Regular Wednesday play

Continuing our recent practice of playing at Griffith Park in Winston-Salem on Wednesday mornings, Shirley and I once again made the drive up from Lexington.  Because of work obligations, summer vacations, and other conflicts, the Wednesday "crowd" has varied between four and eight players for the most part.  This happened to be one of the times with only four players (and a couple of spectators).

Nevertheless, we had a great time playing with Fred and Nelson and didn't regret making the drive for a single second!

Goodbyes

Shirley not pictured

2015 PETANQUE CAMP

This is to certify that SHANNON HODGE / DON E. Baker has successfully completed a six day training session at the JONES FAMILY PETANQE TRAINING CENTER (AND semi-RESORT) in Lexington, NC, this nineteenth day of July 2015. The aforementioned has received forty credit hours of instruction in petanque pointing, shooting, rules, strategy, and gamesmanship. This candidate has shown an aptitude in most some a few of these areas and is now judged to be ready to go forward and hone such skills in the future.

In addition to demonstrating (at least a little) progress in the areas specified above, the attendee has shown an aptitude for the social skills and behaviors necessary to be accepted into the petanque world. These skills include willingness to foster teamwork and camaraderie via appropriate party-like behavior. Being willing to join in when others are eating, drinking, napping, and telling tales of petanque conquests (some of which may have actually happened) is important to one being considered a true petanque-a-teer.

X APPROVED _ NOT APPROVED

GARY AND SHIRLEY JONES ___________________________________________________
(HOSTS and TRAINERS)
7/19/2015

Additional Sunday play

When we got to Lexington, after being rained-out in Winston-Salem, the storm had missed us, so we continued play on our backyard court.  Besides Bobby, Peggy, Danny, Sue, Donnie, Shannon, Shirley, and myself, all of whom were staying with us in Lexington, Kerry, Rebekah, and Nelson all joined us.  Since we only have one court with permanent lighting, we had people watching and visiting while triples were played on the court.

Shannon, Don E. , and Danny were undefeated in the evening's play.  Congratulations!

Sunday on the new Miller Park terrain

We made our usual Sunday morning drive from Lexington to Winston-Salem to play petanque on the newly created terrain at Miller Park.  The Parks and Recreation people finished the installation of our 6"x 6" timber surrounds, so the area is now fully ready for play.

There were afternoon and nighttime rainstorms in W-S on Saturday which left the terrain slightly softer than we've yet experienced, but still very, very firm.  There is one small area where a low spot in the surface tends to contain standing water.  The Parks and Rec people are aware of this and have promised to fix the problem soon.

Sunday was an extremely hot day with temps climbing into the 90s.  We had three shade shelters and one large umbrella to provide a little relief and the large tree near the entrance to the terrain provides good shade for our tables and snacks.

We were so happy to see Robert "Stump" Morrison and Cheryl back for the first time in a while.  They brought along one of their granddaughters  who quickly found a friend in Terry and Sue's granddaughter, and both Juniors did well in actual play.

Unfortunately, our day at the park was cut rather short when a thunderstorm around 3:15 ended our fun.

Since we had quite a few people staying with us in Lexington, we decided to move that way and take our chances that the storm might spare us and allow a continuation of play there.

Saturday "Introduction to Petanque" in Greensboro

Johnny Galbreath, his nephew Brandon, and Shannon Hodge from Zanesfield, OH

A lot of stuff to unload!

Warren from Greensboro

Fran came out to help

Looking for a little shade

Three courts with overflow areas

Jack

Jack and Jim

Rick and Maggie

Jean-Paul

Jean-Pierre

Rusty and Marcia

Nelson

Cute!

Pizza lunch

Khalid instructing

Greensboro youngsters

Bek helping Brandon and Johnny learn the game

Front and back views of the 2015 Lexington Barbecue Petanque Tournament T-shirts

French theme

Our Ohio visitors and our Greensboro hosts

 We had a great time at David Caldwell Historic Park (Tanger Bicentennial Gardens) in Greensboro on Saturday.  Johnny Galbreath, Botanical Gardens Superintendent, invited Carolina Petanque to partner with Greensboro Parks and Recreation and present a day for petanque play in the hopes of beginning the process of establishing regular petanque play in Greensboro.

Many, many thanks to all the Carolina Petanque members and supporters who came out to make the point that there IS a lot of interest in petanque in the area.  The day was successful to the extent that Johnny promised Shirley and me he plans to proceed with the construction of a petanque terrain in the park.  Great news!