piste in Penicuik Park.  The new piste took around 6 weeks to complete and was finished on Good Friday, just in time for us to host an Easter Day fun afternoon.  Since then we have built our membership and now have a regular core of players attending on Sundays.  We have also started junior coaching sessions on Wednesday evenings during the summer - we are hopeful that a few youngsters will take up the sport regularly and join our club. We coached almost 230 high school pupils in May and we are planning to make that a regular event.

Penicuik Piste mid-construction

Back to national matters and the season is in full swing with the Grand Prix Series now decided - won by my good friends from Inverleith. The national Singles, Doubles and Shooting are at the end of July and Triples at my home club on 1st September.  In May the SPA travelled to Wales to defend the Celtic Challenge - sadly we didn't quite manage it despite clocking up an impressive haul of 32 wins.  Scotland will host in 2014 and we'll be looking for revenge!

Scotland Squad - 2013 Celtic Challenge - Wales

On 10th & 11th August Inverleith Petanque Club are hosting the Home Nations.  It looks like its going to be a cracker, seeing that it coincides with the Edinburgh Festival.  I wish Inverleith PC the very best of luck!