Welcome

Welcome to the Fox and Hounds Petanque Club’s little place on the internet.

This is the brand new webpage that has replaced http://thefoxandhoundspc.tripod.com/

We are a large club situated in Tilehurst, Reading, in the Thames Valley Region and affiliated to the English Petanque Association. We started off life as The Bear Petanque Club in the late 1980s before moving to our present location at the Fox and Hounds PH in 2001. Since then we have won the Weekend and Midweek leagues, the Club Team Championship and the League Cup on several occasions.

Players from our club have also won various Regional competitions, have represented the Thames Valley Region and some have gone on to represent England and Great Britain at various competitions.

To find out more about petanque then check out these links: English Petanque pdf, Wikipedia entry, Playaboule.

If you are interested in joining the club or finding out more then please get in touch by emailing us at this address: mattblackall@gmail.com

If you are interested in a petanque corporate evening then please click here.

Hope you enjoy your wonder around the site; please scroll down for latest Fox & Hounds news.

Petanque in the snow

by Matt Blackall

On the 27th December, the Fox & Hounds Petanque Club held a fun open melee for anyone who wanted to come and play. Turnout was only 11, but this was not to dampen the spirits as 3 rounds were played followed by chilli (or a veggie burger for people like me!).

The final standings were:

10th, Matt, 0 wins, -30 points
9th, Helen (aka Mum), 1 win, -14 points
8th, Shannon, 1 win, -8 points
7th, Aaron (Plumbster), 1 win, -7 points
=6th, Linda, 1 win, +6 points
=6th, Alex, 1 win, +6 points
5th, Fran, 1 win, +7 points
4th, Mark (aka Dad), 2 wins, 0 points
3rd, Paul, 2 wins, +1 point
2nd, Dean, 2 wins, +8 points
1st, Loren, 3 wins, +16 points

Obviously, I will argue I hadn’t played since September, which corresponds with my final standing… but I won’t.

What was good to see is that Loren who is hopefully joining our club not only came top, but had an opportunity to meet some of the members of our club, play on our piste, and learn about the Thames Valley Region. He is coming to us from the Southern Counties region, and follows in the footsteps of Rey who came to us from there last season (i don’t include myself who played in Southern Counties for 2 years).

I have uploaded some photos and videos of the day. Most of the videos are short clips of one or two shots, however there is a video of a whole end – an end that included dad actually playing three good boule! It’s as though we have caught an alien on tape.

Latest league tables and results

We are two games into the Weekend League season, with mixed results for both the Foxes and the Hounds teams.

The Foxes starting off in fantastic fashion by beating MTTA Swans 5-2, whereas the Hounds unfortunately lost 3-4 to the Jolly Farmer.

The second round of matches saw the Foxes play the Hounds, with the Hounds sneaking past the Foxes with a 4-3 victory.

The latest table is:

Teams	Matches		Games			Points			Match
	Played	Won	Won	Lost	Diff.	For	Against	Diff.	Points
Burnham Eagles	2	2	10	4	6	162	95	67	4
Boyne Hill Saints	2	2	10	4	6	166	108	58	4
Bruins	2	2	10	4	6	161	113	48	4
The Foxes	2	1	8	6	2	160	134	26	2
Boyne Hill Sinners	2	1	8	6	2	137	124	13	2
The Hounds	2	1	7	7	0	140	155	-15	2
Jolly Farmer	2	1	6	8	-2	131	146	-15	2
Burnham Budgies	2	0	4	10	-6	108	165	-57	0
MTTA Horses	2	0	4	10	-6	104	165	-61	0
MTTA Swans	2	0	3	10	-7	105	169	-64	0

Gritting the piste

Recently, members from the club popped up to the piste for maintenance – adding extra grit to the terrain to make up for the wear and tear over the winter. Although it looks green, trust me when i say it has now settled into a consistent grey!

Club Nights

To all those interested, we will be holding club nights on the following dates: 25 March. 22 April. 20 May. 24 June. 22 July. 26 August.
The evenings will start at approx 7.30pm and are open to everyone, even if you have never played the game before.
Members: please check out the members area of the site for more information.
For more information, please contact Mark on 07989211443

Latest Newsletter

The first, and latest, Fox and Hounds Newsletter for February 2010 has been added to the ‘Members’ section of the site and is avaliable to download. Members should have had the password sent to them by email. If you have lost or forgotten this password, or if you are a non-member and wish to access the page, then please contact me on mattblackall@gmail.com.

Steve Player Memorial Competition 2010

Click here for downloadable flyer.