Roche Special 1978:
Jeux Sans Frontières de Souvenir

Entrants 1978: Belgium (B) • Switzerland (CH)
West Germany (D) • France (F) • Italy (I) • Netherlands (NL)

Presenters / Commentators:
Paule Herreman (unable to attend)
Georges Kleinmann

Referees:
Gennaro Olivieri
Guido Pancaldi

Judges:
Garressus
Hubert Günziger
Hans Jenny
Raynald Perriraz
Jean-François Pernet
Reneé Stoller
Gérard Talon

Organised by the Town of Roche, Switzerland
in association with Le Chamois Ski Club

Not produced for Television Broadcast

Key: International Special ● = Winner of Special   ▲ = Promoted to Position / ▼ = Demoted to Position

CH

Jeux Sans Frontières de Souvenir 1978

Roche Special

Event Staged: Sunday 24th September 1978, 2.00-5.00pm
Venue: Circus Tent, Roche Football Stadium, Roche, Switzerland

European Transmissions (Local Timings):
Not televised

Teams: Schaerbeek (B) v. Faido (CH) v. Roche (CH) v. Schwäbisch Gmünd (D) v.
Toulon (F) v. Aosta (I) v. Nieuwegein (NL)

Team Members included:
Roche (CH) - Edouard Monod (Team Captain).

Game Results and Standings

Result

 Team

Points

1st
1st
3rd
4th
5th
6th
7th

 NL • Nieuwegein ●
 F • Toulon ●
 I • Aosta
 D • Schwäbisch Gmünd
 B • Schaerbeek
 CH • Faido
 CH • Roche

46
46
34
32
29
28
22

The Venue

Roche, Switzerland

The Roche Football Stadium that played host to this event has since been demolished. A hotel now stands on the site. Google Street View of the area.

Presenters, Officials and Production Team

Although this competition had official EBU sanction, the event was not staffed by the full JSF 'team'. However, presenter Georges Kleinmann was there as Master of Ceremonies and International Referees Gennaro Olivieri and Guido Pancaldi were also present. Paule Herreman was scheduled to attend, but was unable to attend at the last moment and her absence was noted in the Swiss press.

Returning Teams and Competitors

This special edition of Jeux Sans Frontières was devised and organised by those involved in the 1976 Roche team from Switzerland, which had won the second JSF heat in Milano that year. The idea was to bring together once again the teams that had participated in that competition. The project was given the green light by JSF organisers and contact was made with the teams from the Milano event, via the individual broadcasters. In the end, it didn't work out quite as planned. For reasons unknown, the British declined to be involved and of the other six teams from the 1976 event, only Toulon from France, Schaerbeek from Belgium and Roche themselves were available to take part. Substitute teams were sought and the remaining team vacancies were ultimately filled by Schwäbisch Gmünd of West Germany (replacing Lippstadt), Aosta of Italy (replacing Bollate) and Nieuwegein of the Netherlands (replacing Weert), with a second Swiss team, Faido, covering for the missing British team.

Each of the three teams that were brought in as replacements had previously taken part in Jeux Sans Frontières heats held in Switzerland. The teams of Schwäbisch Gmünd and Nieuwegein had both competed in JSF 1977 Heat 3 in Carouge, while the Aosta team had turned out for Italy at Engelberg in the 1975 series.

The return of Schwäbisch Gmünd to Jeux Sans Frontières competition was something unique for a West German team. Throughout their involvement in JSF, not once did a West German team, successful or otherwise, come back for a second go at the competition - every time, it was a new town or city representing the country. Schwäbisch Gmünd's return was at the invitation of the Roche team and therefore circumvented the rules of the German broadcasters.

Additional Information

The competition took place on the afternoon of Sunday 24th September 1978, with the preparations kicking off at 5.00pm on Friday 22nd. At 7.30pm that same evening, the Carouge team, who had appeared in Jeux Sans Frontières at Bayruth in 1974 and at Carouge itself in 1977, demonstrated the games for the benefit of the competitors. Rehearsals got underway at 9.30am on Saturday 23rd and continued throughout the day. The Sunday saw a procession of the teams through the streets of Roche at 1.00pm, leading to the venue where the Jeux Sans Frontières du Souvenir event was staged from 2.00pm until 5.00pm. The event was well attended with reports of 3,000 spectators in the stadium. The competition was followed directly by a closing ceremony in the cantina, presided over by Cécilienne de Villeneuve. The events were then rounded off at 6.00pm with a grand ball at which the participants and other revellers could relax and socialise to the sounds of the Peter Allan Sextet.

As there were two Swiss teams involved in this event, it must have been disappointing to the local crowd that both the Roche and Faido teams performed well below expectations, finishing in the last two places on the leaderboard. However, the Swiss press noted that the spectators were very sporting and cheered for everyone and especially for the winning Dutch and French teams, who tied in 1st place.

It is unclear whether this competition was ever intended for broadcast. Contemporary press articles state that it was due to be recorded and transmitted via the Eurovision Network at a later date, although we can find no evidence of any such transmissions. Furthermore, we have heard from Edouard Monod, the Roche team captain and president of the organising committee, that the programme was not broadcast, so it appears that this was not recorded and was staged for the audience at the venue only.

Likely not recorded • This programme may exist in European archives

JSFnetGB Series Guide pages researched by
Neil Storer and Alan Hayes
with Ischa Bijl, Julien Dessy, Sébastien Dias, David Hamilton, Denis Kirsanov, Paul Leaver, Philippe Minet,
Christos Moustakas, David Laich Ruiz, Marko Voštan and JSFnet Websites