Yesterday, nineteen teams from all over the Bay Area braved the elements to compete in the 2014 California Commemorative Cup.
Ignoring rain threats, they gathered in San Rafael for the first official LPM tournament of the season.
These brave souls were:
- Louis Toulon & Claudie Chourré
- Francois Moser & Helga Facchini
- Alain Efron & Sabine Mattei
- J-C Etallaz & Minette Etallaz
- Etienne Rijkheer & Carolina Jones
- Mickey Coughlin & Nicole Coughlin
- Patrick Vaslet & Shannon Bowman
- Henry Wessel & Calvert Barron
- Kevin Evoy & Holly Sammons
- John Krauer & Eva Lofaro
- Joss Krauer & Jean-Michel Poulnot
- Adair Hastings & Barbara Hall
- Bernard Passmar & Henriette Matocq
- J-C Bunand & Mireille Di Maio
- Carlos Couto & Therese Pollock
- Ed Porto & Beth Lysten
- Hans Kurz & Debbie King
- Rene Di Maio & Monique Bricca
- Peter Wellington & Teri Sirico
The predicted rain never materialized and the tournament proceeded under an overcast but clement sky.
The tournament consisted of three 13 points qualifying games played before lunch and the ensuing Concours, Consolante A and Consolante B played in the afternoon.
I noted with pleasure that a much-needed time limit of forty-five minutes per game was enforced by the organizers. Kudos to La Pétanque Marinière for finally implementing this necessary rule.
After lunch, 8 teams qualified for the Concours, 7 teams for Consolante A and 4 teams for Consolante B.
In the first round of the Concours
- Vaslet/Bowman defeated Porto/Lysten
- Hastings/Hall defeated Evoy/Sammons
- Etallaz/Etallaz defeated Di Maio/Bricca
- Toulon/Chourré defeated Efron/Mattei
In the second round
- Hasting/Hall eliminated Vaslet/Bowman
- Etallaz/Etallaz eliminated Toulon/Chourré (by a hair).
Our own team (through the excellent pointing of Sabine Mattei) won its three first games and qualified for the Concours.
But in the first challenge of the main event (probably drunk with success) we were unceremoniously kicked out of the tournament. A shrewdly calculated move I might advance, designed to free me to snap some action shots of our petanque warriors.
I think that this particular event will be remembered more by the fairytale of the defeated than by the achievement of the winners.
Minou and Minette (Jean-Claude & Genevieve Etallaz) lived an enchanted life throughout the tournament and to everybody’s surprise squeaked into the Concours’ finals.
But like Icarus, their magic ride came to a fiery end when they flew too close to the sun.
In the finals of the tournament, facing a much stronger team, they crashed and burned.
In less than 15 minutes they were annihilated by Adair Hastings and Barbara Hall and suffered the seldom-witnessed ignominy of a finals’ Fanny.
But to their everlasting credit, Minou and Minette deserve respect for reaching the finals, a slight detail that 17 teams failed to achieve.
Let’s not forget that to reach the finals, they first qualified for the Concours and that during this event they also defeated Di Maio and Bricca, and then Toulon and Chourré.
Not a small achievement.
FINAL RESULTS:
Concours:
1st place: Adair Hastings & Barbara Hall (on the right of the picture)
2nd place: Jean-Claude Etallaz & Genevieve Etallaz
Consolante A:
1st place: Mickey Coughlin & Nicole Coughlin
2nd place: Etienne Rijkheer & Carolina Jones
Consolante B:
1st place: Carlos Couto & Therese Pollock
2nd place: Francois Moser & Helga Facchini
The names of the tournament winners (Adair Hastings and Barbara Hall) will be inscribed for everybody to see on the Perpetual Trophy.
Thank you to Verena Rytter, Christine Cragg, Liv Kraft and Bart Zachofsky for hosting and coordinating this tournament.
Alain
PS: To look at photos of this event and listen to accompanying background music, turn the sound on, and click on the link “My Photos” located on the right side of this page.