Despite a fairly low tournament attendance, there was plenty of action yesterday at the Marin Pétanque court.
The field was extremely well groomed and we owe it in great part to indefatigable Charlie Davantes and Liv Kraft. On Saturday, they did a herculean job of removing at least 20 large bags of dead leaves from the field. My hat off to this likable hard working couple.
The format of yesterday’s tournament was “panaché” and I borrowed the following definition from the Oakhurst Pétanque Club.
Panaché Doublette: Two person teams. Individuals are placed in groups of pointers and shooters and assigned numbers by lottery. Teams are formed at the start of each game according to an officially sanctioned number sequence, pairing a shooter and a pointer. Each player plays with a different partner for each game. Individual scores are maintained to establish tournament winners.
Our organizers (Sandra Shirkey, Mark Shirkey and Liv Kraft) divided all the contestants into two groups: shooters and pointers, and they were as follows:
Shooters:
Mark Shirkey, Francois Moser, Noah Sonnet, Jacques Rattaire, Bob Crossley, Bleys Rose, J-C Etallaz, Evan Falcone, Brigitte Moran, Christine Cragg.
Pointers:
Larry Cragg, Gilbert Sonnet, Alain Efron, Tamara Efron, Liliane Sebban, Akira Okawa, Claudie Chourré, Genevieve Etallaz, Christine Morier, Charlie Davantes.
By the way, all the people who played as “shooters” were not necessarily the real article. Due to a lack of genuine shooters, some innocent people were shanghaied into acting as shooters… as a result, they struggled but they did pretty well.
Two games were played in the morning and three additional games in the afternoon.
The field was still partially wet, spongy and extremely challenging. This was the ideal terrain for “plombers” and “au fer” shooters. Pointers had to put some extra oomph in their throws to reach the cochonnet and many (myself included) missed the mark.
Due to almost 3 months of forced inactivity, I opted to play as a pointer and managed fairly well (3 wins out of 5), despite a persisting cold and a stubbornly stiff spine.
I had the pleasure to team up with young Noah Sonnet, Brigitte Davantes, Evan Falcone and Bleys Rose, who by the way has become an excellent shooter.
I also played with J-C Etallaz against mighty Jacques Rattaire and ? He demolished us in minutes with a score of 13/3. Curse you Red Baron!
Seeing my good friend Francois Moser and my wife Tamara on the winning podium was an added pleasure to an excellent day of pétanque and camaraderie.
I feel confident to say that a good time was had by all.
Final results:
1st place: Christine Cragg & Gilbert Sonnet
2nd place: Tamara Efron & Francois Moser
3rd place: Evan Falcone & Charlie Davantes
Alain
To look at photos of this event, click on the “My Photos” link located on the right side of this page. For best viewing, go Full Screen.
*The excellent group photo by the way, was taken by Tom Moran.