Coup de théâtre!

I have always believed that “it ain’t over until the fat lady sings” and one more time I was proven right. Never presume to know the outcome of an event still in progress.

Yesterday in Sonoma, at the National Men’s & Women’s Doubles World Championship Qualifier, Ed Porto and Ziggy Kessouagni faced Peter Mathis and Jack Vijit (from Chicago) in the men’s finals. Two very strong teams definitely deserving to be in the finals.

If I am not mistaken, everybody believed that it was going to be a very tight contest, all players being equally adept at shooting and pointing.

When the game started, Ziggy on one side and Jack on Mathis’ side were the appointed shooters. Both excellent marksmen.

Score” 10-1

Porto’s team scored first. Then they scored again… again and again. Very soon the scoreboard (watch picture) was showing a dismaying 10-1 in favor of Porto’s team. Unbelievable!

Everybody thought les carottes sont cuites (the carrots are cooked) as we say in French.

But the carrots were only “al dente”. After being extremely accurate and scoring carreaux after carreaux, both shooters started to miss. For a while, it looked like they both lost their bearings. Fatigue, stress? Understandable. They had been at it since 9:00 a.m. and it was now 6:00 p.m.

Both teams reverted roles. The pointers became the shooters and the shooters became pointers. Mathis’ team finally emerged from its comatose state and started scoring.

Little by little, they crept up until the score reached 12/12.

Any team could win. The tension was palpable!

Jack Vijit & Peter Mathis

Finally, around 6:30 p.m. Mathis delivered “ le coup de grace” and it was over. After being on life support for a good 20 minutes Peter and Jack rose from the dead and won 1st place 13/12.

The accompanying pictures clearly show their pent-up emotion.

A movie is likely in the offing. Hollywood already called!

On the women’s side, after a long battle, Juanita Celix & Angie Gleason defeated Kongback & Bissonnette and took 1st place.

Men’s finals:
1st place: Peter Mathis & Jack Vijit
2nd place: Ed Porto & Ziggy Kessouagni
3rd place: John Harris & Mickey Coughlin

Women’s finals:
1st place: Juanita Celix & Angie Gleason
2nd place: Kongback & Bissonnette
3rd place: Vang & Thao

Men’s Consolante:
1st place: J-M Poulnot &  Johnatan Dalmau

Alain

Full names and ranking will be updated as soon as I get the data.

Enjoy the pictures. Comments are always appreciated.

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