On Sunday, November 13, La Pétanque Marinière hosted a mêlée tournament. Nothing unusual about that, except that it was pretty cold that day, and as the saying goes “only mad dogs and Englishmen go out on a frigid day.”
So, being neither an Englishman nor a mad dog, I decided to stay in bed a little longer and not expose my delicate body to the biting cold of November. I showed up at 10:30 am and I was glad I did it. By then the sun was shining, but the temperature never went above 62° F and after 4:00 pm, when the sun disappeared behind the Civic Center, it became extremely cold again.
Upon my arrival to the field, I checked the bulletin board and noticed that only 20 people signed up for this event. Brave or loopy individuals I thought…
Anyway, 2 games were to be played in the morning and 3 more in the afternoon. The players were few, but their caliber was high, even very good.
I particularly noticed Mireille Di Maio, who at 86 is still pointing like a champ. But she has had a lot of practice… she probably started playing petanque when most of you were not even born… She teamed up with “Eddy la Mitraille” and together they proved a fearsome formation.
My good friend Ann played with Dennis Casad, who is also a good player besides being a dog lover. A big plus in my book.
If you pay attention, you might notice a few pictures of Dennis and his pooch named Yaya in my accompanying photo album. A very friendly and playful beast.
Our friend Shama didn’t play but took care of the entrance fees and the scores. Besides doing an excellent job, I noticed that she was also a great ambassador for the game and gladly answered questions about pétanque from passersby. We love you Shama.
Ben Pierce who played with Tamara seemed to be handicapped with the flu and was wearing a mask. This didn’t prevent him from doing an excellent shooting job and helping Tamara in her glory quest.
I also noticed the fellow (unknown to me) who was playing with Richard Bell. I noticed him because he was an excellent player, but also because he was probably out of his mind. When the temperature was hovering around 50/55° F, he kept playing in a short sleeves shirt without minding the cold. Could he have been on some mind-altering substance? Who knows…
Cynthia Heinricks (mindless of the cold), accompanied by her daughter also paid us a visit. She introduced many of us to her daughter and chatted excitedly with everybody. Good to see you, Cynthia.
The tournament ended mercifully around 4:30 pm, but not before Cristine Cragg and Ron Rohlfes settled their score with Richard Bell and the short sleeves guy (Rick Ziesche I found out).
It was a fight to the death that finally ended late in the afternoon with Richard and Rick defeating Ron and Christine 13/12.
Final results:
1st place: Mireille Di Maio & Eddy Pay
2nd place: Jerry Wilkinson & Steven Payette
3rd place: Tamara Efron & Ben Pierce
Alain
PS: don’t forget to look at the pictures