The battle of July 27

Whenever I attend a pétanque event, I am driven by two passions: my love of pétanque and my love of photography.
But since I cannot devote the same attention to both mistresses simultaneously, they don’t cohabit peacefully.
Either I play pétanque and neglect photography, or I refrain from pétanque and devote all my time to pictures taking.
A difficult choice, for alas you can’t have your cake and eat it too.

When taking pictures, I basically use two cameras named respectively Little Boy and Big Mama.
Little Boy is a tiny camera (3.9 x 1.1 x 2.3 inches) and weighing 7.7 ounces.
It is easy to carry and better suited for close-up shots.
Big Mama is much more substantial. It is bulky, equipped with a long-range lens and weighs probably fifty times more than Little Boy.
It is best used in sporting events.

This preamble to tell you that yesterday,  for the sake of convenience, I used mainly Little Boy instead of Big Mama and I am not pleased with results.
Only the pictures of the winners were taken with Big Mama and it shows.
I will rely on Big Mama next time.

But let’s talk about the main event.

Yesterday, thirteen (13) select triplettes gathered to compete for Big Dough and everlasting glory.

They were as follows:

1. Ken Lee/Brendan Cohen/Carlos Couto
2. Alain Efron/Henry Wessel/Calvert Barron
3. John Morris/Cody Morris/Marie-Anne Curley
4. Barbara Howard/Susi Garcia/Tamara Whitney
5. Terese Pullock/Beth Lysten/Carolina Jones
6. Larry Cragg/Christine Cragg/Claudie Chourré
7. Erin McTaggart/Narin Garrett/Barbara Hall
8. Bleys Rose/Bernard Passmar/Jean-Michel Poulnot
9. Joe La Torre/Frosty Sabo/Susan Holbert
10. PJ Malette/Antoine Lofaro/Patrick Vaslet
11. Hans Kurz/Wolfgang Kurz/Peter Wellington
12. J-Claude Etallaz/Minette Etallaz/J-Claude Bunand
13. Holly Sammons/Shannon Bowman/Nicole Coughlin

The weather was good. Not as hot as in previous days and cooled by a little breeze. The leafy canopy of our trees also helped.

Coffee and croissants (donated by Ken Lee) were served in the morning and 3 (timed) thirteen points games were played before lunch to separate the pros from the amateurs.

For this occasion, my chosen partners were “Big Henry” Wessel and Southern Belle Calvert Barron.
I daresay that we made an excellent team and deserve all the (short term) glory that we gathered that day.

We started the day very auspiciously by winning our first 3 games and becoming eligible to play with the Big Boys in the Concours.

After a lunch break, we won another equally satisfying game by defeating Le Facteur and his letter carriers.
Then, (maybe because I broke my dietary oath and indulged in an ice-cream) we were crushed 13/0 by Hans Kurz and his posse.

This by the way reinforces my belief in Karma.

We previously defeated J-C Etallaz, J.C Bunand and Minette Etallaz: 13/0
Following that, Hans Kurz and his team trounced us: 13/0
They in turn got their just retribution when in the finals Lofaro and his gang savaged them by a score of 13/1.

You should believe what I already told you, what goes around comes around…

The final results:

Concours:

1^st place: Antoine Lofaro, PJ Malette, Patrick Vaslet: $30.00 each
2^nd place: H. Kurz, W. Kurz, P. Wellington: $22.00 each
3^rd place: L. Cragg, C. Cragg, C. Chourré: $13.00 each
4^th place: H. Wessel, C. Barron, A. Efron: $0.00 each (I just had to mention our names).

Consolante:

1^st place: Bleys Rose, J.M. Poulnot, Bernard Passmar: $13.00 each
2^nd place: John Morris, Cody Morris, Marie-Anne Curley: $10.00 each

Watch what you are doing, Karma awaits you!

Alain (aka La Foudre)

PS: To look at photos of this event and listen to the accompanying background music, turn the sound on, and click on the link “My Photos” located on the right side of this page.