Yesterday, in the waning days of 2018, La Pétanque Marinière hosted its last Concours of the season. Such an event held in December is always iffy, but fortunately, it did not rain and we were able to proceed as planned.
It did not rain but the entire area was saturated by a dense blanket of fog that lingered for the entire day. It was not extremely cold, but the humidity in the air made the temperature seem much colder than it really was. Confined under a few layers of clothing, I played under par.
The ground was still very mushy and it took an extra effort to position one’s boule properly.
This situation did not prevent 28 players from all over the Bay Area to come to Marin to strut their stuff.
Mark and Sandra Shirkey, assisted by Noel Marcovecchio, oversaw the tournament and by 9:30 am, 14 doublettes were assembled and ready to compete.
The format of this contest was “a la mêlée” and I was extremely lucky (this time) to be paired with Nancy Jencks, the Petaluma southpaw wonder. Her pointing accuracy was remarkable and she contributed mightily to the outcome of this contest.
Three (1 hour) timed games were played in the morning to determine who would end up in the Concours or the Consolante. After winning 2 out of 3 games in the morning we qualified for the Concours.
Due mainly to Nancy’s supernatural pointing accuracy, we defeated all of our opponents in the afternoon and finally faced Donna Von Edelkrantz and young Steve Dudgeon in the Finals. Again, Nancy overwhelmed them with her magic touch and we emerged the winners of that concours.
A nice Christmas present for both of us.
Between games, I managed to take some pictures which reflect pretty accurately the mood and atmosphere of this contest; I certainly hope that you will like them.
While playing in the finals, I asked Noel to take a few pictures of me and you might notice a few seldom-seen shots of the photographer been photographed.
In the accompanying photo album, you will also see the winners of the Fall League, namely Liza Moran and Shannon Tracy for the first place, and Mark and Sandra Shirkey for the second place.
Jacques Gautier and Charlie Davantes took 1st place in la Consolante.
In the Concours:
1st place: Nancy Jencks & Alain Efron
2nd place: Donna Von Edelkrantz & Steve Dudgeon
3rd place: Mark Shirkey & Susan Wyatt
In the Consolante:
1st place: Tim & Larry
Alain
PS: Feel free to download any of my pictures, but when posting any of them on social media, please include photo credit (Photos by Alain Efron). Thank you.