Great new playing venue

PE’s 2026 national calendar published recently revealed that one of the key English National Competitions will take place at Headley & Bordon Pétanque Club, a long established club in PE’s Southern Counties Region.

Located to the south west of London in East Hampshire, the club is currently constructing a new terrain offering 16 pitches to host the SSE Doubles weekend on the 11th & 12th of April which will find England’s representatives for the European Singles, Doubles and Mixed Doubles Championships.

Exciting times for this club which has grown to 70 members over recent years.

We asked the club to give us a feel for their history and how they have expanded the attractiveness of the sport in their locality.

If you read their story, you quickly realise that this is a terrific example of how to promote and popularise pétanque in a local community by forming partnerships with funders and the local councils.

Great work by everyone concerned and a role model for other clubs in England!

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Headley & Bordon PC – our story

Bordon Petanque Club dates back to the early nineties. Until 5 years ago, with never more than circa 20 members, the club competed successfully with 1 team in both the Southern Counties 6 and 9-aside leagues and North Downs League. 

Since then, with an enterprising committee promoting a major recruitment drive, our membership has grown rapidly to over 70 active players, and it’s still on the rise. 

All our members hold a PE Licence, so we are now able to field 5 teams in the SCPA leagues and another 3 teams in the unaffiliated North Downs League which is aimed at new and improving players.  Many of us also participate in Open, Regional and National competitions.

As part of our expansion, we have also developed a new professional standard website which is stylish, informative and very practical www.bordonpetanqueclub.co.uk  We also have a presence on social media with our  Facebook Page.

We are currently playing at the rebuilt BOSC playing field in Bordon, Hampshire, our home for many years. Some older players will remember playing on the old terrains there, in what is an idyllic location, and our club logo reflects the magnificent oak tree which thankfully still stands tall.

However, with a new housing development in the surrounding area, we have been unable to get permission for permanent floodlighting.  Therefore, we are now reluctantly on the move as we cannot play league matches in the evenings or provide a facility for those that work and can only play in the evenings. The irony is that we were only trying to replace the facilities we had before the developers moved in.

Thanks to major funding being provided by Headley Parish Council the sports field at Headley, just two miles away, has been made available for us.

A new terrain is currently in the course of construction on an old football training area and the existing high level sodium flood lights will initially be utilised pending conversion to LED when finances and planners allow.

Despite adverse weather conditions of late, we expect it to be available for play in 2 weeks’ time. 

Measuring 48 x 15 metres, it will feature 16 pistes, split into 4 different surfaces to provide a variety of playing conditions.

We are fortunate to have benefitted from a significant grant provided by a charitable Trust, but we are still seeking further finance to complete the facility and also provide opportunities to a wide range of ages to come and try.

The existing substantial Sports Pavilion adjacent to the terrain is currently in the final stages of a £1million plus refurbishment programme and will officially reopen in May. This will include facilities for all the occupants of the site including football, bowls, tennis and table tennis.

However, access will be available from 1 April so we will now be able to hold our traditional Good Friday ‘Open’ Triples here on the 3 April and we already have a full 32 team event.

The PE National Doubles and PE junior training session / Open Triples are also scheduled to be held on the weekends of 11/12 April and 18/19 April. We will also be hosting the SCPA regional qualifiers on the 30/31 May.

We have now changed the name of the club to Headley & Bordon Pétanque Club and initial public reaction to our presence is very positive, suggesting that the club membership will continue to increase at the new location.

With 4 qualified coaches, we are planning a series of training sessions for all of our club members and are currently organising some ‘Come and Try’ sessions to encourage locals and visitors to Headley to join a sport that can be enjoyed by all.

The local council see this as an excellent opportunity to increase usage of their sport and leisure facility, and we are jointly looking forward to an excellent 2026 season.

Headley & Bordon Pétanque Club