Oh-La-La!

 The Oh-La-La Petanque Club of Sanford, Florida, held the Guy Salanon Memorial Tournament on March 17, 2013.  The tournament was made up of sixteen doubles teams.   CarolinaPetanque sent two teams--  Gary Jones/Shirley Jones and Danny Daniels/ Don E. Baker.  The remaining field included players from almost all of the Florida FPUSA clubs.  The winners of the tournament were:

1st Place--   Roger Arpaia and Frederic Penaranda
2nd Place--  Jacques Martinez and Juan Garcia

3rd Place--   Gilles Canesse and Eric Moutard

Consolante Winners--  Gary Jones and Shirley Jones

Juan, Jacques, Roger, and Frederic

Eric and Gilles

Gary, Shirley, and Oh-La-La president, Jon Claessens

Any of you CarolinaPetanque members remember that guy on the right?

Philippe Boets, Petanque America owner, with the camera

Tough terrain!

Some of the Oh-La-La gang

Daniel Smith and Gary Weeks from Boules de Leon

Jacques and Juan

Congratulations to the host club for a fun, well-run tournament.  There were three morning qualifying games followed by single elimination play in the afternoon.  Several of the best teams in the United States were there.  We were particularly glad to see 2012 US National Team member, Juan Garcia, in action.  In fact each of the top three finishing teams is recognized as a major force in US petanque.

An up-and-coming team from Boules de Leon in St. Augustine gave third place finishers Gilles and Eric one of the best matches of the afternoon before losing 13-12 in a two-and-a-half-hour marathon.  Congratulations to Daniel Smith and Gary Weeks for a match well played.

Shirley and I only lost one game, to ultimate winners Roger and Frederic, but that was enough to drop us into the Consolante for elimination play.  We really enjoyed our day.  The host club is a beautiful facility with difficult, challenging terrain.  We get a little spoiled playing most of the time at Miller Park on the smooth, level surface.

Escaping the snow

Two of our most recent new members, Rom and Barb

Kirk and Parker

Miller Park walk-up visitors

Fred seems to be impressed!

CarolinaPetanque's 2013 club president, Kirk Edwards, along with Bo and Parker left the snowy NC mountains and made the two hour journey down to Winston-Salem to play with the Miller Park group yesterday.  Though it's Kirk's busiest season-- he's an accountant and the tax season is in full swing--, he managed to take Sunday afternoon off and join the gang.

We were glad to see Tom and Carol and Ronnie again too.  It was Ronnie's first time out in a while and everyone was glad too see him back in action.

March weather

COLD RAIN

SPRING BLOOMS

DAFFODILS ADDED A LITTLE COLOR TO A DULL DAY

KHALID

COLD WEATHER GEAR

SUN PEEKED THROUGH ONCE IN A WHILE

BOULES BAG WEATHERED THE SLEET STORM

Khalid, Shirley, and I got in almost a full day's practice at Nevin Park in Charlotte yesterday and got a taste of March's changeable weather in the Carolinas.  The morning started with a misty rain and cold temperatures-- high 30sF.  After an hour or so the sun started peeking through from time to time and temperatures started to rise just a little.  It never got really warm, but it definitely became more tolerable.  Around four o'clock the day ended with heavy sleet and freezing rain forcing us to call it a day a little early.

It was good practice though.  Shirley and I got to play as a team and Khalid got to play six boules.  He got to point AND shoot. I've been mostly pointing lately, so I enjoyed playing the shooter's role on our team with Shirley doing the pointing duties.  The games were pretty even. Khalid was up two games to one, but we were up 9-8 in the last game when we had to call it a day.  With better weather expected just around the corner, I'm hoping we can make Saturday and/or weekday play at various venues a more common occurrence and get a few others involved.

Sunday at the park

Rom, Barb, Joseph, and Sue

Joseph and Penelope

Khalid, Terry, and Bob

Gail, Sue, and Joseph

Joseph, Michael, Barb, Gail, and Sue

Dean and Barb

Augustin and Susanne

Khalid, Fred, Augustin, Gary, Terry, and Bob

We had a nice turnout for Miller Park play on Sunday.  Temperatures reached into the low 60s and the sun was shining.

We got to meet Joseph's wife, Penelope, and Barb's son, Dean, with his friend, Michael.  Not pictured here, but also a first time attendee, was Olive, one of the people enjoying the park on a sunny day.