Utter Boules – Portugal Resident
Chancing upon the event in the city’s rightly-celebrated Dom Carlos park, you may have been transported instantly away from Portugal and to France, where on holiday, once upon a time, you tried your arm at Pétanque, AKA ‘Boules’. I know I did as a teenager one very hot summer in Brittany, when my legs were badly sunburned in the evening sun, as we all copied the local old men, who coolly clashed their metal balls whilst talking, occasionally shouting, and definitely sipping some local booze.
Back to Pétanque in Portugal, what some call a game of inches, angles and, quite often, a great deal of Gallic-style gesticulation, and we are a long way from the dusty village squares in France and the smell of pastis, strangely in the company of a bus-load of Brits.
For this was the 1st Annual Caldas Open Pétanque Tournament, whose catalyst was Jeremy Colledge, mentioned here before for his love of Qi Gong, and today recalled for another personal passion – the pointing and shooting of heavy metal.
Before making the leap to Portugal, Jeremy was the driving force behind a club at the Lansdown Cricket Club in Bath. Upon arriving in Caldas, he did what any self-respecting enthusiast would do: he looked at the red dirt in the park and saw Pétanquesque potential written all over it.
“I’ve been playing boules since holidaying on the beaches in France as a child,” Jeremy told me, resonating with my origin story, reminiscing about his early days of plastic, water-filled boules, which most of us are more familiar with than the lethal toe-crushers.
“My love of the game was rekindled at a French restaurant in Battersea – Le Bouchon – where Sunday lunches inevitably bled into evening matches. I even started a league in the City of London back when I was a broker,” he continued.
His pedigree preceding him, Jeremy has played in the UK Nationals five times, and his arrival on the Silver Coast has been a boon for those of us who enjoy a sport where you can reasonably compete while holding a beer or bifana (pork sandwich). And the Caldas Open wasn’t just a local affair, as many now regularly enjoy thanks to a ‘Colledge education’ in the sport – it was an international summit.
It turns out that Jeremy’s former compatriots at the Bath club insisted that a ‘tour’ was non-negotiable, so they fielded 10 doubles teams from the UK, and flew in to test their metal mettle against the local talent, with whom Jeremy now associates.
The setting couldn’t have been more iconic, and thanks to the support of the Junta led by Pedro Brás, the central area of the ‘Parque Dom Carlos I’ was handed over to the players for the weekend. If you haven’t visited the park, it is the verdant heart of Caldas, and seeing it filled with 22 teams from the UK, USA, Canada, South Africa, Sweden, and beyond was a testament to the town’s growing international appeal.
Feeding this hungry legion was local legend Ana and her team from the Smash Café, who provided the essential fuel of soup and bifanas. In Pétanque, as in life, one cannot ‘point’ effectively on an empty stomach, Jeremy gladly told me.
While Jeremy provided the spark, the engine room of the tournament was one Henri Saintilan, a retired Frenchman who Jeremy affectionately describes as the ‘Major Domo’ of Pétanque in Central Portugal. Henri is a man on a mission to ensure the sport doesn’t just survive but thrives.
He oversees contests for clubs spanning from Torres Vedras to Atouguia, and Foz to Barrocalvo, stretching as far north as Leiria. By Henri’s estimation, he will preside over some 35 contests this year alone. It was Henri who rallied an additional six teams from the wider region to join the Caldas and Bath contingents, creating the 20+ team spectacle.
I’m told the competition was fierce but friendly. Jeremy himself managed a respectable third place with his Swedish playing partner, Mikael, proving the truly international nature of the weekend. The overall winners included a gent from Belgium who partnered with a man of French-Portuguese heritage.
Despite the success of the Open, Jeremy pointed out, however, that the sport in Portugal is currently a tale of two worlds.
“There’s a great interest in Lisbon and huge numbers in the Algarve,” Jeremy noted. “The Head of the Portuguese Pétanque Federation is based in Cascais, which reputedly has an enormous centre with hundreds of pistes and several bars. But here in the Central region, while we are well-populated with players, we lack visibility.”
Jeremy is candid about the hurdles of formalising the sport here. “At the moment, Pétanque feels very bureaucratic to an outsider. Starting an official club is a difficult process with a tiny window of opportunity and many hoops to jump through. There seems to be a disconnect between the thriving local scene and the national level that I haven’t been able to crack yet. It likely needs funding and a serious update to the federation’s digital presence.”
However, bureaucracy hasn’t slowed the momentum in the park. The UK players are already demanding dates for next year’s tournament, and the local core group in Caldas has grown to about 50 players, with 15 regulars meeting every Tuesday at 2pm by the Smash Café, should you care to join them.
Why this game has captured the imagination of so many expats and locals alike is perhaps because it mirrors the Portuguese pace of life. It is tactical but not frantic. It requires precision but allows for conversation. It is, as Jeremy notes, “inevitable” that it has become popular here, given the many Portuguese who worked in France and brought the game home in their suitcases.
As the sun began to set over the park on Sunday, following a more casual (but no less spirited) ‘Triples’ contest, the atmosphere was one of total contentment according to Jeremy. We had seen the best of Caldas with the hospitality of the Junta, the community spirit of the Smash Café, and the international camaraderie that defines the Silver Coast.
And if you’ve ever walked past the park on a Tuesday afternoon and wondered what all the shouting was about, now you know. Jeremy is looking to increase the frequency of play to twice a week as numbers continue to build in anticipation of a small competition in June, open to absolutely anyone.
“Our numbers are building, and the interest is there,” says the boule-ish Jeremy. “Whether you’re a seasoned ‘shooter’ or someone who hasn’t held a metal ball since a holiday in 1984, there is a place for you in the circle. But don’t be surprised if you one day find yourself obsessing over the millimetre-gap between your boule and the cochonnet because it happens to the best of us.
Drop Jeremy an email at [email protected] if you want to get involved with Pétanque park life.
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