For the first time in 17 years, over the 29/30 May 2023, Ireland beat Scotland and Wales to win the CC. The final result was, Ireland A 34 wins, Scotland 27 wins, Wales 20 wins and Ireland B 15 wins. Our Club can hold its head high on 2 counts. Firstly, with the assistance of Pickie BC, the many and varied arrangements were second to none and, secondly, Sylver and Giles Breteche were part of team A2 contributing 9 wins while Kevin, Pat, John Hennessy (Snr) and George, team A4, contributed 7 wins. A great weekend all round attracting many kind comments from our visitors. Well done us !

Following a 2 stage qualifying competition, ending on 1 April 2023, 6 members of North Down PC will represent the Irish Petanque Association’s Ireland ‘A’ team against the Scots and Welsh in the forthcoming Celtic Challenge to be held on 29/30 April at Pickie BC.

Back row L to R Pat McCarthy, Kevin McBrien, John Hennessy and George Davidson

The AGM was held on 7 Feb 2023. Confirmed that the Club was in a sound condition from a finance and membership perspective. No major decisions taken. Existing Officers and Committee members re-appointed.

Congratulations to Gilles on winning the final competition in our annual programme, the Broken Boule Singles, on 10 December 2022.

Congratulations to Kevin and John Hennessy (Jnr) on winning the John Paton Mem. Doubles competition on 19 November 2022.

Congratulations to Gerry T on winning the 2 in 1 competition on 5 November 2022.

Congratulations to George and Gerry on winning the Weir Family Shield Doubles on 15 October 2022.

Congratulations to Drew on winning the first competition he has entered. 7 games and 7 wins. Form an orderly queue for autographs.

In beautiful weather, on 10 September 2022, our Club hosted Stage 1 of a qualifier to determine which teams would represent the IPA in the annual CC against Scotland and Wales at North Down PC next May. A great advert for our Club and we received some favourable comments about the presentation of our premises ( rightly so ). Our Club was well represented. Members Sylver and Gilles formed a team with Benji and Franck (Breteche) and other teams were (i) Freda, Gerry Thompson and Humberto (ii) Kevin, Pat, John Hennessy (Snr) and George (iii) Ciaran, Des and Linda Montgomery (iv) Gil, Helen, John Hennessy (Jnr) and Gerry Hennity. Against some very skilful opposition, all our teams won some games, however, only Sylver’s team and Kevin’s team progressed to Stage 2 of the qualifier, to be held at North Down PC on 1 April 2023.

On the evening of 8 September 2023, most members of the Committee participated in an official event in Blackstaff Sq, Belfast, where a Petanque piste forms part of recent developments.