For several years there has been a growing understanding within the Suffolk Coastal Petanque Alliance that the next logical step is to become an official Petanque England Region.
For those who are not familiar, Petanque England are the governing body for Petanque in England. The country is divided into Regions and when you apply for a licence you do so for a specific Region. You can also specify to be a member of an official Club or as an independent member. More info on the benefits of holding a licence can be found here.
The first thing we wish to make clear is that should we be granted Regional status, there would be no requirement for any existing SCPA members to obtain a licence, neither would any teams have to become official Petanque England clubs. All existing leagues and competitions, Summer League, Winter League, Pairs, Moules & Boules etc, will continue to be run as usual and will not require a licence to enter.
There would be some new competitions such as Regional Qualifiers, Regional Triples/Pairs/Singles/Tir de Precision, which will require you to have a licence to participate in, as well as some larger tournaments run around the country that you would be eligible to enter in.
For many, the highlight of the year is the Inter-Regional Competition, held in early September. Here is a comment from our own John Willis who took part in 2021:-
If anyone is wondering about the proposal to the change in our regional status, I can only put my own point of view.
It will mostly affect the way Suffolk is represented in the regional finals and my experience of the tournament was very positive. I only played in the finals for the first time this summer at Melton Mowbray. It was a fantastic gathering of all the regions of the country so giving the opportunity to play a wide range of players, and all played in great spirit.
I would recommend more people to go forward to play in the regional qualifiers and hopefully represent Suffolk in the finals weekend next year.....it was great fun.
For more information, please click here to read our Presidents full report on our bid so far.