Game’s image of elderly men in sleepy squares at odds with claims some Belgian players use cocaine

The sleepy world of pétanque has been rocked by claims that Belgian players are turning to stronger stimulants than shots of pastis and drags of Gitanes cigarettes when bowling on the international stage.

The image of the jeu de boules, in which the bowler’s feet must remain anchored to the ground, is that of elderly men in flat caps and string vests idling their days away under a fading sun.

But beyond the gravel strips found on squares and summer campsites across northern continental Europe, two leading players on the game’s lively and cut-throat international stage have caused uproar by accusing their Belgian counterparts of snorting cocaine to secure a competitive edge.

“I know enough Belgian players who use coke,” said Edward Vinke, 46, a top Dutch player, speaking to the Vice sports website. “They go to the toilet and do not throw a wrong ball when they come back. They really feel like the king.”

“I experienced it once,” Kees Koogje, 27, told the website. “We were far ahead and had played flawlessly. Then they went to the bathroom for 10 minutes and came back with huge eyes. Everything went well for them.

“The use of cannabis on pétanque tournaments also occurs in Belgium and France. When I’m playing in Belgium on a large open area, I always smell a lot of smoke. Usually it is the players who participate in such a tournament for fun, not the top players.”

Gert Quetin, a champion player who is also a postman from Heusden-Zolder in eastern Belgium, said he agreed with his Dutch colleagues about the use of the class A drug in the sport.

He said: “They disappear for a moment, then they come back with big eyes and play better. I have already lost matches that way.”

The claims were rejected, however, by a leading Belgian bowler, Stefaan Kausse, a Flemish champion.

“We know Vinke and Koogje,” he said. “Everyone who plays pétanque at a high level knows each other. They are good players and good guys. Yes, there are those who drink a good beer during a tournament. And occasionally you smell the smell of a joint. But they make it appear as if every Belgian pétanque player is sniffing coke. That is not true.”

Kausse added, however, that performance-enhancing drug use was increasingly a problem and “everyone knows” it, including the governing body.

“But it does nothing,” he said. “You can get them out of there with a doping check now and then.”

Kausse said: “We know the image that the lay people have of pétanque. An elderly sport for camping. Or on the beach, with plastic balls.

“But after years driving through Belgium and France, from championship to championship, you get a completely different picture of the sport. It is played at a very high level. And anyone who says top-level sport says doping. It is true, doping is also happening in our world.”

In response to the outpouring of accusations, Reinold Borré, chairman of the Pétanque Federation Flanders, called on those making allegations in the game to name the players suspected of being on drugs.

Borré, who is seeking to make pétanque an Olympic sport in 2024, said: “We do not know about that. Our players and players at the European Championships and World Championships were all checked, and all found negative. I think if you accuse people, you have to mention names. Otherwise you should be silent.”

Borré added that if there were a problem outside the very top level with the use of cocaine, an injection of money and organisation into the game would clean it up.

“If you are Olympic, you will have a great honour,” he said. “Watch ice-skating or archery. Many fewer practitioners than the pétanque, but much more prestige. And if you are Olympic, you get money. Then we can solve that possible problem with that cocaine.”