Doping Agency Lifts Alcohol Ban for Pétanque

by Tom van B | October 9, 2007 at 12:03 pm | 460 views | add comment

As an avid and competitive Petanque player who also enjoys our great New Zealand wines, this is good news for me. Petanque is the only sport I know of that allows you to play with one hand, and hold a glass of the best wine in the other.

Image: Pétanque fans around the world, like these German players, can now enjoy a glass of pastis even during competition.
DPA

MAKING SPORT CIVILIZED AGAIN

Doping Agency Lifts Alcohol Ban for Pétanque

Devotees of the French sport of pétanque will now be able to enjoy a glass of pastis before a match again: The World Anti-Doping Agency is to remove alcohol from its list of prohibited substances for competitions.

Pétanque fans around the world, like these German players, can now enjoy a glass of pastis even during competition.

Only the French, those masters of civilized living, could have invented the sport of pétanque. The game, a form of boules, involves throwing metal balls as close as possible to a small wooden jack, and can easily be played while smoking a Gauloise and drinking a glass of pastis.

Now competition pétanque players, who were previously banned from drinking during matches, can enjoy a glass too. The World Anti-Doping Agency, which coordinates the fight against doping in sport, has cut alcohol from its list of illegal substances for boules competitions.

The agency was responding to a petition by the World Boules Federation (CMSB), the French newspaper Libération reported Tuesday. "Let's be sensible," CMSB president Romolo Rizzoli told the newspaper. "You can drive a car after drinking two glasses of wine, but you can't play boules?" Rizzoli then wrote....