Boules club to stage french open day

The Petanque club, which has recently opened boules courts in the village, will host a French-themed open day on May 21 at the courts and shop.

Spokesman Mark Simpson said: “The boules courts are now open and we are running informal teaching sessions.

“For the open day, we hope to get people playing, along with serving up a little french refreshment.

“We are not planning any speeches or ribbon cutting as we would like it to be a community focussed informal event but people are most welcome to come along and have a go.”

He added that the courts, which took a community effort to lay, helped by people from Menwith Hill and the Men’s Shed, are open to use now.

Boules sets for adults and children are available to rent at the shop.

“We are not looking to have a booking system or signing people up at this time, this will probably come later,” added Mark.

“We wanted to provide this facility for the community to have fun, playing something new to most.”

Mark added that the club was guided by Paul Simpkins who is the Yorkshire Development Officer for Petanque.

And more plans are in the pipeline for the village site.

“The next developmental steps will be adding equipment to our children’s playground oriented for the 1-5 age group which should be completed in the summer.

“We’ll then consult the village for additional expansion of both children’s play equipment and outdoor adult fitness equipment, which will be in a separate location.

“The extra playground expansion is just an idea currently but we are keen to continually expand facilities over time.”

Two Jubilee benches have been provided at the site by the Parish Council.