Last Saturday was hot, well into the 90’s, but Sunday was a different kind of animal. It was about 20 degrees cooler and a pesky Northern wind made at times playing conditions (at least for me) rather uncomfortable.
But this didn’t stop many pétanque fans from attending our annual Steak Picnic/Tournament.
Granted, the attendance was a little smaller than last year, but the spirit was there.
You might not have noticed, but the field was immaculate and you can thank hard working Emily Etcheverry for that. Merci Emily!
The people in charge of the tournament were our three swashbuckling female musketeers, namely Christine Cragg, Verena Rytter and Liv Kraft.
They put together 10 triplettes that were as follows:
- Jean-Marc Bohin/Colette Van Der Meulen/Debbie King
- Jean-Claude Bunand/Hendrik Idzerda/Judi McCord
- Philippe Arnaud/Mireille Di Maio/Robert Belforte
- Bleys Rose/Verena Rytter/Richard Heglund
- Luc Pouget/Christine Cragg/Marc Di Maio
- Maggie Lane/Claudie Chourre/Leo Cantayre
- Bill Hansen/Francois Moser/Briana Olson
- Teri Sirico/Henry Wessel/Liliane Sebban
- Jean Bartkowiak/Sabine Mattei/Henriette Matocq
- Alain Efron/Charlie Davantes/Calvert Barton
On Sunday, I did not intend to play and was planning to spend the afternoon schmoozing and taking pictures, but this was not to be.
Due to a player shortage, I was cajoled into handling boules rather than handling my camera, hence the rather small number of photographs.
The people in charge of the barbecue were Alain Marchand, Antoine Lofaro and Francois Moser.
As a former professional butcher, Alain volunteered to buy and handle the meat.
He also prepared and cooked the “Jardinière” (a mixture of spring vegetables) accompanying the steaks.
Thank you gentlemen for volunteering and for a job well done.
Indefatigable Claudie Chourré and Mireille Di Maio also greatly helped. Thank you ladies.
Lunch was served around 12:00 pm and games started around 1:00 p.m..
It was decided that there would be three 13 points games and that no scores would be kept. People would play strictly for fun.
The winning teams of each game received 2 lottery tickets each and the losers one.
At the end of the tournament bottles of wine were awarded by random drawing.
Among the new faces on the field, there was charming Briana Olson who will hopefully soon join our club, Hendrik Idzerda and Marcy Guiragossian who just did.
Please make them all feel welcome.
During the tournament, I had the pleasure to play with my old pal Charlie Davantes and new comer Calvert Barron.
Calvert happily surprised me by placing some very good shots and I dare predict a very bright pétanque future for this Southern Belle.
The tournament was over around 5:00 p.m. and bottles of wine were awarded to some lucky ticket holders.
Not a bad day after all!
Alain
PS: To look at pictures of this event, 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.