June 27, Sonoma Select Triples

Last Sunday I attended my first post-pandemic tournament of the season, the Select Triples in Sonoma. Not as a competitor mind you, but as an interested blogger. Armed with an array of recording devices I showed up on the pétanque field around 10:00 am and stayed there until past 7:00 pm.

Sixty-three players (21 triplettes) had signed up to play and were already battling on the field. The weather was exceptionally cooperative, and the thermometer never rose above 85 degrees Fahrenheit. Ideal weather for a tournament; we even got a little breeze as a bonus.

Again, it felt strange seeing everybody without a mask, and greetings were sometimes awkward. To hug, to kiss, to make fist contact? that was the uncomfortable question, but we managed…

The Big Boys were already in the process of wiping out the weaker teams, and around lunchtime, 16 teams qualified to play in the Concours and 5 teams were to fight it out in the Consolante.

I happened to follow the fate of some friends (Francois, Jean-Claude, and Gerard) who had stumbled in the Concours and faced the powerful team of John Harris/Tom Lee/Chan Xiong in the afternoon. The execution took place in the pebble-strewn area, in the farthest corner of the field. Within minutes, the score was 12/2 in favor of Harris’s team. I left before watching the mercy killing.

I also followed Jean-Michel and his merry men; despite being a relatively strong team they had a disastrous morning. They lost 3 games in a row and were unceremoniously shown the door to the Consolante. But every cloud has a silver lining… Jean-Michel, Damien, and Bernard eventually ended up winning that part of the tournament.

The Concours finals pitted two of the strongest teams in the field against each other. Peter Mathis, Mickey Coughlin, against Patrick Vaslet took on John Harris, Tom Lee, Chan Xiong. Both teams won all 3 games in the morning and continued destroying every competitor in the afternoon.

Finally, they faced each other. It was a clash of giants. Harris’ team had 3 excellent shooters while Mathis’s formation fielded only 2. But they had an ace up their sleeves, and his name was Patrick Vaslet.

Patrick who played as a pointer did a fabulous job. On a pebble-strewn, difficult terrain, he managed to position just about every boule not farther than 3 inches away from the cochonnet. I sincerely believe that it was his fantastic pointing ability that secured the game in favor of his team. I am not saying that Peter and Mickey did not help; they did as usual an outstanding job, but a great part of the victory was undeniably due to Patrick’s uncanny ability. The crowd in attendance cheered him numerous times.

Despite Fresno’s solid defense, the game ended up with the surprising final score of 13/2 in favor of Sonoma. Despite the great point margin, both teams played extremely well and it was a great tournament.

Final results:

Concours (16 teams)

1^st place:        Peter Mathis/Patrick Vaslet/Mickey Coughlin
2^nd place:       John Harris/Tom Lee/Chan Xiong
3^rd place:        Scott Jordan/Dave Lanter/Dan Marioni

Consolante (5 teams)

1^st place:        Damien Monnet/Bernard Passmar/Jean-Michel Poulnot
2^nd place:       Don McPherson/Linda McPherson/Bob Stephens

Alain

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