Source: http://jsf.hiddentigerbooks.co.uk/series_1999_jsf.htm
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 08:20:54+00:00

Document:
In the spirit of Indiana Jones and amidst scenery reminiscent of tropical jungles, volcanoes, rivers and the great seas, the teams seek a gemstone set in front of an idol. Through a series of thrilling, heart stopping adventures, the teams must fight to be the first to reach the idol and grab the coveted stone. To conclude the storyline, a competitor from the 1st placed team on Game 12 (Gyöngyös of Hungary) climbed the idol to retrieve the jewel from its head.
Teams: Tre Valli (CH) v. Gap (F) v. Katerini (GR) v. Gyöngyös (H) v.
Jokers: Jester's Hats on Sticks.
All the programmes in this year’s series were staged on a small promontory adjacent to the isthmus where the Castello Aragonese is located. All of the games were played there or on the strip of water separating them, except for the final game when the isthmus was used as a starting area for the teams to cross to the promontory.
The twelfth and final game of every 1999 edition was 'Crossing the Sea', in which eight contestants from each team had to row a boat (the type of vessel dependent on the theme of each programme) across a stretch of water. The vessels used were: outrigger canoes (Heat 1), rubber dingys (Heats 2 and 5), rafts (Heats 3 and 6), a construction of 8 linked lifebuoys (Heat 4), a rubber hippopotamus (Heat 7) and canoes linked to icebergs (International Final). Once at their destination, the teams had to climb an enormous slope with the aid of a rope. In Heat 1, the game was played slightly differently - only one contestant from each team had to climb the slope and when the team representatives reached the top, they had to wave flags which they were carrying under their clothes.
Game 8 - ‘The Snakes’ Tails’ - was almost identical to one played in Game 5 in JSF 1993 Heat 2 - which happened to be one of the longest duration games ever played in Jeux Sans Frontières. Fortunately, on this occasion the game was completed in a much quicker time than the 6 minutes and 8 seconds it took in 1993!
For the first time in the programme’s history, participating teams missed two games each, instead of just one. The games were missed consecutively and by two teams at a time. In between their two missed games, both of these teams participated in the Fil Rouge.
After Game 5 - ‘The Totem Poles’ - there was quite an unusual situation on the scoreboard. Three of the teams were sharing first place with 18 pts, whilst the other three teams were all sharing fourth place with 14 pts.
After the points for Game 8 were awarded, the scoreboard erroneously doubled all points awarded. Slovenian team Tržič had played their Joker on this game and finished in fourth place on the game, scoring 6 pts in total. However, due to the scoreboard glitch, the team were awarded 12 pts instead, which mathematically quadrupled their score rather than doubled it. This scoring error went unnoticed and even the commentators announced the scores incorrectly. However after the points for the next game were awarded, all the correct scores were showing. No mention of this error was made by the commentators, even though when announcing the ‘corrected’ scores for the teams, they were lower than the ones they had previously announced!
In the opening four programmes, the team which won the final game performed an extra action which served to conclude the storyline of the evening.
In the sophisticated world of casinos and international espionage, the teams must strive to defuse a bomb before it explodes. Competitors must perform twelve assignments typical of the spy world to achieve this end, but only one team win and pull the wires to save the world. To conclude the storyline, a competitor from the 1st placed team on Game 12 (Bohinj of Slovenia) pulled the wires to defuse the bomb.
Teams: Locarno (CH) v. Rouen (F) v. Orestiada (GR) v.
In Game 3 - 'The Motorboat' - Hungary and Italy were permitted a rerun due to problems with the pedal mechanisms on their boats.
In Game 7 - 'The Decoder' - the Greek team of Orestiada finished in 1st place, but their elation was shortlived. They were penalised for a breach of the regulations, relegating them to last place on the game.
A team from the Italian town of Bolzano had participated in the Christmas edition of Jeux Sans Frontières in 1977.
The Italian team in this heat was representing the autonomous province of Bolzano Alto Adige / Bozen Südtirol in northern Italy. It is one of the two provinces that make up the region of Trentino-Alto Adige / Südtirol, which itself is an autonomous region. As the province is comprised of both a German and an Italian speaking population, the team took a part-Italian and part-German name.
Orestiada is the north-easternmost and northern-most city of Greece and the second largest city of the Evros peripheral unit of Thrace. With a population of about 25,000, it lies just 2 km west of the natural border between Greece and Turkey.
Jeux Sans Frontières visits the Wild West, complete with cowboys and Red Indians, totem poles and cacti, tents and whole villages of pioneers. The pool is a western river and upon it sits a paddle wheel. The teams must race wagons on a mud track, prospect for gold, hunt wild animals and even go shopping at the drugstore, which is not as easy as it sounds, and only one team can come out top dog. You're darn tootin'! To conclude the storyline, a competitor from the 1st placed team on Game 12 (Budapest, XII Kerület of Hungary) turned on a sprinkler at the top of a windmill.
Teams: Capriasca (CH) v. Martigues (F) v. Andros (GR) v.
The Italian team of Caorle was penalised on the first game, though the reason for this decision was not given clearly on screen.
After only two games, the Jokers of every team had been used. In the first game, the Hungarian and Italian teams played theirs and the remaining four countries (France, Portugal, Greece and Switzerland) played their Jokers on Game 2.
After eight attempts (2 in 1995, 2 in 1996, 1 in 1997 and 3 in 1998), a suburb (kerület) of the city of Budapest finally succeeded in reaching the International Final.
Budapest XII Kerület is known as Hegyvidék (Mountain-land) and comprises the suburbs of Jánoshegy, Krisztinaváros and Sashegy.
In a world populated by clowns and trained animals, here our competitors grapple with the magic of the circus. Teams must impress in games of strength, humour, magic, balance and the control of animals to reach the finish line and become the King of the Circus. To conclude the storyline, a competitor from the 1st placed team on Game 12 (Debrecen of Hungary) hit a huge strongman game with a hammer.
Teams: Chiasso (CH) v. Villard-de-Lans (F) v. Sapes (GR) v.
International referee Denis Pettiaux used to perform in the circus as an acrobat. This event saw Pettiaux hark back to his former career as he entered the stage balancing on a gantry high above the arena. From there, he stepped onto a highwire and descended to the ground sliding down a 'zip-line' steel wire.
A similar version of Game 9 - 'The Trapeze' - had previously been played in Heat 5 of Jeux Sans Frontières 1996.
Our teams are located in a world between reality and fantasy, between scientific discovery and the science fiction film. Competitors must prepare for interstellar travel, blast off into space, land on another planet, encounter strange creatures and climb monoliths reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey. The space explorers finally return home, but only one team can win through in the end.
Teams: Bosco Gurin (CH) v. Tarbes (F) v. Xanthi (GR) v.
In the first game - 'The Launch Ramp' - players had to place wheels under the tower, step on to it and then drive them to the rocket to fill it with fuel. However, the Greek team of Xanthi received a penalty as they had neither affixed their wheels correctly or had their players properly on the tower. Referee Denis Pettiaux relegated the team to 6th place, meaning they received only 1pt.
Game 8 - 'The Monsters' - featured a gigantic inflatable monster which had to be moved forward. However, right at the beginning of the game, a leg broke off from the Swiss monster, causing it to collapse. The team were allowed to replay their run and eventually finished with 4 points for 3rd place.
This edition began with the international presenters dressed in spacesuits, arriving on the stage from the landing ramp of a spaceship. They have arrived on a strange planet and are surprised to find that others have reached the planet before them - the adjudicators, lead by international referee Denis Pettiaux. His team all wore authentic Starfleet costumes from the successful science fiction TV series, Star Trek: The Next Generation. Pettiaux's own costume was rounded off with a pair of oversized, comedy Vulcan ears made famous by Leonard Nimoy as Mr Spock. The presenters suddenly realised that they had landed on the planet Jeux Sans Frontieres!
Game 9 - 'Space Fishing' - was a variation of Game 5 from JSF 1996 Heat 1, entitled 'Space'.
After Greek teams finished in last place in the final games of all four previous International Heats, the team of Xanthi broke this poor run by finishing in 3rd place on the game and 4th place overall in this this edition.
The teams are cast as pirates, who must set sail for the legendary Treasure Island. They face many challenges in their quest to locate the legendary haul of riches - before crossing the sea that leads to the mythical climb towards the treasure that only one team amongst many can acquire.
Teams: San Bernardino (CH) v. Mulhouse (F) v. Patra (GR) v.
The Fil Rouge - ‘The Leaking Barrels’ - was an exact copy of the Fil Rouge held at Bellinzona in Switzerland way back in 1973!
There were three prop failures in this heat. The first was in the opening game - 'Decking Out the Ship' - which involved a team member hanging small flags on a rope while standing on a bollard. Two opponents were pulling ropes to move the bollard. However, the ropes attached to the French bollard loosened and it was decided to give them a second run, in which they finished in a lowly 5th place. The other two failures were both in Game 10 - 'The Catapult'. In this game, competitors had to collect water from the pool by means of ropes attached to the 'spoon' of a catapult, which would drop into and out of the water. The water then had to be channelled into a barrel. However, the French team fell victim to bad luck once more, as the rope detached from the catapult during their run. They were granted a second run, during which the exact same thing happened again! The Mulhouse team were allowed a third run and their persistence paid off this time, the French team finishing 2nd on the game.
The Greek team Patra performed particularly well both in this International Heat and later in the International Final, but were truly unlucky with their Jokers in both events. They only managed a poor 5th place in the 'The Island's Treasure' - their Joker game in the heat - and this was their worst six-team result by far. History would repeat itself in the finals, where they finished dead last in their Joker game, 'The Alien Creatures'. Both these results were well below their average performance in the events. While their poor choice did not cost the win in the heat, it certainly had a negative consequence in the Final, where they finished only 1pt behind the winners Bolzano Südtirol in the final standings. Had the Patra team have employed the Joker on any other game, they would have won the Golden Trophy!
With two other Slovenian teams already having won their International Heats with 56 pts each, Maribor had to pull out all the stops to win this heat with a better score. Leading the competition after playing their Joker on Game 5, the team stayed in 1st place throughout. However, the team really left it to the last minute because after Game 10 they still only had 39 pts - but they finished with a flourish, winning the two remaining games. This meant that the team had scored 18 pts from the final two games, giving them a total of 57 pts - and a vital one point lead over fellow Slovenian teams Bohinj and Šentjernej. This ultimately proved sufficient for International Final qualification.
The Italian team of Parco Fluviale del Nera were representing an area of Italy similar to a National Park. The name (in English, 'Black River Park') is given to the area surrounding the towns of Arrochar, Ferentillo, Montefranco and Polino and lies just east of the town of Terni. The territory of the Black River Park has a predominantly longitudinal course and runs for about 20 kms. It is characterised by a narrow valley dominated by high woodland hills with some stunning waterfalls along its course.
Starting from Noah's Ark, our competitors turn into animals to play the games of this episode in a zigzag voyage through the evolution and the continents, dipping even into prehistoric times and the stuff of legend. After they cross the sea and climb the slope, just one team will end up at the summit of the animal kingdom.
Teams: Lugano (CH) v. Brive-la-Gaillarde (F) v. Edessa (GR) v.
Game 6 - ‘The Hopping Frogs’ - involved male competitors dressed in frog costumes, and the idea of the game was that they hopped down an obstacle course using pogo sticks. If a competitor fell from the pogo stick at any point on the course, he had to return to the start. Both the Hungarian and Italian teams had problems with the sticks and both were permitted a re-run together after the two heats were completed. However after the re-run, they finished in third and fourth respectively, on a game of just four teams!
The six finalists will journey around the world in a balloon and wander upon five continents. During the voyage, teams must also find other means of transportation and have strange encounters. After the last test, where teams cross the sea and climb the chute, the winner of the final Jeux Sans Frontières is proclaimed, celebrated by supporters and opponents, in an explosion of light and colour.
Teams: Chiasso (CH) v. Martigues (F) v. Patra (GR) v.
The sixth game - 'Spinning Mountain Hoop-la' - gave players from four countries the task of balancing on a spinning mountain prop. From their precarious positions they had to throw rings 'hoop-la'-style, aiming at sticks at ground level. However, a French competitor fell and was injured. This caused a delay and eventually the player decided to withdraw from the game, which continued with just three teams playing. France were placed 4th with a score of no rings in 2 minutes but were still awarded 1pt for their part in this game.
In this broadcast there was also a short celebration to mark thirty series of Jeux Sans Frontières.
After the teams were introduced, they all lined up in two lines to form an aisle. The judges were then introduced individually and entered the arena. Three of them came along the aisle on roller-blades, two of them entered on bicycles and one on a Harley Davidson motorbike. Finally, assistant referee Carlo Pegoraro entered the arena on foot and main referee Dennis Pettiaux appeared from high above the arena by means of a rope slide.
A cake was then wheeled in on a trolley by two children, a boy and a girl, and an edited sequence of excerpts from previous editions was shown. This montage started with the opening title sequence from the 1970s and was followed by just over one minute of clips from years gone by. However, only two games from the original series (1965-1982) of Jeux Sans Frontières were shown, the rest were from 1988-1999! After this flashback sequence, the boy was given a whistle by referee Denis Pettiaux, and together they blew them to open the evening's competition. The flashback sequence was not screened in all competing countries, and was quite possibly only included in the Swiss, French, Hungarian and Italian versions.
Following on from seven International Heats blessed with warm weather, the International Final was not so blessed and it started with torrential rain. The freshly cleaned and ironed suits, worn for this special occasion by the referees and judges, were literally soaked through. At one point, the programme had to be halted because the rain was so heavy that it became impossible to play the games. This allowed some national presenters to record unrehearsed links to the other games. However, by Game 4 the rain had relented to offer some respite, but nature was not about to give in so easily and treated the arena to some strong winds. These again hindered some of the games, but did at least assist in drying out the arena and all in it. The rain did make a brief return later in the programme, but this time with less intensity.
Viewers in Hungary may have thought that the rain had continued throughout the programme because the links by presenter Maria Borbas had been recorded earlier during the rain storm. These were slotted into the edited programme and it seemed like it was raining throughout.
and ‘Crossing the Sea’ - The Arctic (Game 12).
The Greek team Patra performed particularly well both in this International Final and previously in International Heat 6, but were truly unlucky with their Jokers in both events. Having gambled their Joker in Heat 6 on a game in which they placed a lowly fifth, the team erred once more in the Final, finishing dead last on their Joker game, 'The Alien Creatures'. Both these results were well below their average performance in the events. While their poor choice did not cost the win in the heat, it certainly had a negative consequence in the Final, in which they finished only 1pt behind the winners Bolzano Südtirol in the final standings. Had the Patra team have employed the Joker on any other game, they would have won the Golden Trophy!
Despite the fact that they did not even win a single game in this International Final, the Swiss team of Chiasso led the competition for the majority of the time. However, a poor score on the Fil Rouge and stronger performances by the other five teams later in the competition, resulted in them finishing in 6th place overall. The eventual winners - Bolzano Südtirol - did not even take the lead until Game 12 when they played a successful Joker and scored 12pts. This elevated them to 1st place, just one point ahead of the Hungarian side of Budapest XII Kerület. The French and the Greeks were not far behind having 38pts and 37pts respectively, with the Swiss on 32pts. Therefore, any of these five teams could have won this competition. Ironically, Slovenian team Maribor, the only team that could not mathematically have won the Final at this stage, had 29pts before the last game (Italy were guaranteed 2pts if they had finished last giving them at least 42pts) went on to win the game, scoring 12 pts to push them ahead of the Swiss and French teams!

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