Tag: tournament

Yesterday we drove to Lafayette to participate in the 2013 Northwest Regional 65 over/under tournament.
This is the time of the year when old geezers have a good excuse to hit on young chicks.

The Lamorinda Pétanque Club hosted the tournament and as usual it was a class act.
Etienne Rijkheer, Carolina Jones, Bill Hansen, Carlos Couto and Rosa the dog did a bang-up job to make everybody feel comfortable and welcome.
Croissants and coffee were served and, sparing no expenses, Lamorinda even sprung for a portable potty. As I told you, a class act!

As a veteran of foreign wars, I was invited by Shannon Bowman to team up with her for this tournament. Despite a still sore right foot I couldn’t refuse her invitation and agreed to fly with her as her wingman.

Twenty-two teams competed in this event and they were are as follows:

1. Peter Mathis/Carolina Jones
2. Yor Lee/Inez
3. Shannon Bowman/Alain Efron
4. Bernard Passmar/Emily Etcheverry
5. Liv Kraft/Kevin Evoy
6. Jean-Michel Poulnot/Sabine mattei
7. Patrick Vaslet/Holly Sammons
8. Ed Porto/Denyse Haney
9. David Riffo/Dollzee Austin
10. Rene Di Maio/Tamara Efron
11.  Antoine Lofaro/Danielle Gusella
12. Barbara Hall/Gustave Foucher
13. Henry Wessel/Calvert Barron
14. Bill Hansen/Chrsitine Cragg
15. Jean-Claude Bunand/Mireille Di Maio
16. Carlos Couto/Minette Etallaz
17. Jean-Claude Etallaz/Colette Van Der Meulen
18. Simone Furlan/John Morris
19. Frank Haney/Helene McGill
20. Robert Belforte/Beth Lysten
21. Alain Gusella/Eva Lofaro
22. Jocelyne Krauer/Mickey Coughlin

Three 13 points games were played before lunch to separate the hot shots from the mere humans and to determine who would play in the Concours and would frolic in the Consolante.

We qualified for the Concours thanks to Shannon  great shooting job.

In the morning, in our 1st game we beat Christine Cragg and Bill Hansen: 13-8
In our 2nd game we beat Simone Furlan and John Morris: 13-9
In our 3rd game we beat Beth Lysten And Robert Belforte: 13-6

I need to reiterate that Shannon’s shooting greatly helped our cause.

Around noon, everybody stopped for a bite and Jean-Claude Etallaz became the unfortunate victim of some hungry (or angry) insect.
He was stung by some critter and his arm swell alarmingly. See picture.
But J-C is a tough guy and it was not him who suffered the most. We believe that the insect paid this unprovoked attack with its life.

After lunch, in the Concours Shannon and I faced Frank Haney and Helene McGill. We beat them 13-5
In our fifth game we came across ta-dah! Mickey (the Terminator) Coughlin and
Jocelyne Krauer.
In spite of our spirited resistance, Mickey shelled our positions mercilessly and defeated us: 9-13

The end of the tournament for us.

In the finals Mickey Coughlin (the same evil one) and Jocelyne Jrauer faced Patrick Vaslet and Holly Sammons.

To everybody’s surprise, Mickey and Jocelyne got off to a very bad start.
They kept losing “mène” after “mène” and at one time, they were led 1-10.
It looked like it was going to end up in a humiliating defeat for the Terminator.
But little by little, due mainly to Mickey’s fantastic shooting, his team narrowed the gap to a respectable 8/11.
They finally lost the game and the tournament 10/13.

The last game was essentially a “mano a mano” contest between Mickey and Holly Sammons who did an absolutely marvelous job of pointing. Most of her balls were right up to the cochonnet.
Mickey kept shooting but Holly kept pointing, and scoring.
With an assist from Patrick they finally defeated the Beast.

If ever Mickey teamed up with Holly they would be invincible.

FINAL RESULTS (provided by Etienne Rijkheer)

Concours: final score 13/10

1st Place: Patrick Vaslet and Holly Sammons, (both of Valley of the Moon Petanque Club)
2nd Place: Jocelyne Krauer (La Boule d’Or) and Mickey Coughlin (Redwood Empire Boules Club)
3rd Place: Peter Mathis (Valley of the Moon Petanque Club) and Carolina Jones (Lamorinda Petanque Club)
4th Place: Bernard Passmar (Valley of the Moon Petanque Club) and Emily Etcheverry (La Petanque Mariniere)

Consolante: final score 13/9

1st Place: John Morris and Simone Furlan (Both of Club Français de Sacramento)
2nd Place: Jean-Claude Bunand (La Boule d’Or) and Mireille DiMaio (La Pétanque Marinière)
3rd Place: Barbara Hall (Valley of the Moon Pétanque Club) and the venerable Gustave Foucher (La Boule d’Or).

Great tournament, great organization.

Thank you Etienne, Rosa and the entire Lamorinda team!

Alain

PS: To look at pictures of this event, turn the sound on, and click on “My photos” located under BLOGROLL on the right side of the page.

A few days ago, I worried about the sad state of our pétanque field, and about who would volunteer to help cleaning a terrain almost totally smothered by a thick carpet of dead leaves.
I hate to say it, but I have lost faith in the volunteering spirit of our club.
Driving by Saturday morning, I was happily surprised to see a field almost totally devoid of debris and dead leaves.
It seemed obvious that a good fairy came by, and with a wave of her magic wand she did what our club members have been unwilling to do.
But being of a skeptical nature though, I did some discrete investigation and I discovered that our benefactor was not a good fairy but some true-blue club members.
The good fairies who did the bulk of the job were in fact indefatigable Claudie Chourré, Charlie Davantes and a newcomer called Daniel ?.
They were assisted a day later by Fairy Helpers Liv Kraft, Helga Facchini and Emily Etcheverry. Yeah for the girls!
Club fairies, we owe you a big one!

Back to the tournament.

I don’t know if it was due to a lack of promotion, but a fairly modest crowd showed up to participate in the 2012 Interclub tournament. We had a total of 40 contestants when a regular tournament usually gathers around 60 people. What is it? EPF? (Early Pétanque Fatigue).

And by the way, tournaments have rules.

The rule number one is to register in a timely manner. And forget the casual phone call. To make the organizers’ job easier, use e-mail. It is clear, succinct and fast. Simply state the number of people coming, spell their names properly and click on “send”. You are done.

Rule number two: be punctual. It is rude and unfair to everybody to hold a tournament hostage because of someone’s tardiness.
I look at a tournament like I look at planes or trains schedules. Regardless of your lame excuse, they will get going on time and so should tournaments.

The contestants of the 2012 Interclub tournament were:

La Pétanque Marinière: 16
Antonia Paulsen, Colette Van der Meulen, Tamara Efron, Alain Efron, Francois Moser, Eva Lofaro, Gilles Karpowicz, Claudie Chourré, Minette Etallaz, Jean-Claude Etallaz, Henry Wessell, Emily Etcheverry, Jean Etcheverry, Mireille Di Maio, Rene Di Maio

Valley of the Moon: 6
Joe La Torre, Maggie Lane, Barbara Hall, Holly Sammons, Jean-Michel Poulnot, Bernard Passmar

La Boule d’Or: 6
Luc Pouget, Jean-Claude Bunand, Joss Krauer, John Krauer, Alain Gusella, Gustave Foucher

Petaluma Valley: 6
Ed Porto, Teri Sirico, Hans Kurz, Wolfie Kurz, Bleys Rose, Sabine Mattei

Sacramento: 6
Denyse Haney, Kevin McGill, John Morris, Lisa Vaughn, Marie Ann Curley, Pierre Bremont

The weather (always important) was good. A little chilly in the morning, but plenty of sunshine in the afternoon.
Coffee and croissants were served before the tournament started

The tournament was very efficiently managed by David Riffo. And I applaud his decision to have timed games. I think that too many people are taking an inordinate amount of time to ponder a playing strategy.
Three 13 points, 50 minutes games were played in the morning. After 50 minutes Dave blew his whistle and all games had to stop. Good move.

In the afternoon, the format of the tournament was changed from doublettes to triplettes.

The finalists were determined as usual, by a combination of wins and points accumulated during the morning games.

They were:

Marin 1:
Antoine Lofaro, Rene Di Maio, Jacques Sarafian

Marin 2:
Gilles Karpowicz, Mireille Di Maio, Tamara Efron

Sonoma:
Barbara Hall, Holly Sammons, Jean-Michel (le Facteur) Poulnot

San Francisco:
Alain Gusella, Steve Paulsen, Gustave Foucher

Petaluma:
Ed Porto, Bleys Rose, Wolfie Kurz

Sacramento:
Kevin McGill, Lisa Vaughn, John Morris

The tournament blow by blow:

• Marin 1 hammered Sonoma: 13/0
• Petaluma clobbered San Francisco: 13/3
• Marin 2 defeated Petaluma: 13/6
• Sacramento eliminated Marin1: 13/12

Marin 1 (Antoine Lofaro, Rene Di Maio, Jacques Sarafian) was doing very well until its match against Sacramento.
Our guys were leading 12/8 and their victory seemed assured when a lucky (?) shot from Kevin McGill hit the cochonnet and send it flying.
Game over for Marin 1. Adieu veaux, vaches, cochons…

The final game opposed Marin 2 (Gilles Karpowicz, Mireille Di Maio, Tamara Efron) and Sacramento (Kevin McGill, Lisa Vaughn, John Morris).

Surprisingly enough, it turned out to be a lopsided contest. Due to superior pointing by Sacramento, Marin 2 was annihilated by a score of 13/2.
Sorry fellow Marinites and congratulations to Sacramento!

Alain

PS: To look at pictures of recent events, turn the sound on, click on the “Home” link at the top of the page, and click again on “My photos” located on the right side of the page. Enjoy.