Interneige 1976
Winter Jeux Sans Frontières

Entrants Winter 1976:
Switzerland (CH) • France (F)

Presenters / Commentators of International Competitions:
Georges Kleinmann (SSR - CH)
Simone Garnier (Antenne 2 - F)

International Referees:
Gennaro Olivieri
Guido Pancaldi

Production Credits:

Executive Producers: Guy Lux, Claude Savarit; Producers: Jean-Luc Balmer, Marius Berger; Director: Paul Siegrist

Produced by SSR-SRG-TSI (CH), ANTENNE 2 (F)

Key: Winter International Heats ● = Qualified for Winter International Final / ● = Heat Winner Winter International Final ● = Winter International Final Trophy Winner   ▲ = Promoted to Position / ▼ = Demoted to Position

F

Interneige 1976

Heat 1

Event Staged: Sunday 25th January 1976
Venue: Ski Slopes, Briançon, France

European Transmissions (Local Timings):
SSR (CH): Sunday 25th January 1976, 3.00-4.20pm (Live)
Antenne 2 (F): Sunday 25th January 1976, 3.00-4.10pm (Live)

Teams: Les Diablerets (CH) v. Briançon (F)

Games included: Game of Questions / Parallel Slalom.

Game Results and Standings

Result

 Team

Points

1st
2nd

The Games in Detail

Game of Questions / Parallel Slalom

The final game in all the programmes was played in two distinctive parts and it involved some complicated scoring. The first part of the game was played by dignitaries or members of the tourism bureaux associated with the competing towns. One of the teams was asked a question based on the Winter Olympics and they had thirty seconds to answer. If the answer they supplied was correct, a competitor from each of the teams would participate in a straight-forward downhill ski-slalom. If the skier from the team that answered the question won the slalom, then they would score 2pts. If they lost the slalom, they would not score anything and the opposing team was then asked a question. This was then repeated until both teams had been asked two questions each. However, if the question was answered incorrectly originally, the ski-slalom would still take place, but although the team could not score points, it was important to still win the slalom as the non-answering team could score a bonus of two points if they themselves won it. Teams were therefore able to acquire up to a maximum of eight additional points from the final game, dependent on the skills of their dignitaries combined with their skiers.

The 1976 Interneige series was re-run on Swiss television channel SSR. Information we have details Heat 2 being repeated on Sunday 4th April between 6.00 and 7.00pm, with the Winter Final shown again on Sunday 11th April 1976. Clearly, these repeated programmes were slightly edited for timing reasons.

Additional Information

The Interneige winter series originally ran from 1965-1968 and was revived this year to be played once again by teams from Switzerland and France. Three programmes were made this year and the gaps in transmission were due in part to the staging and transmission of the 1976 Winter Olympics from Innsbruck, Austria. The opening credits of this series were superimposed over footage from the original four series of Interneige, showing highlights of the games previously played.

The 1976 Interneige series was re-run on Swiss television channel SSR. Information we have details Heat 2 being repeated on Sunday 4th April between 6.00 and 7.00pm, with the Winter Final shown again on Sunday 11th April 1976. Clearly, these repeated programmes were slightly edited for timing reasons.

Made in Colour • This programme may exist in European Archives

CH

Interneige 1976

Heat 2

Event Staged: Sunday 29th February 1976
Venue: Ski Slopes, Thyon 2000 Ski Resort, Thyon, Switzerland

European Transmissions (Local Timings):
SSR (CH): Sunday 29th February 1976, 3.00-4.10pm (Live)
Antenne 2 (F): Sunday 29th February 1976, 3.00-4.10pm (Live)

Theme: Carnival of Animals

Teams: Thyon 2000 (CH) v. Les Gets (F)

Team Members included:
Thyon 2000 (CH) - Benhard d’Aquilleau, Jean-René Dear, Christian Generlé, Joseph Ruudarte;
Les Gets (F) - Daniel Courtar, Thierry Ensendeau, Jacques Micheau, William Pascuire

Games: The Downhill Penguins, The Explorer and the Apes, The Horses, the Elephants, the Snails and the Giraffes, Prisoners and the Gendarme, Blindfolded Football, The Giant Elephants and Game of Questions / Parallel Slalom.

Game Results and Standings

Result

 Team

Points

Final Scoreboard

1st
2nd

The Games in Detail

Game 6 - The Giant Elephants

The sixth game - ‘The Giant Elephants’ - ended in a draw, which may not seem so strange. However, the game involved four skiers inside an enormous life-size elephant costume, and they had to literary ski down a large slalom course around trees. Only the two skiers at the front of the costume were able to see anything through slits in the elephant’s body. The game was played over two individual runs, and both teams finished the course in 38 seconds. As drawn games were not permitted in this series of Interneige, a standard tie-breaker game (a simple ski-jump with measured distance markers to see which could jump furthest) had to be played to decide which team got the 2pts. This was played on all drawn games in this series.

Additional Information

At this point, Swiss team Thyon 2000 were the first team to appear in Jeux Sans Frontières with a number as a part of their name. During the 1990s in the revived series, Hungarian teams from Budapest also appeared with their kerület (district) numbering system.

Made in Colour • This programme exists in European Archives

F

Interneige 1976

Winter Final

Event Staged: Sunday 7th March 1976
Venue: Ski Slopes, Les Gets, France

European Transmissions (Local Timings):
SSR (CH): Sunday 7th March 1976, 3.00-4.10pm (Live)
Antenne 2 (F): Sunday 7th March 1976, 3.00-4.10pm (Live)

Teams: Les Diablerets (CH) v. Les Gets (F)

Games included: Game of Questions / Parallel Slalom.

Team Members included:
Les Gets (F) - Daniel Courtar, Thierry Ensendeau, Jacques Micheau, William Pascuire

Game Results and Standings

Result

 Team

Points

-

Result unknown

The Host Town and Venue

Les Gets, France

Pentes de Ski (Ski Slopes)

Les Gets is a village with a permanent population of just over 1,000 inhabitants in the region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. It is located 27km (17 miles) south of Évian-les-Bains, 34km (21 miles) north of Megève and 42km (26 miles) east of Genève (Switzerland) at an altitude of between 900m and 1,820m (2,952ft and 5,971ft).

Les Gets is a multi-purpose resort which is open throughout the year and during the winter months, the resort consists mainly of blue (beginners) and red (intermediate) runs. In addition to the area known as The Bowl into which numerous ski runs and chairlifts feed, the resort also offers the most easily accessible black (difficult) runs including Yeti, which is accessed by the resort’s slowest chairlift, La Rosta. There is an open-air ice rink in the centre of the village specially constructed each year during the winter season.

The village itself has many restaurants ranging from the family-friendly and reasonably priced to fairly top-end, all specialising in the local Savoyard cuisine, such as tartiflette, a dish of potatoes ‘au gratin’ with Reblochon cheese and lardons. There are also numerous pubs and bars serving a traditional liqueur called génépi, similar in make-up to absinthe, which is often drunk as a digestif although the exact constituents vary as many of the locals produce their own!

During the summer months there are all kinds of evening activities in the centre, ranging from discotheques to the weekly Monday night Pot de Bienvenue (a welcome drink) which is provided for by the local businesses to welcome visitors to the town. Live bands regularly perform on the semi-permanent stage in the centre of the village, attracting both locals and tourists. A lot of emphasis is also given to children’s entertainment, with street performers, carousels and wooden games set out in the street being regular attractions and there are also weekly treasure hunts around the village. Also in the village is the Museum of Mechanical Music which hosts a bi-annual festival. It has been running for over 25 years and during this period all the streets are closed off and barrel-organs or orgues fill the streets with mechanical music, with many of the organ grinders coming from Germany and the Netherlands.

Additional Information

Although no details are known about the first of the Winter International Heats, information gleaned from the second heat confirms that Les Diablerets from Switzerland and Les Gets from France qualified for the International Final.

Made in Colour • This programme may exist in European Archives