BJD Home - Hatton Cup - Won 5/0

Given that many mighty sporting successes were being achieved during the past two weeks, on the exulted playing fields of Rio, it is perhaps unsurprising that the quarter finals of the East Kent Coastal Petanque League's Hatton Cup (which is actually a shield) and Jennifer Scudder Trophy (which is actually a carnival float) were not widely reported. While headlines were screaming the feats of Jess, Jack, Jason and One Guy Named Mo there was scant space for the endeavours of the brave Natives and their attempt to qualify for Finals Day for the fourth successive year.

D1 Report - Magpies(H)

Last Tuesday evening the petanque team that goes by the name of The Magpies came to sunny Whitstable for a Division 1 league match, scratched around for a few minutes on the dusty piste and then left with very little to show for their efforts. After the Dover Bells had postponed a match against them the previous week (for the second time this season) the Natives A team were thirsting for a competitive match, albeit that the conditions were somewhat arid and their home piste was beginning to resemble an Oklahoma dust-bowl at the height of the Great Depression. In fact, "great depression" would be an apt name for the centre of the far piste, where the powder was now so deep that boules might easily become completely submerged, not to be recovered until dug up by an archaeologist a few hundred years from now.

EKCPL Doubles

Twenty four brave souls gathered in a clearing in the tropical rain-forest that surrounds Dumpton's Brown Jug public house last Sunday in order to campaign for honours in the annual EKCPL Doubles Competition. Approximately 90% of Thanet's oxygen is produced by this jungle, through the process of photosynthesis, and when this is added to the hot air that often emanates from the saloon bar, the combination makes for a rather rich atmosphere, in which many forms of exotic vegetation happily thrive. Thankfully, deforestation has not occurred here on the same scale as in Brazil; although the scuffed-up patch of ground at the rear that purports to be a petanque piste does distinctly resemble the sort of rough scouring that might be found in the heart of the Amazon basin. It consists largely of mud and bedrock, with a few patches of grass thrown in for good measure.