The first International Petanque Tournament in Russia has finished. It was undoubtedly the most important and thrilling event in the Russian Petanque life so far.
By Tatiana of russian.petanque.org:
The tournament was held on 12 – 14 of December at the Buddy Petanque Club in Luzhniki, Moscow. 16 teams (doublettes) from different countries took part in the event. The players from France, Germany, Finland, Ukraine, Morocco, Israel and Russia were fighting for the first place.
The tournament was opened by V.Balachnichev, the vice-minister of the Russian State Sport Committee, and E.Ossokine, the president of the Russian Federation of Petanque. 
4 teams passed to the semi-finals – Finland, Germany, France and Russian juniors team (to the joy and happiness of all the Russians)!
The demi-finals games were the most exciting! The German team was loosing with the score 0-8 but they managed the game until the score 8-9, and even to 11-12. During the last game with the score of 11-12 there was a chance for the Germany to win (the French team had no boules left, but the Germans still had 5 boules), but they didn’t get these 2 points to win.
Of course the attention of the spectaculars was given to the game (Finland – Russia (juniors)). In the beginning of the game the juniors were the leaders (1-0,3-2). It was a long game (1h 35 min!) and very stressful. All the players were strongly fighting and had shown the high level of the game. But in the end the team from Finland won with the score of 13-10 in the demi-finals.
The teams of France and Finland were playing in the finals for the 1-st and the 2-nd place. The German team and the Russian juniors were playing for the 3-d and the 4-th place. Alexander Bauer (37 years, 19 years of Petanque experience) and Manfred Kuhn (36 years, 17 years of Petanque experience) were playing against out team (Pavel and Michail – 14 years both).
The French Players became the first. Bravo France! Jean-Pierre Jardinet and Michel Faurant became the best.
In the second place there was a team from Finland (Matti Torronen and Tuevo Kamunen).
The third place was taken by the team from Germany (Alexander Bauer and Marfred Kuhn).
The Russian Juniors team got the 4-th place. But it was a really long and strong fight. Bravo Pavel and Michail.
The best team prize was given to the Russian juniors team. The juniors were given the medals and diplomas approving this fact.
The Russian Federation of Petanque says its appreciations to the tournament organizers – to the Russian State Committee of Culture and Sport and to the French company - “Schneider Electric”;
If you try to find your favourite club or petanque website in our links-calogue hotboule and it is not there it is because we have cleaned up a bit
Finally some petanque-product news have arrived. It is not often new things appear, boules are quite simple items, and the differences are subtle mostly. But this time it is a completely new product
It is 7h30 I have slept only 4 hours and I am one of them. My team number is 207 and we are playing against V.Chavinat game 1581. I go to the games Office, get my playing pack (3 bags, 3 t-shirts , 3 bobs/soft sun hats, 3 chifonettes) and my playing card on which we will have to enter the score at the end of the first round and return it to the same office.
We just got word of a new petanque-game, for all of those of you with a PC. It's called "petank party", and looks quite unique...
We have integrated petanque.org with yet another newcomer to the web, this time it is youtube. So please give us your ideas!
Links are being cleaned outNew petanque-product hits the webGérald at Mondial La Marseillaise a Petanque 2008-08-04Crazy petanque game soon availableYoutube joins petanque.orgLyon library - story on Boule lyonnaisePetanque.org integrates with flickrPetanque.org is 10 years old! Illegal Petanque ExposedA Petanque calendar for 2008
Removing an illegally played ball (6 )Visiting France (1 )Team Turns (3 )english speaking petanque player marseille (4 )English speaker in Marseille (1 )International compation surface (1 )wc´s (2 )Bouchon Tossing Techniques (1 )technique (12 )Cheating? (2 )2009 the world game competition arena (1 )No boules for playing games (4 )anyone made a surface? (2 )quintais (6 )new terrain? (5 )
