15th Norwich Air Scouts Complete Their Pétanque Experience

6 days ago

3 min read

The 15th Norwich Air Scouts finally returned to the terrain on Tuesday 13th October to complete their pétanque sessions with Norwich Pétanque Club.

The Scouts had been waiting a little longer than planned for their final visit after the original session had to be cancelled due to extreme weather conditions, with diary clashes then delaying the rearranged date.

With some time having passed since their first session, the evening began with a refresher on the basics of pétanque — but this time there was some extra help from two familiar faces from the Norwich Pétanque Club Junior Programme.

Group of people at a night-time pétanque court, one man pointing, with picnic tables and a red Norfolk Petanque Club sign.

Effie Steps Up as Assistant Coach

Club Coach Mark Bell was joined by junior player Effie, who took on the role of assistant coach for the evening.

Effie demonstrated to her peers what a good pétanque throw should look like before helping the Scouts during their pointing and shooting practices. She was able to use what she has learned through the club's junior sessions to offer advice and help them improve their technique.

It was a fantastic opportunity for Effie to experience coaching others and showed just how much our juniors can develop by not only learning the sport themselves, but also passing that knowledge on.

After around 30 minutes of practice and a short break, attention turned to putting those new skills into action.

Kids and adults stand on a gravel lot at night, one boy throwing a boule, near picnic tables and a lit building; tire in foreground.

From Coaching to Competition

The Scouts were divided into four triples teams for a series of games, with Effie joining one of the teams. This gave her another opportunity to help her teammates by sharing some of the experience she has gained from playing pétanque.

Cody explaining the game of petanque to a group of scouts.

Fellow Norwich junior Cody also stepped into a new role during the evening.

Rather than playing, Cody helped explain to his peers how a game of pétanque works, including how points are scored and what teams need to do to win an end and ultimately the game.

He then worked alongside qualified umpire Graham Beales, gaining some valuable experience of umpiring a triples match and putting the rules into practice while helping to ensure the game was played correctly.

Scouts play pétanque at night on a gravel piste, with metal balls near a bench in a dark park.

Having two of our juniors confidently helping to coach, explain and officiate the sport was a great example of how far they have progressed through the club's junior programme.

Plenty of Potential on Show

Everyone seemed to enjoy the evening, and there was certainly some natural pétanque talent on display among the Scouts.

We hope the sessions have given them an enjoyable introduction to the sport and that we may see some familiar faces returning to the terrain at one of our ongoing monthly junior sessions.

A huge thank you to Effie and Cody for doing such a fantastic job helping to coach and support their peers throughout the evening.

Thanks also go to Graham Beales, Pat Howe, David Taylor and George McDougall, who gave up their time to help run the practices and games.

Club Coach Mark Bell said:

"A big thank you to everyone who came along to help. Sessions like these simply wouldn't be possible without the support of our club members, and it was particularly great to see Effie and Cody using what they've learned to help other young people discover pétanque."

The evening brought the Scouts' introduction to pétanque to a fitting conclusion — and hopefully it won't be the last time we see some of them with a boule in their hands!