Yesterday, the Valley of the Moon Pétanque Club hosted its annual Wine Country Classic tournament. An event also dedicated to the memory of beloved Tino (Nunziato) Lofaro who passed away almost 2 years ago.
As expected, it drew a big crowd. Thirty eight (38) doublettes or 76 contestants to be precise.
The weather was good (not too hot) but in the afternoon the wind picked up significantly and blew clouds of dust all over the field.
The event was ably run and supervised by my good buddy, unflappable Patrick Vaslet.
The format of the tournament was “Select Doubles” and people teamed up with what I assume was (and I could be wrong) their BFF (Best Friend Forever). All the people were too numerous to mention, but among the players I know I noticed the two Jean-Claude (Jean-Claude Bunand and Jean-Claude Etallaz) and the two Peters (Peter Mathis and Peter Wellington).
I also spotted Carolina Jones and Carlos Couto, Alain Gusella and Jean-Michel Poulnot, Steve Jones and Christine Jones and Antoine Lofaro and Luc Pouget.
Among the players, two lone all-female entries:
Erin Mc Taggart & Barbara Hall, and Antonia Paulsen & Colette Van Der Meulen.
As usual, 3 eleven points game were played in the morning to separate the Big Boys (and Big Girls) from the fray, and thirteen points elimination games were played in the afternoon.
Personally, I teamed up with a little known player named Tamara Semionovna and she did extremely well. We won our first two games (11/7 and 11/6) and for our 3rd game of the morning, we faced John and Cody Morris, a delightful team of father and son.
They beat us 11/9 but it was a real pleasure playing with such gentlemen.
16 teams ended in the Concours, 14 teams in the Consolante A, and 8 teams in Consolante B.
In the afternoon, in the first game of the Concours we faced Mickey and Nicole Coughlin. Shall I say more? They threw us out of the tournament with a resounding kick in the fanny. The almost unmentionable score: 13/0.
The final results communicated to me by Patrick Vaslet are:
![IMG_7436 - Version 2](https://b4g9ec.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/IMG_7436-Version-2-1024x762.jpg)
Concours
1st: Barbara Hall and Erin McTaggart
2nd: Yor Lee and Paul Maua
3rd: Mickey Coughlin and Nicole Coughlin
4th: Mone Lee and Pao Ly
Consolante A
1st: Peter Mathis and Peter Wellington
2nd: Antoine Lofaro and Luc Pouget
3rd: Steve Paulsen and Bill Miller
4th: Nan Walter and Etienne Rijkheer
Consolante B
1st: Thomas Moua and By Vang
2nd: Steve Jones and Christine Jones
3rd: Brendan Cohen and Marco Ilaria.
I find it exhilarating to find an all-female team at the top of the heap.
Congratulations to Barbara Hall and Erin McTaggart for besting the best male players of the tournament.
Alain
PS: I forgot to mention the 3rd all-female team in my report and I apologize for this.
The missing team was Shannon Bowman and Holly Sammons.