BLUEBOY LAUDS LAWN BOWLS TEAM FOR BAGGING BRONZE IN SEA GAMES

ANGELES CITY – Mayor Francis “Blueboy” Nepomuceno awarded Medals of Excellence to the members of Angeles City lawn bowl team who bagged the bronze medal in the recently-concluded 25^th South East Asian Games in Vientiane, Laos.

Napomuceno gave an incentive amounting P20,000 cash to the team during the Monday flag raising ceremony.

The team members, who came from different villages in the city, competed in the Pentaque during the SEA games held on December 8-19, 2009.

“We congratulate and thank the team in bringing honor and prestige to the city”, Nepomuceno said.

The city mayor vowed to support the players in their efforts that will eventually lead them to the gold medals in the future.

City Sports Office Chief Paul Puri said the team members are: Michael Corporal, Marcelito Pancho, Aries Samia, Gilbert Dela Cruz, Mildred Vicente, Mildred Habluetzel, Gemma Casim, Violeta Dela Cruz, Mary Grace Monar and Head Secretary Joey Narciso.

Pentaque is a form of bowls where the goal is, while standing with the feet together in a small circle, to throw hollow metal balls as close as possible to a small wooden ball called a cochonnet (jack).

The game is normally played on hard dirt or gravel, but can also be played on grass or other surfaces. Soft sandy beaches are not suitable. Similar games are bocce and bowls.

The current form of the game originated in 1907 in La Ciotat in Provence in southern France. The English and French name pétanque comes from la petanca in the Provençal dialect of the Occitan language, deriving from the expression pès tancats, meaning “feet together” or more exactly “feet anchored”.

The casual form of the game of Pétanque is played by about 17 million people in France, mostly during their summer vacations. There are about 375,000 players licensed with the Fédération Française de Pétanque et Jeu Provençal (FFPJP) and some 3,000 in England.

Another 20,000 or so play in Québéc. Additionally, Pétanque clubs have arisen in cities throughout North America (Chicago, Milwaukee, Portland, OR, Minneapolis, etc.) as Pétanque is seen as hip by many newcomers, old and young alike. MAC/CIO