San Rafael mêlée tournament

Sandra and Louis

Thirty-eight people gathered yesterday in San Rafael for a late season mêlée tournament. It was foggy and cold, and the weather did not improve much for the rest of the day. But the lack of shade provided an ideal setting for photography.

The games did not start until 10:00 am due to some late arrivals and last-minute changes to the players list. I for one, due to a stubborn back pain, was very ambivalent about playing and ultimately gave my spot to somebody else. The Moirai, or Fates, (the three goddesses of destiny) had decided that I should not play and take photographs instead. And so I did.

As usual 2 games were to be played in the morning and 2 more games in the afternoon. The mêlée format is attractive to beginners and dedicated pointers alike  for it gives them a chance to be paired with stronger, or dedicated shooters. And as proven in this tournament, pointers were the real heroes of this event and were instrumental in bringing the bacon home.

In Pétanque, pointers are like infantrymen and shooters are like the artillery. As any general will tell you, no battle can be won without the infantry.  Louis Toulon, a member of the winning team, told me himself that Sandra’s excellent pointing was a major factor of their victory.

The event mercifully ended around 3:00 pm and laurel leaves crowns (and some cash) were awarded to the 4 best teams of the day.

Despite my aching back, I managed to hop around the field to cover the action. At the end of the day, I ended up with over 500 shots that I had to review, correct or discard… an extremely time-consuming operation. I tried to keep the number of photographs published under 200 but I did not  succeed. Sorry about that.

Anyway, here are the finals results:

1st place: Louis Toulon and Sandra Shirkey
2nd place : François Moser and Robert Brown
3rd place: Colin Kennedy and Tamara Efron
4th place: Bernard Passemar and Teri Thiebault

Alain

PS: Be sure to check My photos section to see how the day went on.

Be aware that because all the photos were taken with 3 different recording devices, they are not in a chronological order.