The 6th Annual Lexington Barbecue Fetival Petanque Tournament

Morning sky

Sunday morning at Finch Park in Lexington, NC. Decision time. The terrain we prepared on Thursday, where we've played the previous five BBQ tournaments, was rendered unplayable due to Friday's rain. No decision to be made there- you couldn't even walk across the court without sinking into the mud past the soles of your shoes.

The decisions that still had to be made-- cancel or play? Canceling was really out of the question. We had 58 players there and ready to go. Many of them had traveled considerable distances to join us. We had players from California, New York, Texas, Louisiana, Florida, DC, Georgia, South Carolina, Ohio, and North Carolina who came to play.

So, where to play? As it turned out, the answer was, more or less, staring us in the face. Under all the autumn leaves in the area adjoining our terrain and picnic area was some fine (in both senses of the word) gravel. Rake a few leaves. Paint some lines on the ground to give a suggestion of our general playing area. Pass out some circles and scoreboards. Play ball (boules)!!!

Many, many thanks to all the players for agreeing-- without complaining-- to our forced improvisation. "Let the games begin" was the phrase of the day.

We played three free-form qualifying rounds before lunch. That resulted in our lineup of sixteen teams in the Concours and thirteen in the Consolante for the afternoon. Our two first-time-at-the-BBQ-tournament teams from New York ended up ranked ONE and TWO with Ernesto and Rafik finishing second to Youseff and Abdoul by one differential point.

After playing the round-of-sixteen and the quarter-finals free-form at Finch Park, we relocated a few miles away, back to Terry&Sue's for the semi-finals and finals. It was Mohamed/Shannon versus Teng/Pho on one court and Fali/Sidi vesus Jon/Frank on another.

And then there were two. Mohamed/Shannon defeated Fali/Sidi 13-8 to become Champions of The 6th Annual Lexington Barbecue Fetival Petanque Tournament.