Petanku Tournament

Yesterday, I played in a Petanku Tournament sponsor by the town's Senior Club. Petanku (ペタンク in Japanese and petanque in French) is a game the started in France. It is played with a small wooden ball about an inch in diameter and some larger metal balls that are about the size of a baseball and weigh around 700 grams. Each player has two of the metal balls and they are color-coded by teams, red and blue. There is also a plastic circle that marks out the spot where the shooter must stand. The game begins by one player standing in the circle and throwing the wooden ball at least six meters and then throwing one of the metal balls, attempting to get as close as possible to the wooden ball. Then, a player from the other team throws a metal ball. The players then determine which ball is closer to the wooden ball. A tape measure is a crucial piece of equipment for this game. Next, a player from the team whose ball is farthest away throws a ball. This continues until that team gets one or more balls closer to the wooden ball. This continues until all the balls are thrown. The score is determined by giving one point for each ball that is closer to the wooden ball than an opponent's ball. Thus, the maximum score per round is 6 points. There are ten rounds in a game. We also had a time limit. If you are interested in a more coherent explanation of the game I have placed a link to a Japan Times newspaper article about the game at the bottom of this page.

There were 32 teams of three competing. Each team played three games and were ranked by the number of points the team scored minus the number their opponents scored. My team won both of our first two games and were in third place overall. However, one of our team members got tired (remember this was the Senior Club and everyone was over 70 years old) so she dropped out and was replaced by a complete beginner. We were badly beaten in our third and final game, ending up somewhere in the middle rather than getting a prize. We did get, however, a participation prize that is always given to each competitor at a Senor Club Tournament of any kind - a box of tissues.

Here is a picture of one of the games. If you look closely, you can see the metal ball just in front of the two men on the right. I am sorry I could not get better pictures but my usual camera died and I had to use my two day old smartphone. I have not yet read the instructions on how to use the smartphone's camera, but after some experimentation, I did manage to get this. Hopefully, future pictures will be better. I do have some taken with my regular camera that I have not posted yet, so I have some time to figure out the smartphone.

After all the games were over, the three teams from our neighborhood sat together on a blue sheet and ate box lunches that were purchased by our neighborhood branch of the Senior Club. Some of the group also brought some additional food so we had a real feast.

Finally, I walked home with Mr and Mrs Oniki. He got an award for being the oldest player in the tournament. The Oniki's are also in my ground golf club so I know them quite well even though we are not close friends. In conclusion, I should add that we were the only ones who walked home (more than a mile). All the others either drove or rode a bicycle.

Here is the link to the Japan Times that I mentioned above.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2006/08/20/to-be-sorted/seniors-go-french-with-a-little-pig/#.Wd6_aGiCyHs