I must be honest and say that when I first told about bowling Jakarta my first reaction was "what?" and "what?" It may lack the appeal and profile football or rugby, for example, but that does not mean that the game lacks lovers. Indeed, since I discovered petanque few years, it seems more and more.
For the uninitiated, bowling balls is a form that originated in the south of France there are more than a century. The word itself will delight cunning linguists; it comes from the Occitan language to find in France and Spain along the Mediterranean coast.
Bowling essentially means "feet firmly" and refers to one of the rules.
Playing the game does not need the manicured lawns of better known bowls. A hard surface will suffice. You do not need a lot of expensive equipment to play the game or to impress your friends. Just a few balls and a jack.
The games can be played individually, one against one, or in teams such as two against two or three against three, and begins when a player throws the jack. The players throw their balls as close as possible to the outlet and the winner is the team or individual with the most closest to the jack ball.
seems simple enough, but I must admit that during my visits to watch them play, I could not make heads nor tails of what was going on, although some of the poses made by the players as they threw their balls were quite impressive.
Clearly, there is a little more to the game than that. Like many games there are skills and complexity to master before a player can make progress.
With interest piqued, the scene of petanque in Jakarta? Well, a group of aficionados of nations such as France, Australia and Indonesia met every Sunday morning since 2002, come rain or shine, around 9am Ragunan, South Jakarta to develop their skills and maybe even take part in a quiet beer or two in the shade.
While they were the first group, the other clubs have since been formed and now fans gather in Lebak Bulus their balls, BSD City and Jakarta State University in Rawamangun. There is also a small group of passionate players in Palembang, South Sumatra who often move to the capital for large events.
And the number of events is also on the rise. May, for example, sees the first ever open Jakarta Bowling featuring local teams and, hopefully, the foreign teams. The JPO will be held at Taman Giri Loka in BSD City May 22 to 24 and promises to be a good introduction to the sport.
A more established annual event is the Javanese, an event open to teams of three, triple to use the jargon, which took place the first time in 2012. Cédric Vernet, an avid bowler, m 'said the 2014 has proven to be very popular with players traveling from afar.
"The competition went well we had 20 teams (60 players). Players Jakarta Petanque Club (JPC), UNJ (Negara University Jakarta), BSD Petanque Club, Federasi olahraga Bowling Indonesia (BPV) , Yogyakarta also the main sponsor of the Crown, but it was the team from Palembang who won, "Cedric said.
So if you're too old for rugby or football and golf involves too much work, but you are still in need of a sporting, social fix while the weekend why not give pétanque a go?
They always welcome new players to check their www.jakartapétanque.com website and drop them a line. Cedric would be too happy to hear from you!