It has taken 300 tonnes of dirt and 1500 metres of line marking and by tomorrow Australia and some of the world’s best pétanque players will be enjoying the fruits of Beresfield club’s labour this week.
The Pétanque Australia Easter Open International will be held in the Hunter Valley for the first time on the weekend, with the Beresfield-based Valley Vipers Pétanque Club coming through with the successful submission late last year.
Newcastle did host the event formerly known as the Australian Open in 1999 but not with the international flavour it now boasts.
Players and officials from Western Australia, Tasmania, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria will be joined by teams from Singapore and New Zealanders for the tournament.
Players from the Vipers, Newcastle and Lake Macquarie will also take part, with the tournament starting on Friday and finishing on Sunday afternoon.
Vipers president Jim Ayr said the club had been working hard all week to prepare its facilities for the big event, including the transformation of a tennis court to a dirt-filled area suitable for pétanque play.
Three hundred tonnes of Martins Creek gravel has been rolled and compacted by dedicated Vipers volunteers over several working bees, while fencing and hand rails have also needed to be assembled.
Ayr said in the Vipers’ initial submission to host the event it had been its public positioning and proximity to a club – Beresfield Bowling Club – for catering purposes that had helped clinch its winning submission.
Vipers’ volunteer and NSW umpire James Henderson was busy yesterday setting down the 1500m of line marking around the club’s half a dozen courts for Friday’s first round of matches.
With Henderson a State pétanque referee it has ensured the playing conditions will be to an international standard.
“The rules are very simple it’s just that the players get upset when you ask them to obey them,” Henderson said of officiating the weekend’s big event.
“Even when you ask them to mark out the size of the circle, which is supposed to be about 300 to 500cm in diameter they go and do it 600cm.
“A difference like that can alter the angle (you deliver the boules from) dramatically.”
Pétanque is a best described as a cross between bocce and lawns bowls.
The game is played by two teams of one, two or three players.
In singles or doubles, each player uses three boules and in triples, each player uses two boules. Players use steel boules and the ‘jack’ is made of wood.
As in lawn bowls, teams try and get the boules closest to the jack and the first team to reach 13 points is declared the winner.
The national event is expected to have wide-reaching benefits to Beresfield, Maitland and surrounding areas in terms of accommodation, food and other services throughout the three days.
The tournament begins with a ‘Shooters’ competition on Friday morning, followed by the event’s opening ceremony at 11am.
Competition play starts from noon on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and should conclude around 4pm each day.