Monday August 11, 2008

In honor of Bob’s memory

Yesterday’s event was meant to be a celebration to honor our too soon departed friend Bob Winkley.

It was a celebration indeed and many people came to pay homage to big Bob’s memory. They came from Berkeley, Sonoma, Lafayette, Sacramento and of course Marin County. Ultimately 16 triplettes entered the field.

1	David Render	Jean Bartkowiak	Bill Hansen
2	Roger Mattei	Jean-Paul Bricca	Mina Afshar
3	Jean-Marie Letellier	Ken Del Gobbo	Colette Van der Meulen
4	Dave Riffo	Jean-Claude Etallaz	Sabine Mattei
5	Jose Gonzales	Andre Sanchou	James Cloud
6	Jacques Sarafian	Bernard Passmar	Greg Winkley
7	Frank Pipal	Rene Di Maio	John Morrison
8	Antoine Lofaro	J-Christophe Loomis	Denyse Haney
9	Eric Swett	Mireille Di Maio	Mary Allbright
10	Luc Pouget	Frank Haney	Monte Freidig
11	Alain Efron	Claudie Chourre	Christine Cragg
12	Carlos Couto	Monique Bricca	Helga Facchini
13	Ken Lee	Jean-Michel Poulnot	Genevieve Etallaz
14	Ed Porto	Verena Rytter	Tamara Efron
15	Tino Lofaro	Jack Rosenstein	Elizabeth Gonzales
16	Louis Toulon	Jacques Gautier	Ellen Fong

As it was previously stated, all the proceeds from the tournament and all the donations collected during this event will go to the Winkley’s family preferred charity, Doctors without Borders ( Medecins Sans Frontieres).
I am glad to report that we collected $365.00 plus another $100.00 from the Berkeley Boys for a grand total of $465.00.
Thank you very much to all of you!

The weather cooperated and everybody basked in a glorious California summer day.

Even though everything went without a hitch, few people seemed to realize that it took a lot of planning and organization to pull this through. And (read my upcoming editorial) some people seem to lack even a basic notion of “savoir vivre”. Excuse me for being blunt, but let’s call a spade a spade!

As always, I want to recognize the people who were instrumental in making this event a success: first of all Christine Cragg who choreographed the whole production, the indefatigable Claudie Chourré, Verena Rytter, Mireille Di Maio and Ken Lee. Ken by the way, who was in charge of purchasing the bread for the picnic, refused to be reimbursed for it, and offered it gratis for the event.

I also want to recognize Teri Sirico of Sonoma who donated some of the wine, Bart Zachofsky who ran the tournament flawlessly, Alain Marchand who carved the birds, Tamara, Helga and Genevieve who jumped in the fray without being asked and lent a precious hand.

Who am I forgetting? Nobody I hope.

The lunch (graciously offered by La Pétanque Marinière) was made available to our guests around noon. It consisted of humongous portions roast chicken, green beans, salad, cheese, bread and white and red wine. Various cakes brought by the guests themselves completed the feast. Personally, I could barely move after ingesting so much food; others took it in stride and even continued to play (I don’t know how) after the official tournament was over.

After lunch, Christine Cragg (as usual choked by emotion) offered a plaque (engraved and graciously donated by Bart Zachofsky) to Marilyn Winkley in the name of the club.

The tournament proper started after lunch and was set up by Bart Zachofsky in a “triplettes a la melee” format . A little confusing at first, but ultimately very workable.

The tournament consisted of 3 thirteen points’ games and instead of winning points, the contestants accumulated lottery tickets: 2 tickets for the winning teams and one ticket for the losing teams.

After the tournament was over, numbers were called up and bottles of wine were awarded to the winning tickets holders. Not a bad idea… Maybe the first step toward getting rid of cash prizes altogether in future tournaments… Tamara managed as usual to bring some bacon (a bottle wine) home.

A memorable event indeed to be remembered fondly.

The Big Lug must have been smiling somewhere in the big blue yonder.

Alain Efron

PS: Tanya Winkley called this morning to let us know that she lost her watch sometime over the course of the day.  It has a brown leather band and a square face. Please get in touch with me if you found it.

PS2: Additional pictures of this event can be seen by clicking on the "Web Album II" below