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.