Most Dangerous Petanque Club in the United States

a recent report came out that Detroit is rated THE MOST DANGEROUS CITY in the nation. Second is St. Louis; and Thrd is another Michigan city: Flint. That being said, the Detroit Petanque Club is therefore the de-facto most dangerous petanque club in the country.

Not many people know this, but all of our club members wear body armor, pack heat, and we have to play inside an electrified cage.

Despite these safeguards, we lose about 2 players each week due to snipers; pitbull dog attacks; and nearby drug-deals gone bad.

In fact, if our club weren't part of FPUSA, the federation insurance would have been about $2 for the entire collection of petanque clubs. Sorry guys...

CHICAGO "BoulerBear" Winter Tournament

The Wild "BOULER-BEAR" Winter Singles TOURNAMENT is coming to Chicago in January 2008. Are you ready to take on the challenge? Be a SURVIVOR at the craziest winter petanque event of the Midwest. For more details, visit www.chicagopetanque.com.

Are you man enough? Are you woman enough? Are you wacky enough? Be a part of this coming winter's COLDEST, WILDEST Tournament. The "BOULER-BEAR SINGLES".

Chicago Petanque Club
www.chicagopetanque.com

Ken Chance wins "Best of 6 Games" Trophy

Ken Chance, President of the Rocket City Petanque Club in Huntsville, Alabama, came by to visit Jeff in Wyandotte, Michigan. We played a series of petanque games (6) - of which Ken was the victor! (see trophy).

Windy but still Boule-ing

The 12-1pm lunchtime petanque gathering is still going strong despite the threat of cold chilling winds. We'll try to play as far along into November as we can - but when the snow falls - we'll need to switch to other things... for me, perhaps lunchtime reading.

Mail from Ulf Malmberg

FROM ULF MALMBERG:

Jeff,

Thank you for the information you sent to me about petanque in the Detroit area. I had a great Sunday afternoon playing petanque with some of the players in the Michigan Petanque Club up in Royal Oak park. The were very hospital and friendly and let me both borrow boules and winsome games. One of the players I met was Joe Zajac the president of theclub. Unfortunately the battery in my camera was dead so I could not take anyphotos. Instead I’ve sent you some from the Boule-center we have in Gothenburg.

If you or any other player from Detroit come to Gothenburg please let me know and I will introduce you or them the petanque player here.

Best Regards,

Ulf Malmberg
UMALMBE1@volvocars.com

MPC Last Day? :-(

The last of the die-hard MPC players braved the cold this last day of play in our Royal Oak piste... The leaves hid the wild landing shots, but the games went on!

We just couldn't let go of the seemingly last day of play before the traces of snow start to touch down this week (as is predicted). Daylight-savings time even cut yet another hour, and we decided to call it a season about 5:30 tonight... next winter, a glow-in-the-dark cochonette, a heater? We can only wait and hope!

Christmas Tree at Campus Martius Park - Detroit

The Christmas tree was lowered into position atop the fountain at Campus Martius Park today. Then a team of climbers secured it with cables and then went into the tree to "open up" the branches (it was wrapped tightly and transported from New York). Here is Joe Z. having a bit of fun decorating the tree with a boule (at the top - naturally!) I'm not sure when the first snow will arrive but we'll probably get in a few more weeks of petanque. It was a surprisingly mild day on Saturday - not bad for a November.