Bond Court Petanque Court– Leeds, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 47.870 W 001° 32.882
30U E 595633 N 5962006
This Petanque or Boules court is in a small square surrounded by office buildings that has a continental feel to it. There’s even a Frenchman demonstrating how to play the game to a local family.
Waymark Code: WME8RF
Location: Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 04/19/2012
Views: 7
Leeds City Council installed the Petanque court in the late 1990s in honour of the fact that the city is twinned with the French city of Lille.
Petanque or Boule is popular in France and courts are a common sight in French towns and cities but I have never seen another one in the UK.
The boules are kept in a nearby sandwich shop and available for anyone to use. The game started to become popular with local office workers to such an extent that there is an annual tournament held with the CRE Colliers cup awarded to the winning team.
I don’t know whether anyone used to play the game before the arrival of this court but there is now a Petanque league with established teams in a number of nearby towns.
In 1998 Martin Wainwright, a keen player himself, commissioned local sculptor Roger Burnett to create a sculpture for the square.
The sculpture called Voila! Was unveiled in 2000 and shows a Frenchman demonstrating how to play the game to family of Yorkshire people. If you’re still not sure what to do there is an information board with the rules of the game.
According to this website of the Northern Petanque league the playing surface is more correctly called a terrain rather than a court. (
visit link)