A few days ago, I worried about the sad state of our pétanque field, and about who would volunteer to help cleaning a terrain almost totally smothered by a thick carpet of dead leaves.
I hate to say it, but I have lost faith in the volunteering spirit of our club.
Driving by Saturday morning, I was happily surprised to see a field almost totally devoid of debris and dead leaves.
It seemed obvious that a good fairy came by, and with a wave of her magic wand she did what our club members have been unwilling to do.
But being of a skeptical nature though, I did some discrete investigation and I discovered that our benefactor was not a good fairy but some true-blue club members.
The good fairies who did the bulk of the job were in fact indefatigable Claudie Chourré, Charlie Davantes and a newcomer called Daniel ?.
They were assisted a day later by Fairy Helpers Liv Kraft, Helga Facchini and Emily Etcheverry. Yeah for the girls!
Club fairies, we owe you a big one!
Back to the tournament.
I don’t know if it was due to a lack of promotion, but a fairly modest crowd showed up to participate in the 2012 Interclub tournament. We had a total of 40 contestants when a regular tournament usually gathers around 60 people. What is it? EPF? (Early Pétanque Fatigue).
And by the way, tournaments have rules.
The rule number one is to register in a timely manner. And forget the casual phone call. To make the organizers’ job easier, use e-mail. It is clear, succinct and fast. Simply state the number of people coming, spell their names properly and click on “send”. You are done.
Rule number two: be punctual. It is rude and unfair to everybody to hold a tournament hostage because of someone’s tardiness.
I look at a tournament like I look at planes or trains schedules. Regardless of your lame excuse, they will get going on time and so should tournaments.
The contestants of the 2012 Interclub tournament were:
La Pétanque Marinière: 16
Antonia Paulsen, Colette Van der Meulen, Tamara Efron, Alain Efron, Francois Moser, Eva Lofaro, Gilles Karpowicz, Claudie Chourré, Minette Etallaz, Jean-Claude Etallaz, Henry Wessell, Emily Etcheverry, Jean Etcheverry, Mireille Di Maio, Rene Di Maio
Valley of the Moon: 6
Joe La Torre, Maggie Lane, Barbara Hall, Holly Sammons, Jean-Michel Poulnot, Bernard Passmar
La Boule d’Or: 6
Luc Pouget, Jean-Claude Bunand, Joss Krauer, John Krauer, Alain Gusella, Gustave Foucher
Petaluma Valley: 6
Ed Porto, Teri Sirico, Hans Kurz, Wolfie Kurz, Bleys Rose, Sabine Mattei
Sacramento: 6
Denyse Haney, Kevin McGill, John Morris, Lisa Vaughn, Marie Ann Curley, Pierre Bremont
The weather (always important) was good. A little chilly in the morning, but plenty of sunshine in the afternoon.
Coffee and croissants were served before the tournament started
The tournament was very efficiently managed by David Riffo. And I applaud his decision to have timed games. I think that too many people are taking an inordinate amount of time to ponder a playing strategy.
Three 13 points, 50 minutes games were played in the morning. After 50 minutes Dave blew his whistle and all games had to stop. Good move.
In the afternoon, the format of the tournament was changed from doublettes to triplettes.
The finalists were determined as usual, by a combination of wins and points accumulated during the morning games.
They were:
Marin 1:
Antoine Lofaro, Rene Di Maio, Jacques Sarafian
Marin 2:
Gilles Karpowicz, Mireille Di Maio, Tamara Efron
Sonoma:
Barbara Hall, Holly Sammons, Jean-Michel (le Facteur) Poulnot
San Francisco:
Alain Gusella, Steve Paulsen, Gustave Foucher
Petaluma:
Ed Porto, Bleys Rose, Wolfie Kurz
Sacramento:
Kevin McGill, Lisa Vaughn, John Morris
The tournament blow by blow:
- Marin 1 hammered Sonoma: 13/0
- Petaluma clobbered San Francisco: 13/3
- Marin 2 defeated Petaluma: 13/6
- Sacramento eliminated Marin1: 13/12
Marin 1 (Antoine Lofaro, Rene Di Maio, Jacques Sarafian) was doing very well until its match against Sacramento.
Our guys were leading 12/8 and their victory seemed assured when a lucky (?) shot from Kevin McGill hit the cochonnet and send it flying.
Game over for Marin 1. Adieu veaux, vaches, cochons…
The final game opposed Marin 2 (Gilles Karpowicz, Mireille Di Maio, Tamara Efron) and Sacramento (Kevin McGill, Lisa Vaughn, John Morris).
Surprisingly enough, it turned out to be a lopsided contest. Due to superior pointing by Sacramento, Marin 2 was annihilated by a score of 13/2.
Sorry fellow Marinites and congratulations to Sacramento!
Alain
PS: To look at pictures of recent events, turn the sound on, click on the “Home” link at the top of the page, and click again on “My photos” located on the right side of the page. Enjoy.