So, what happened yesterday in San Rafael? Plenty, my friends and I am here to enlighten you, with words and images.
First, the weather. It was as capricious as a spoiled girlfriend. Cool in the morning, then warming up a little bit in the afternoon, and finally as cold as witches’ bubbies in the evening. it was so cold that despite my five layers of clothing I literally froze my little “derrière”.
To put things in perspective, to give you a full report, I was on the field from 9:00 am until 7:00 pm. A full day of hard labor.
But back to the main story. Sixty (60) people signed up to play in our tournament, with heavyweights coming from Sonoma, Petaluma and Sacramento. These days, with a 2 hours drive and the price of gasoline exceeding $6.00 per gallon, you really must love pétanque to come all the way from Sacto to play.
As usual, 3 games were played before lunch, and elimination games followed in the afternoon in the Concours and the Consolante sections.
My team included Tamara, the other Alain (my twin) from Petaluma, and myself. We lost 2 games in the morning and won one. We then ended up in the Consolante where things suddenly deviated from my script. I was planning on getting eliminated first thing in the afternoon and concentrating on photographing the event, but then we won another game and had to remain on active duty for another game.
Finally, around 3:00 pm, Ed Porto, Patrick Vaslet, and Shannon Bowman battered us 13/8 and we were out of the race. I immediately grabbed Big Bertha (my combat camera) and started shooting everything in sight. There was plenty of action, but since I still cannot be at two places at the same time, I tried my best to catch the most interesting stuff.
Late in the afternoon, I concentrated on the Concours Semi-finals and later in the Concours Finals. In the semifinals, it was Kevin, Wolfie, and Ashlee against Brendan, Tom Lee, and Suzy Lee. Wolfie’s team won.
In the Finals, Kevin’s team faced Mike Lee, Kue Lee, and Michelle Dang, the toughies from Sacramento. It was a very interesting match with everybody playing very well. On Wolfie’s side, Ashlee pointed extremely well. She was obviously in the “Zone” and could not do anything wrong. Kevin also amazed me (and everybody else) with his signature “plombés”. Kevin shot… and killed.
On the other side, Michelle Dang pointed, with Mike Lee and Kue Lee being the enforcers. Kue Lee proved to be an unconventional but very accurate shooter. If you noticed, he threw his boules with “open palm” rather than palm down, but he was amazingly accurate. Mike Lee (the Sphinx) was also very good and helped a lot.
Wolfie’s team finally won by 13/10, a very close score. The last game ended up around 7:00 pm with by then only a handful of half-frozen spectators remaining.
I quickly took the pictures of all the remaining winners and ran like hell for my car and a bit of warmth.
Concours:
1st place: Wolfie K, Kevin Evoy, Ashlee Dencklau $72/ea
2nd place: M. Lee, Kue Lee, Michelle Dang $60/ea
The 2 teams in 3rd place decided not to play and split the fees
3rd place: B. Cohen, T. Lee, S. Lee/B. Pierce, E. Hay, R. Seder $24/ea
Consolante:
1st place: Ed Porto, P. Vaslet, Shannon Bowman $36/ea
2nd place: J-C Bunand, J. Gautier, Emily Etcheverry $24/ea
Alain
Go to « My Photos” to see the pictures. For best viewing, go “full screen”.
PS: Due to the fact that I have used 3 different recording devices, all the photos are not in chronological order. Sorry about that.