FAQ – Suffolk Coastal Petanque Alliance

No, those wishing to continue ‘as is’ will see no changes. All SCPA leagues and competitions will continue to run.

All existing SCPA leagues and competitions, including Eels Foot Pairs, Memorial Tournament and Moules & Boules will continue as normal, although the SCPA Committee were looking at plans to schedule these competitions on Saturdays to alleviate fixture congestion irrespective of the SCR proposal. Suffolk Coastal Region will run separate competitions, details to be confirmed.

Any player holding a licence would be eligible to play in Suffolk Coastal Regional qualifiers, and to play in the Inter-Regional national tournament if they qualify. It would also allow them to play in Suffolk Coastal Region Singles, Doubles and Triples competitions (distinct from SCPA), the winners and runners-up of which will be invited to the Petanque England Champions of Champions weekend. In addition, like any PE licence it will provide insurance and the opportunity to enter many other national level tournaments

A licence costs £25 per annum, regions then add a fee that is returned directly to the region – SCR plan to agree this at the first committee meeting but initial thoughts were £10 for year 1 to raise some funds, and subsequently £5 per annum – however on further discussion the thoughts are to keep this in line with local regions at £5

All players are welcome to put themselves forward for a position on the committee by 27th Oct – the mandatory positions are listed on the website along with the positions we aim to fill in addition. Some of the existing SCPA board will put themselves forward but are more than happy to take up alternate or vacant positions if required

This simply defines a region within which any registered clubs can sit, however in exceptional circumstances clubs outside of defined boundaries can be invited to join the league, this has no impact on who can be a member of the region.

A region requires a minimum of 3 registered clubs and the elected committee will work with several potential venues to ensure PE requirements are met - a registered club requires it’s own officers which at a minimum should include a Secretary, Chairperson and Treasurer, all of whom must be PE licence holders

Some regions send 4 teams of 3 or 4 players to the Inter Regional competition – we would hope to have a minimum of 8 teams to enable us to submit a championship team, with the opportunity to supplement this with an additional 4 teams to the secondary challenge competition if we can

Qualifying competitions will be held (likely to be 2 events over the April – July period) and the top 8 or 12 teams will qualify for the Inter Regional competition – position will be based on performance and methodology will likely be Round Robin but will be agreed by committee

This is a 2 day event, which is currently held at Pakefield near Lowestoft. Currently 17 regions from across England and Wales send squads of 4,8 or 12 teams depending on whether they want to play in the Championship (2 divisions of 7 or 8 regions each with 8 teams) , Challenge (an additional competition of 2 divisions and typically 12-14 regions where the teams who qualified 9-12 in their region play in a squad of 4 teams) or both. Most regions play both, but some only play Championship and others only play the Challenge. As a new region we would enter league 2 in both competitions

Travel costs to locations within Suffolk Coastal Region for qualifiers and any of the singles/doubles/triples competitions would be incurred. If players qualify for the Inter Regionals then accommodation is required at Pakefield which, based on the last 2 years is between £175 and £225 per person (single occupancy being the higher cost) and includes 3 nights accommodation, breakfast and dinner. Shirts will be provided but trousers and regional hoodies etc will be personal costs

A club is a venue registered with Petanque England and holds a Petanque England Club licence for the region – we are working with Meadlands to come to an agreement to be one of our clubs, along with another couple of venues. We are also working to establish additional new venues.

In short yes, we have no control over which region a player selects as their ‘home’ region, and would certainly not want to prevent players from joining us

We currently have 3 sites with 6 or more pistes, Meadlands, Eye & Eels Foot. Meadlands have committed to host SCR events and we are looking at 2 new sites that if successful will also have in excess of 6 pistes. Currently only Meadlands is a recognised PE club but formation of a new club is a simple and quick process.

The latter, it is entirely up to you how a team is formed, qualification will be via a round robin format, so all teams entering will play each other once, in all likelihood over 2 separate days. Seedings will be based purely on performance.

The potential new sites are not pub based and this would make securing development funding easier. We have also started to investigate the Sport England local grants available – like any region this will take time to develop but we believe we have a solid base upon which to build.

Until we receive formal confirmation from PE that we can become a region we have not been in touch with other regions, however our aim would be to utilise the relationships we have already with other regions and have annual matches arranged.

To help with this, we moved the SCPA doubles league to a triples format 2 years ago and this league will continue in 2024. Additionally, for any teams who would like some coaching in playing triples, we would be more than happy to arrange this.