Fresno Petanque does a National!

Play with this handpainted beauty? Never!

The FPUSA's largest club, the Fresno Petanque Club, making its national tournament debut, offered up three full on tournaments the weekend of May 14-15, the National Mixed Doubles, Women's Doubles, and Men's doubles, with very high team counts, 32 for Saturday's Mixed, and 44 for Sunday's Women's (15) and Men's (29).

Getting started and checking in

Fourteen clubs from the four corners of the country sent players to this San Joaquin Valley locale. Warm weather was expected, but only those who managed to get in a few games on Friday afternoon ever saw any of that. Both Saturday and Sunday were cool and wet, and there were only half joking accusations aimed at the players from the Pacific Northwest that they had forgotten to check their clouds and rain at the border.

Baseball diamond overflow, smooth and hard!

The courts were a challenge to most players. Indeed, the high percentage of Fresno players ending up in the top placing teams attests not only to their skills, but also to their familiarity with these courts which had been overlaid with fine gravel that tended to camouflage areas of softer dirt beneath and that often stopped a plombée cold in its tracks. And the overflow area was a "hard as tempered glass" baseball diamond which had every shooter cursing and having to rely on long rolling shots to displace a boule.

Cool and wet was somehow better under the trees

Greg Lapp, Fresno Club President, and his large crew of volunteers, aided by some formatting suggestions from Sport Director Ed Porto, presented a well organized, come-off-without a hitch two days of serious play. Croissants and coffee were waiting each morning, tasty lunches arrived on time, and Saturday evening's dinner was superb.

The superb banquet

Greg and Deb, tournament organizers, enjoying winning the mixed consolante.

For all tournaments there were three morning qualifying games to 11 points and afterwards, half or more of the teams in each tournament advanced to the concours, the remainder to well fought consolantes.

One nice touch, indicative of the Fresno Club's bent toward marketing and promotion, a drawing for the raffle that had been ongoing for a number of weeks that will be used to send our junior team to a high level tournament in Luxembourg, since the worlds juniors was cancelled for this year. First prize was $1000 and much donated merchandise from local merchants complemented cash winning tickets.

With plenty of daylight left on Sunday afternoon, all the winners had their medals and prize money, and were looking for the exits and resumption of their "day jobs" on Monday.

A wonderful weekend, full of the camaraderie and good play that keeps us coming to these get togethers and thinking of the next one.

A big thank you to Fresno Petanque, and hope to see you on the courts.

Here are the results:

MIXED DOUBLES

Gold:

Mickey and Nicole Coughlin, Redwood Empire Boules Club

Silver:

Jimmy Simpson and Karen Petrina, Fresno Petanque Club

Bronze:

Peter Mathis and Holly Sammons, Redwood Empire Boules Club

4th Place- Paul Yang & Joyce Simpson

In the Mixed Consolante

1st - Deborah & Greg Lapp

2nd - John Morris & Helen McGill

3rd - Barbara Howard & Pascal Tisseur

4th - Ted Haynish & Anne Robertson

MEN'S DOUBLES

Gold:

Ed Porto, Petaluma Valley Petanque Club and Roger Arpaia, Boca Petanque 2000

Silver:

Paul Yang and By Vang, Fresno Petanque Club

Bronze:

Peter Mathis and Mickey and Coughlin, Redwood Empire Boules Club

4th Place- Tim Motooka & Alain Gusella

In the Men's Consolante

1st - Thai Nguyen & David Johnstone

2nd - John Morris & Vic Bianchi

3rd - Ed Loughmiller & Carl Motschiedler

4th - John Harris & George Lewis

WOMEN'S DOUBLES

Gold:

Cynthia Stroud, Maine Boules Club and Diana Jacobs, Los Angeles Petanque Club

Silver:

Antonia Paulsen, La Petanque Mariniere and Pim Nielsen, La Boule d'Or

Bronze:

Lisa Vaughan, Club Francais de Sacamento and Tish Harris, Oakhurst Petanque Club.

In the Women's Consolante

1st - Karen Petryna & Anne Robertson

2nd - Mary Albright & Helen McGill

Mickey & Nicole, 1st in Mixed

Karen and Jimmy, 2nd in Mixed

Diane & Cynthia, 1st in Women's with Antonia & Pim in 2nd

Men's winners, (L to R) By & Paul (2nd), Roger & Ed (1st), and Peter & Mickey (3rd)

Women's Consolante Winners Anne(L) & Karen(R) (Fresno)

Men's Consolante Winners Thai & David (Lto R)(Portland)