Thursday April 23rd 2026
14 of the 17 original DPC members (photo taken in 2024)
This View has been written by Chairperson of Dalkeith Petanque Club, Sandy Howden
Since around 2020 Petanque (French Boules) has grown enormously especially in Midlothian and the rest of Scotland. From the coast town of Sunny Dunbar to Haddington, Selkirk, Walkerburn , Dalkeith, Newtongrange, Roslin, Penicuik and into Edinburgh at Inverleith Park the game has caught the imagination of a whole lot of new people of all ages who now all know a huge array of people they never knew before.
Most of the players are late of age and the game needs younger players to play the coolest newest game in town. Once the young ones do come on board the game will just take off into the stratosphere. Scottish Petanque Assoc and individual clubs are working hard to recruit youngsters.
In Midlothian since Dalkeith Petanque Club was formed in 2024 we have had Penicuik Petanque doubling the size of their piste and Newtongrange Petanque looking soon to add lots of extra pistes to their club. East Lothian PC are looking for bigger premises over in Haddington and just lately we have had 2 satelite 2 lane pistes built in North Middleton and Pathhead. Add on the lovely piste in Cousland and the great facilities in Peebles the game has grown at a tremendous rate.
The main problem for clubs is not enough pistes for when other clubs come to visit. Dalkeith PC was invited over to its twin town Jarnac by Jarnac Sports Petanque along with Jarnac Twinning Group and 9 of us went over for a week and played games on their clubhouse\grounds. They have 70 pistes. One of the days they invited us to watch one of their tournaments and there were 240 players in an abundance of different club strips playing trebles on 70 pistes. A sight to behold. We do not have
that in Scotland. Stirling have just last week opened their new piste which holds 20 pistes. Pistes are opening up all over Scotland. Down in Dumfriesshire, over in Fife and up north in Inverurie.
What Scottish Petanque really needs is an indoor Petanque facility so as players can train in all weathers to match other areas and countries which have milder weather. That should be one of the aims of the SPA and all the regional clubs. We can all work together to make this work.
I have to mention the backing we have had from Midlothian Council. Both our Councillors and our Council Officers have been magnificent in helping the promotion of this brilliant game. All the pistes are free to play on. Something unique in this day. If you want to play more competitive games or want to meet new people join any one of the clubs that play on the pistes and pay a nominal fee. Different at each club.
The club at Dalkeith Community Petanque Piste behind the Midlothian Indoor Bowling Club is free to play on. All you need to do is turn up with your boules and everything is there to play for free in an absolute beautiful setting in I have been told the prettiest piste in Scotland backed by Dalkeith’s brilliant Councillors without whom the 65 people who are members of the club now know 65 people they never knew before.
Come along and try the newest coolest bestest game in town. You know it makes sense. Summer is coming so pop round and see.
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