These last few days I have been wondering whether or not I would play in the Sunday tournament. It rained intermittently almost every day of the week and especially on Saturday when the rain pounded my roof all night.
I was convinced that soon or later I would get a “texto” canceling this event. But this message never materialized, meaning that the tournament was on.
I eventually opted not to play, but I was really curious to see who would. So on Sunday morning, around 10:00 am I ventured to the field to find out who the mad dogs of pétanque were.
I marched to the command post manned by (gloriously resuscitated) Christine Cragg and Mike O’Leary.
So how many crazies showed up this morning? I politely enquired.
We have 6 teams they told me. Being a math wizard, I quickly concluded that a total of 18 people would compete in this tournament. And they were:
- Doug Coleville/ Les Stone/ Kathy Stone
- Mark Shirkey/Sandra Shirkey/J-M Poulnot
- Beth Lysten/J-C Etallaz/Serge Hanne
- Kevin Evoy/Tim Wetzel/Holly Sammons
- Mone Lee/Tom Lee/Michelle Dang
- Phomenick Lee/Pao Lee/Maryanne Curley
I tip my hat to those devotees, especially the Sacramento crowd. They must have gotten up at six this morning to show up on time. You must really love the game to do this, particularly on a questionable day.
So, was the field playable? It depends on who you are talking to. It was definitely muddy and not to everybody’s liking… certainly not to mine.
Three 45 minutes games were played in the morning and everybody would play in the Concours.
I spent just one hour on the field shooting pictures and went back home to process what I gathered.
I came back around 1:00 pm and was greeted by a surprising ray of sunshine. But it was just a teaser. Half an hour later the players were soaked by a sneaky shower. Nobody took cover and everybody kept playing.
Being averse to cold, I packed my gears and went home again.
Last minute (per Mark Shirkey) the top dogs are:
1st place: Phomenick Lee/Pao Lee/Maryanne Curley
2nd place: Kevin Evoy/Tim Wetzel/Holly Sammons
3rd place: Doug Coleville/ Les Stone/ Kathy Stone
4th place: Beth Lysten/J-C Etallaz/Serge Hanne
Enjoy the pictures.
Alain
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.