Sunday proved to be a nice day in Lamorinda. A little fresh and foggy in the morning but bright and sunny in the afternoon.
The day started auspiciously with a comfortable ride to the East Bay offered by Christine Cragg. Thank you, Christine.
The folks in Lamorinda worked very hard to improve their field and they succeeded. The courts looked immaculate. The ground was newly covered with a fine gravel that looked good but proved challenging to the untrained. The boules were slowed and often sank in the fine pebbles; “au fer” and “plombés” were the only options.
Coffee and pastries were offered to the forty-eight (48) people who chose to participate.
This event was an interclub tournament and each Bay Area club sent a small formation. The format of the tourney was the same as in the past; 3 panaché doubles in the morning with teams from opposing clubs playing against each other.
In the afternoon, top-ranked players from each team were paired as triples to play in the Concours or Consolante.
Marin showed up with Sandra & Mark Shirkey, Mike O’Leary, Alain Efron, Robin Kehoe, Robin McDonnell, Francois Moser and Christine Cragg.
We all fairly quickly bit the dust. I personally played 4 games losing them all. My strongest showing was when I was paired with Mark Shirkey. We did well narrowly losing the game 10/13 to Hmong players.
Fresno showed up with a very strong formation. Hmong power was evident throughout the tournament with most of their players being able to shoot and point as well.
Sonoma also performed well, with an outstanding performance from Wolfie who hit many superb carreaux. But they ultimately succumbed to the superior firepower from the Hmong formation.
Both Concours and Consolante were awarded to Fresno teams. They are the new Spartans.
Concours:
1st place: Michel Yang, By Vang and Chong Xiong
2nd place: Teri Sirico, Maggie lane and Wolfie Kurz
3rd place: Holly Sammons, Mickey Coughlin, Manu LeBihan
Consolante:
1st place: Nicholas Yang, Carl Motschielder and Thomas Moua
2nd place: Gilbert Sonet, Beth Lysten and Serge Hanne
Alain
PS: I would be extremely grateful if somebody could provide me with the proper spelling of all the Hmong players.
Addendum
I was not aware that this tournament, using the Lamorinda field, was actually hosted by the dynamic Fresno gang. Thank you guys for a job well done. It is an honor to be humbled by such a spirited group.
Alain – what a wonderful write up of the event, thank you so much. You did well with spelling of the Concour. The Consolante winners were Nicolas Yang, Thomas Moua and Carl Motschiedler.
Thanks again, it was a pleasure hosting such a lovely group of Petanque players.
Janice
Thank you very much Janice.