FRANCE: A leading games-maker makes set of billiard balls featuring the faces of the presidential election candidates

Record ID: 737822

  • Title: FRANCE: A leading games-maker makes set of billiard balls featuring the faces of the presidential election candidates
  • Date: 13th April 2007
  • Summary: (L!3) PARIS, FRANCE (RECENT - FEBRUARY 23, 2007) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE)(French) CENTRIST CANDIDATE FRANCOIS BAYROU SAYING: "I see this as a good sign. There are lots of people, an increasing number of people, who say that the last ball on the table will be mine." CHRISTOPHE CHEVILLOTTE PRESENTING BAYROU WITH A SET OF THE PRESIDENTIAL BILLIARD BALLS VARIOUS OF BAYROU LOOKING AT THE BALLS AND PLAYING WITH THE BAYROU BALL (SOUNDBITE)(French) CENTRIST CANDIDATE FRANCOIS BAYROU SAYING: "Three out of four French people think deep down that with the situation in our country, and the severity of the situation in our country, that it is better to have people from both sides working together for us to be able to get out of it." BILLIARD BALLS WITH BAYROU BALL ON TOP
  • Embargoed: 28th April 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA2GUERFIT976CC7KLQLJ1SIO9D
  • Story Text: Whoever thought billiards was boring has yet to play the new collectors' version produced by a French manufacturer for the presidential elections.
    The set has balls featuring the faces of the presidential candidates, so players can see who is left in the running longest during their own elections game. The winner is of course the candidate who's ball is left on the table last.
    All the candidates are depicted, from front-runner conservative Nicolas Sarkozy and socialist Segolene Royal to National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen and communist candidate Marie-George Buffet.
    However, as the billiards set has 14 balls whereas the French elections only allow 12 candidates, manufacturer Christophe Chevillotte also lets the retiring President Jacques Chirac and present Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin have their faces printed on the collectors items, even if they aren't running for office this time.
    And who better to test the presidential billiard set than the Trickshot World Champion Vincent Facquet. He took a strike at each candidate, and then tried a trick shot which pots all the balls bar one. The candidate the trickshot left standing was the man presently third in the polls: the centrist Francois Bayrou!
    "I see this as a good sign. There are lots of people, an increasing number of people, who say that the last ball on the table will be mine," said Bayrou when asked about his premature victory.
    "Three out of four French people think deep down that with the situation in our country, and the severity of the situation in our country, that it is better to have people from both sides working together for us to be able to get out of it," he said.
    Chevillotte's family business has been making games since 1860, so they have seen many presidents come and go. They got the idea for the game in 2004 - the only problem was to get the balls produced in time for the elections, while waiting long enough to make sure political events didn't mean the candidates faces needed changing.
    Only 500 of the collectors sets are being made, representing the 500 signatures a candidate needs to get before their application is accepted.
    So far almost 300 sets have been sold, and only 50 are still in the shop - the remaining sets can be bought over the internet by anyone else wanting to take a shot at a candidate or see which candidates billiards balls are left on the table.
    A quirky story.
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