Friday, August 16, 2019

Greensboro Petanque is Open For Business!

Does this count as a "selfie"? Guess who.

Gary testing the surface

Anne points as Mary and Ryan look on




John W, David, and John H



More Mary

Anne and Tina

David





Eight of us played yesterday at David Caldwell Historic Park / Tanger Bicentennial Gardens in Greensboro, North Carolina. Ryan Richardson. Park Manager, and his crew have now completed the initial building stage of a 17 meter by 17 meter petanque terrain that promises to be among the finest in North Carolina. The terrain will easily accommodate four international-sized pistes (courts).

We hope to coordinate with Ryan an official Grand Opening event and/or tournament in the near future. We want to emphasize the extraordinary level of cooperation the Greensboro Parks and Recreation department has provided in allowing us to be involved in every step of the planning and construction. Ryan and his crew went above and beyond our expectations.

Another special thanks to Johnny Galbreath, the Botanical Gardens Superintendent, for his original invitation that allowed Carolina Petanque to begin an association with the park back in 2007, our founding year. From 2007 to present day the club has participated in the annual Parisian Promenade 
held each spring.

Thanks also to Carolina Petanque's John Wilson for his time and effort in helping to coordinate the project. He has participated in every phase and is still involved with the finishing stages-- signage, scoreboards, landscaping the park will be doing, etc.

And, finally, a HUGE thanks to our players. We need your continued help in promoting our game, encouraging play, recruiting new members, scheduling special events, and all the other things that will make Tanger Gardens a special place to play.

Yesterday's players: John Wilson, John Hayes, Mary Hayes, Tina Currie, Anne Fechner, David Fechner, Shirley Jones, and Gary Jones. While we enjoyed our outing, the only thing missing from yesterday's P E T A N Q   E was U !!!!!

Thursday, August 15, 2019

Sixteen players on Wednesday morning!












So let's review our recent schedule:

 Tuesday, August 6: Raleigh for evening petanque demo at Halifax Park

Wednesday, August 7: Winston-Salem for morning play at Miller Park

Thursday, August 8: Greensboro for review of construction progress and afternoon play at Tanger    Gardens

Friday, August 9: Charlotte for early evening play at Anna Carter's house

Saturday, August 10: Morganton for morning play a Catawba River Sport Complex

Sunday, August 11: Winston-Salem for afternoon play at Miller Park

Monday, August 12: Greensboro for review of construction progress

Tuesday, August 13: Greensboro for review of construction progress

Wednesday, August 14: Winston-Salem for morning play at Miller Park

Today is Thursday, August 15, and I need to finish this blog update so that we can drive to Greensboro for review of construction progress and afternoon play at Tanger Gardens.

Whew, we need a rest!

--Gary and Shirley


Work in Greensboro continues













Tuesday saw the addition of the next layer of gravel, unwashed screenings, which may or may not be the final surface. Still waiting to see how it plays on Thursday after settling and expected rain.

Plan B at Tanger Gardens, Greensboro




Ryan, with our agreement, decided to take up the weed barrier and pack the gravel dust layer directly into the coarse gravel. Let's wait and see where that puts us. Trial and error.

Omar

Watering duty

Pam and Gus

Omar and Mark W.








We got the pleasure of having Abdallah join us for the second day in a row, this time in Winston-Salem, and this time he brought along his son, Omar, for us to meet. He's going to be joining Carolina Petanque and we look forward to seeing a lot more of him.