Saturday and Sunday

The plans for Super Bowl weekend play were for the group to play on Saturday in Charlotte and then take Sunday off in recognition of the fact that so many would be hosting or attending Super Bowl parties. Unfortunately, we got an e-mail late Friday from Ed & Anne who live in Charlotte within half an hour of our playing location at Nevin Park advising us that the courts would most likely be too wet for play. There was an on-and-off rain (mostly on) all day on Friday. We knew from previous experience that court drainage was poor. It was almost too wet for play on our last Nevin Park outing a couple weeks ago.

So, as much as it pained us, we sent out a last minute notice on Friday night cancelling Saturday's play. Not wanting an entire weekend to pass us by, we made contact with our friends Danny & Sue to play at our house in Lexington on Saturday afternoon. Our main court has a coarse gravel-fine gravel-oyster shell layered construction that usually allows play within minutes of rainstorms. We were able to play with no problems.

In the meantime, Bob Moyer from Winston-Salem had advised that he had no Super Bowl commitments for Sunday that would preclude him playing. So we called Sue Wien (Terry was fishing in Florida) for a fourth and played all afternoon Sunday, once again in Lexington, as well. Guys vs. Gals on Sunday. Shirley and Sue split the first two games against Bob and myself. We barely managed to pull out the third game for a narrow, hard fought victory for the guys. Shirley got a chance to be the shooter for the gals. Sue pointed very well even though she hadn't played in a while. See the last picture above for an example!

Then Winston-Salem on Sunday

After two days of play in Lincolnton, we moved about 75 miles to the northeast to play at our "home" courts in Miller Park in Winston-Salem, NC.

Shirley picked up a cake on the way to celebrate Marc's birthday which was Sunday and Jane's which is today. The Happy Birthday Song rendition was vastly improved when Marc himself belted out the lead.

Other than the two birthdays, the big news was that our friends from the Boone/Spruce Pine area of the North Carolina mountains--Kirk, Bo, Uijin, and Lauren were finally able to juggle their schedules (and their children!) around enough to make the commitment for the two hour trip down the mountains to join our little group. It was a delight to have them. They are all accomplished players and a fun, lively group to be around. We really hope it works out for them to join us again soon in the flatlands; otherwise, we''l be forced to track them down in the highlands to play again. Some of us (no names, please) need a chance to avenge the drubbing we got Sunday!

Friday & Saturday in Lincolnton, NC

We had a Friday afternoon warmup with Augustin, Tom C., Shirley, and myself. We played from about 2:30 until near darkness at 6:00 PM.

Then, on Saturday we started all over again around 11:30--this time with a larger crowd that also included Carol, Susanne (S.) Q., Susanne (C.) Q., Marc, Juan, Danny, Sue, and Khalid in addition to the four who played on Friday. Not to mention, as spectators, Khalids two beautiful daughters and Susanne's precious toddler!

Yesterday's play

The terrain at Miller Park was surprisingly soft for Sunday's play. The recent snows must have remained on the ground long enough to really saturate the playing surface. As the afternoon wore on, our walking and playing improved things considerably so that we were getting a decent roll by the end of the day.

News from Florida

Some of you know our friend, John Hayes, from Tampa, Florida. He played in the 2010 Petanque America Open as Augustin Quilici's partner. He and Augustin were quite succesful at Amelia Island, going 5 and 0 on Saturday.

Well, John played in this past Sunday's Florida Cup Tournament in Sarasota, Florida. He partnered with a friend of his, Danny Massingale, from the Tampa area. They had a record of 2 and 3 on Sunday. Two of the three games they lost were to the Florida team of Juan Garcia and Gilles Canesse. Many of you will remember both of them from the Petanque America Tournament and know what really good players they are. [They went on to finish third in the Florida Cup tournament!]

With their two wins and point differential rankings, John and Danny were ranked 6th of the sixteen teams for the playoffs. That's a very good showing. Congratulations, John and Danny!

The only negative to this story is that John, a 2010 CarolinaPetanque member, has now moved his membership to the Sarasota club. One member of each team participating in the Cup had to be a Florida club member, and Danny is not FPUSA affiliated. Too bad for us; good for Sarasota!

Nevin Park after Monday's Snow

If you look closely at the final picture above, you'll see that Monday's snowstorm still lingers in places. However, though the courts were wet and slow, the weather Saturday was just about all one could ask for on a January day in North Carolina. Bright sunshine and temps in the low 50s improved everyone's outlook. We had ten players, which is pretty good for winter petanque. Besides Shirley and myself, Danny&Sue, Ed&Anne, Khalid, Raed, Augustin, and Bob Moyer all participated.

Lexington, NC

Khalid and his friend Raed Ibraheem made the journey over to Lexington to play on Sunday, January 9, 2011. Bob Moyer also came down from Winston/Salem.

It was a cold, but sunny, day as you may be able to tell from the pictures. Temperatures were in the high 30s. We fired up the patio heater and a couple of propane tank-top heaters and were able to be pretty comfortable until almost nightfall. Winter petanque in the Carolinas can definitely be invigorating!