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Greetings!
As I write this I've seen hail, snow and sunshine through my window in the space of a few minutes, but I've read that we're promised a really hot summer - here's hoping!
As we approach the start of the pétanque season, I've been thinking about the amazing progress we have made as a club, year on year.
The coming year will see us hopefully building our new home piste and starting to use Larkhall's club house; expanding our Twinning activities with a trip to Hungary, and entering more teams in competitive matches in local and regional leagues.
I'm also looking forward to Bastille weekend in July when we welcome our friends from Guernsey, and treat them to the 'Bath experience'.
It was great to see so many of you at the Skittles fundraising evening, and look forward to more social events along these lines.
Best wishes,
Lesley
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The Editor Returns
 | | Sunset in Argentina and on my trip |
 | | Who said I had a head for heights |
After a hard time travelling with the Barmy Army in Australia and more recently in South America the editor is on his final leg before returning to enjoy some colder and wetter weather. Unfortunately Pétanque does not seem to have taken hold down here in South America although it is growing in Australia. The weather has been good and had I had my boules I am sure a few Wednesday mornings would have available although letting a boule slide 1000 metres down a mountain may not have been such a good idea. As we start to enter the Pétanque season any and all articles will be considered for publishing. We need contributors as well as a new editor to add some spice to the newsletter as well as new ideas. Please give me a call if you would be interested.
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EPA Annual General Meeting
You will have been informed in a previous mailing that the AGM was to be held on March 8th 2014 at Reading. Due to some unforeseen circumstances this has now been changed to the 29th March at the Holiday Inn at Oxford. Attendance is not mandatory but should you wish to attend and vote you will need your EPA Licence with your photograph attached. Cary Bush is once again standing as Treasurer and he needs your support.
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Visit of Guernsey Pétanque Club
For those of you who have visited Guernsey either to play at their club or to play in the Open will be pleased to know that they have arranged a trip to Bath on July 11th to 14th 2014. Many of the players coming are already well known to a number of us and are good company. Plans are already underway to organise matches, city sighting tours, dinners together etc. If anyone outside the committee would be willing to help could they please let themselves be known. It promises to be a splendid weekend.
There will of course be the return visit to Guernsey later in the year for those wishing to enter the Open which is of a standard that we can compete and not feel we are out of our depth.
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Skittles - Fundraising
Again by our roving reporter
 | | I want to donate ALL my change to the raffle |
On January 31 around 30 members of the City of Bath Club braved the rain and gathered at the Larkhall Sports
 | | Participants in the skittle match. |
Club to compete in a skittles match while at the same time raising funds for the new piste's. Approx £180 was raised in the evening and a big thank you goes to Clive and his team for putting on the event. Our roving reporter maintains that he was in the Loo at the time the winners were announced but assures me that it was Chris McGinns Team.
A good night was had by all.
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Thursday Night League
The Thursday League will commence in May, running to the end of July, followed by the Doubles.
Team Captains have been asked to confirm that they wish to enter their team(s) for this season. So far the response has been encouraging, with 13 teams confirming entry.
Congratulations must go to the Northey Arms, who have increased their entry this year to 5 teams from 4 last year. They are setting an example to us all.
Please encourage friends, family etc to join in - the more players we have, the more likely, we will be, to form new teams.
Details of the League will be sent out towards the end of March/Beginning of April.
Chris McGinn(League Secretary)
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Aix en Provence Christmas Market
By our roving reporter Terry Basson
 | | Diana, Diane and Lesley at the Aix Christmas Market |
Four enthusiastic members of the City of Bath Petanque Club attended Le Marche International des Villes Jumelles d' Aix- en- Provence.
This Aix International twinning market hosted ten of its twinned cities where the theme was "Artisanat et gastronomie du monde", so products from Bath or nearby were sold over the five day period.
Lesley had sourced many traditional Christmas foods locally, Diana sold her extensive range of home designed jewellery and Diane took some home-made novelties and along with me generally helped with selling, labelling and stocking the stand.
The market opened at 2pm and closed at eight pm, on the first day, followed by 4 further days from 10.00 am to 8.00pm. It was both tiring and enjoyable in equal quantities.
Tired but happy after a busy day, we dined around the city with our colleagues .
We also met up with friends we had made during the City of Bath Petanque Club's visit earlier in the year. They came to say Hi and to buy goods from Bath. One couple asked us to have drinks at their home after the market closed . Four bottles of a wonderful Champagne were popped and sipped together with a spread of interesting things to eat, whilst we sat around this table of friendship. We were even driven back to our hotels leaving us with very warm feelings of how well we members of the CoBPC had been received back in Aix.
 We shook hands with the mayor of Aix- en- Provence, Maryse Joissains Masini along with warm greetings from the President Cosimo Giumta ( fondly called Joe to our ears, though probably spelt differently ) and Vice- President Claude Laurens who often came around the market wearing a smile and his Bath Rugby knitted hat. He insisted in telling us that it was the only hat he owned but he wore it so proudly. Each day these two men were roving reporters passing from stand to stand describing what was on offer and having jovial conversations with us all. Their enthusiasm was only surpassed by our discovery that almost all of these people were volunteers, including Isabel De Castro , the President of the Aix- Bath Twinning Committee. She worked with enthusiasm , selling goods and promoting our City along with very helpful translations when we struggled to find the right word to say.I was most impressed with Isabel for her genuine interest in her work as a dedicated volunteer and Bath official twinning link.
All in all Diane and I had a wonderful time joining Lesley and Diana who had experienced this event before but who made us feel part of the team. Our final activity when all was packed away was a huge group hug.
Further details of this trip will be posted on the club website when the editor returns.
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