| Status: | Active, open to new members |
| Leader: | |
| When: | Weekly on Thursday afternoons 2:00 pm Usually meet at 2:30 when the weather is good enough to play. |
| Venue: | Portgordon Harbour |
| Cost: | We pay £1.00 per person per session to the Portgordon Community Association. |
In this photograph some Moray Coast u3a members are playing on the Portgordon Piste next to the harbour and in front of the Community Garden. We are playing in the bright, April, sunshine but a cool wind is still blowing off the sea.
Pétanque is a great social game
Pétanque is a great social game that can be played almost anywhere; on the beach, in your garden or on almost any spare bit of ground. It’s also a great social game with simple and easy to follow rules.
Pétanque is fun! The equipment required is not expensive and although some skill is required most people can become good social players with just a little practise.
The Group Leader for the Pétanque Interest Group is Roddy.
We are grateful to the Portknockie Tennis and Bowling Club for allowing us to use their pistes and facilities for many years. Currently we are using new pistes created at Port Gordon Harbour by the local Community Trust.
The current fee, per person per session, is only £1.00.
The "Rules of Pétanque" are quite simple and can easily be found by searching using your preferred search engine.
The new 2026 season started on Thursday 16th April. We expect to play until late October or early November.
Equipment is inexpensive and can easily be obtained using the usual online retailers.
Pétanque sessions start at 2.00p.m. on Thursday afternoons during better weather. Members of the group will receive reminders via email. The Pétanque Group members communicate via a dedicated WhatsApp group. If the weather is miserable sessions may be cancelled at short notice. Pétanque is good fun. If you are interested in joining our group please contact the Group Leader, Roddy, using the Contact Link.
Click on the link above in order to contact the Group Leader of the Petanque Group.
On Thursday, 11th September, 2025, our group were playing on the Portgordon pistes, as usual when we were watched by a French gentleman who had parked a large motorhome nearby. Using some of our u3a French we engaged him in some conversation. He was called Dominique and he played petanque. We invited him to join us, along with his wife, Monique. Dominique was very good and we had great fun. Who would have thought Portgordon could be so cosmopolitan!
Our French friends. Monique, 4th from right and Dominique, 2nd from right.
It's late October and this could be the last game of the season. A group of hardy players brave the elements for some keenly fought games.
Top left: The judge decides which boule is closest to the cochonnet. Sometimes a special measuring device is used when agreement is not possible. The building in the background used to be the Portgordon Fishmarket. Top right: Sometimes it is difficult to decide how many points a winning team has. Note the "Shetland Crubs" in the background. The local community grow vegetables in these. Ordinary poly-tunnels would never survive in this exposed spot. Bottom left: Players seeing if enough points have been gained to win the match.