Two Regionals in one great NYC weekend!

Hosting its first NE Region Tournaments the weekend of September 19 & 20, the New York Petanque Club, whose home terrain in Brooklyn's Prospect Park is perhaps the most difficult to play on East of the Mississippi River, had great cooperation from the weather and a wonderful turnout of some of the best players in the Northeast.

Combining two regional tournaments, singles on one day, doubles on the next, as a way to build attendance and make the weekend worthwhile, over 21 players brought their best game for Saturday's singles and 19 teams squared off for Sunday's doubles.

Players from five FPUSA clubs were in the mix and by Saturday's end, after some fancy boules work not often seen this side of the Atlantic (lots of carreaux and carefully picked données) the victors emerged:

First Place: Xavier Thibaud(NYPC), 2nd Place Philippe Hemery (LBNY), and 3rd Place jointly- Gilles Ray(NYPC) and Robert Dunn (LBNY).

On Sunday, another day of glorious weather made for a great picnic with many spectators joining the fun. A few roaming family pets reminded one that the provision in Art 15 of the rules about animal interference in games is there for good reason.

By day's end, with street lights coming on, and the score in the final game between Jean Pierre Subrenat and Eric Bertin, and Xavier Thibaud and Gilles Ray, all of NYPC, at 12-3 for JP and Eric, there was a pause to move to a better lit court. Et voila! There was a "sea change", Xavier and Gilles found their game and in 3 ends came up the victors, 13-12!

A more detailed and very well written description of the tournaments by Thierry Juillard (NYPC), with a fun accompanying video, can be found on the NYPC site.

World Championship in France

While you guys are playing in some petty tournaments such as "La Marseillaise" ... FPUSA International Events Coordinator, Robert C. Pierre, along with his son, Renaud, and a friend Laurent Scarabicchi, entered the 30th World Championship on August 22 and 23 in Cagnes sur Mer, France. Well, to be honest, we are talking of the "Championnat du Monde des boules carrées" ... in other words, square boules, which of course happen to be cubes.

Courts are 2 X 7 meters, and both boules and cochonnet are made of wood. One boule weighs 4 ounces, and the cochonnet 1/2 ounce. The latter must be thrown between 4 and 7 meters, but otherwise, all of the Petanque rules apply.

There were 132 Triplettes to start with, spread over the -very- steep streets of the "Haut de Cagnes", crowned by the 13th century Grimaldi castle (Monaco Prince family, and therefore Grace Kelly's as well ...). A very tough competition if you ask me, which absolutely everyone can enter, yet with some chances to win as the "square boules" have a tendancy to behave as they want. Even more so since the small and narrow streets of the haut de Cagnes are not only steep, but most of the time they are also cambered, and more than often, boules "roll" on edges and corners out of the court; and when playing downwards, be prepared to run after your boule which could frankly roll down across several courts !

Eventually, we didn't do so well and lost at the 3rd game; of the "consolante" ...

Of course as you will see in the video, it was not my fault as my cochonnet shooting was impeccable; well actually I was shooting at the boule, but all the same, we got the point!

If you are interested by the 31st World Championship of the "Boules Carrees" next August, get back to me for info. Maybe we could put together some FPUSA teams ?

—Robert C. PIERRE

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FPUSA National Doubles, July 25-26

Three different tournaments, each with a consolante gave a full weekend of fun on the Lamorinda Petanque Club courts! Thirteen clubs sent players and Fresno topped the list with 10 of theirs on the courts each day!

Under the able direction of club president (and FPUSA VP) Mary Albright with the whole club helping out, Lamorinda showed they have the chops to put on a first class event. We even had a dignitary or two, most notably Jacques de Noray, Deputy French Consul in from San Francisco, who helped present awards.

Hosting their first Nationals on these courts, they didn't drop a stitch, every thing came off flawlessly and after the men's final ended Sunday evening and it was completely dark, they brought a couple of cars onto the terrain to light up the awards ceremony, raffle, and deeply appreciated and table filling apero.

The full-on Apero!

All 22 of their courts were in use, most with tournament matches, the others for practice and pickup games. Under the mid-afternoon sun, all were grateful for the shade from the pear and apple trees remaining from an old fruit orchard.

(the "mixed" see below for names)

The courts are devilishly difficult, but great fun to play, with small undulations and hard and soft spots abounding. Ends were often won with points two feet away, and shooters had to hit "au fer" or several feet in front so the boule could settle down before it contacted its target.

(here are 1st & 2nd Women's winners, apologies for not having photo of 3rd place Teri & Lisa)

Saturday evening's BBQ buffet was a delight with some Texas style beef and chicken served with wonderful beans and plenty of sauce.

It was great to see Louis Toulon, too. He and Max took first in the men's consolante!

(and with Monique Martin in a walking cast, she and Dolly Ebollito took 4th in the Women's !)

In 90 degree heat one looks for shade and finds it on these courts.

RESULTS:

SATURDAY- MIXED DOUBLES- 20 TEAMS

First Place RAYMOND & PIM NIELSEN (Boule d'Or) Second Place PETER MATHIS & HOLLY SAMMONS (VOMPC)

Third Place JOHN AND TISH HARRIS (Oakhurst) Fourth Place BOB CORTRIGHT (PPC) & EMILY ETCHEVERRY (LPM)

SUNDAY- WOMEN'S DOUBLES- 13 TEAMS

First Place ANTONIA CHAVEZ (VOMPC) & PIM NIELSEN (Boule d"or) Second Place NARIN GARRETT & HOLLY SAMMONS (both VOMPC) Third Place TERI SIRICO (PVPC) & LISA VAUGHN (VOMPC) Fourth Place DOLLY EBOLITTO & MONIQUE MARTIN (both LBJ)

MEN'S DOUBLES- 21 TEAMS

First Place RAYMOND NIELSEN (Boule d'Or) & ALAIN GUSELLA (CFdS) Second Place PETER MATHIS (VOMPC) & MICKEY COUGHLIN (Willits Boules Club) Third Place JER THAO & BY VANG (both Fresno Petanque Club) Fourth Place JOE & BOB CORTRIGHT (both PPC)

Our players in Dronero, Italy, July 24-27

Don't these guys look familiar? (left to right, Jean-Pierre Subrenat, Peter Crowley, and Xavier Thibaud, all New York players)

They are in Dronero, competing in the major petanque tournament in Italy, the 9th Epaci Occitan, with teams from Europe, Africa, South America, and Asia. Even "Le Grand Marco" was there defending his previous victories at this event.

Robert Pierre , our International Events Coordinator, there as a both coach and player, tells us that try as they did in both doubles and triples combinations, they weren't able to qualify for the concours by getting out of the pools. Robert, playing with his summer club from Cagnes sur Mer, did manage to get into the concours, but elimination followed.

However, in a pre tournament demonstration game, the team above did fanny Belgium. That is something to brag about.

Robert also reminds us that there is still an opportunity to play in "La Nismoise", either in a doubles or triples combination. see the posting just below.

Last Chance for Nismoise!

Our international events coordinator, Robert Pierre, reports from Dronero, Italy, where he is playing on a team with Jean-Pierre Subrenat, Xavier Thibaud, and Peter Crowley, that he just met with the President of "Fanny Nismoise Petanque Club" in Nismoise, Belgium who tells Robert he would welcome a US team as a guest at the "La Nismoise" tournament, August 21-23, less than a month away.

Robert played in this tournament last year and highly recommends it to capable players. If your schedule permits it, and you'd like to be considered for this opportunity, please contact Robert immediately. It could be the highlight of your summer!

La Marsellaise - Montreal, CA.

La Marsellaise was Played in North America in The City of Longueuil just West of Montreal.
This was a must Do Tournament, the Atmosphere was perfect for Petanque and meeting some Great new People plus it helps when You have Friends in Canada like Claude Lopez that let us stay at his House and Serve as a Tour Guide on the last day of our Visit. I also meet many other Friends that come down to Florida to warm up during the Winter.
Three Teams from the FPUSA signed up for the Tournament and Two of them made it to the Round of Sixteen.
They Sure put up a Show with the Men's Semi-Finals and Final and The Women's Final. Accurate shooting was the name of Game, just one hit after another and the Game was decided on the final crazy Play that left everyone shocked, on a tied Game 9-9 and with a Tight group of 4 Boules all about 10 inches apart the point was for the Laulhe's Family with a single Boule and the other Team had 3 boules surrounding the Point with the last boule in hand Youssef shoots and Carreaus perfectly staying in place and making 4 points to WIN 13-9.

I took lots of Pictures, Just follow the Link.


http://picasaweb.google.com/Juankydotcom/LaMarsellaiseMontreal#

Bastille Day - Miami -

The Biltmore Hotel in the center of Miami celebrated Bastille Day on Tuesday July 14th with Dinner and Petanque. This is our Home Courts for now, it is definitely a beautiful place to play and meet people and the way is going we already have three Teams that are planning to go to the Petanque America Open 2009 in Amelia Island, FL. http://petanque-america-open.com/ and further more a Miami Petanque Club for 2010.

"The Americans" in Marseille

Though the finals in the Marseillaise won't have any of our players in them, we do know that our own Xavier Thibaud and his team progressed to the eighth finals, putting him in the top sixteen out of almost 4600 teams in the competition.

This is the farthest an American citizen has ever progressed and we are happy to be basking in his success. Xavier, a resident of NYC and member of the New York Petanque Club, reports that he was proud the French press referred to him as "The American".

Xavier and his two teammates, Andre Lozano, and J.F. "Tichon" Hemon, both former world champions, won 10 games out of the 13 that will be played in this year's Marseillaise. An astounding feat! The score in their last game was 11-13, so close it could have gone either way!

We also report on the success of our other players in this, the largest tournament in the world. Alec Stone-Sweet tells us he made it to the 7th game before being converted to a tourist, and we are told that Ernesto Santos and Yngve Biltsted, LBNY, playing on one team, and Robert Pierre, playing with a team from his home town, Cagnes sur Mer, all made it to their second game, putting them in the top 50% of the teams in Parc Borely, Marseille.

For those who have followed the video stream of the games, it has been a fun week and a wonderful opportunity to see the great players of the world and imagine ourselves pointing and shooting with the best of them.

(photos courtesy of LBNY and Boulistenaute)

The Marseilaise-4,592+ to 2 in a dozen games

One of our best players, Alec Stone Sweet, is once again in the milieu of the Marseillaise, probably the largest tournament in the world and certainly the best known.

It is single elimination from the very first game, and Alec tells us that after he and his team won their first three games on Sunday, fewer than 600 teams remain out of the almost 4600 (that is nearly 14,000 players) that began the tournament. Doing the math tells us that it will take winning another 10 or so games to end up the supreme champions of this grand event. But Alec has progressed to game 6 in 2006, so don't be surprised if he gets to game 9 in 2009, or farther, even.

Our International Events Coordinator, Robert Pierre, is also entered on a team from Cagnes sur Mer, though we haven't had a report from him, yet.

Looking for more on the Marseillaise? Try www.boulistenaute.com You'll read interviews with Alec there and get a sense that this is a grueling, tiring tournament and for only for the most competitive players. But, winning or even placing well in the Marseillaise is a reward like no other.

Photos courtesy of Boulistenaute.com

FPUSA NW Regional Triples and Singles a big success!

This past weekend players from around the FPUSA'S NW Region were on the Portland Petanque Club's terrain trying to prove they had better game than any of their opponents.

Thirteen triples teams and 26 singles players competed during the weekend in a very successful event organized by Tournament Director Albyn Jones, and supported by player volunteers gathered by PPC club president, Philippe Agnesse.

We enjoyed a wonderful Saturday evening buffet under the twilight skies and took to the courts afterwards for pickup games to keep our edge for the next day's singles tournament.

NW Region Triples winners: Left to Right Pierre Brun, Hugh Gallagher, Daniel Andre(3rd Place, PPC), Greg Conyers, John Hunt, Lee Harris (2nd Place, Seattle Petanque), Thai Nguyen, Pierre and Philippe Agnesse (1st Place, PPC),

in front, FPUSA President Joe Martin and Tournament Director Albyn Jones.

NW Region Singles winners, L to R, Albyn Jones Tournament Director, Duong Nguyen (3rd Place, Seattle, Joe Cortright (1st Place, PPC), Philippe Agnesse (2nd Place, PPC) & Thai Nguyen (4th Place, PPC)

And what is a tournament without a banquet?!

Play in the "Fanny Nismoise" August 21-23!

Robert Pierre, our International Events Coordinator, has successfully secured a spot for an FPUSA triples team to enter the well known "Fanny Nismoise" tournament in Nismes, Belgium, August 21-23, 2009.

It was last held in 2007 and 11 countries, including ours, competed. As the extract from the web page shows, it is a nice affair in a pretty setting. On Sunday, there is also an open select doubles.

Nismes is about a 2 hour drive from either Paris or Brussels.

If you are a current FPUSA license holder and are interested in joining the team, please contact Robert for further information.

PS to enlarge the web extract, just click on it.

Three National Tournaments in One Weekend!

The Lamorinda Petanque Club in Lafayette, California, welcomes you to three tournaments all on the weekend of July 25th and 26th!

The National Mixed Doubles on Saturday the 25th, and on Sunday the 26th, the National Men's Doubles and the National Women's doubles!

Set in an old pear orchard on a terrain that flows around trees and boundaries, it offers a weekend of challenge and fun!

And on Saturday evening enjoy a catered BBQ dinner that includes your favorite smoke cooked meats with all the fixin's and all beverages, too!

Read on for the entry forms, meal reservations, and hotel and direction info.

Click on the images to enlarge them.

Any questions, please contact: Mary Albright, or Brian Murphy

Hope to see you there!

The Marseillaise in Canada!

This is the second year of the Canadian version of the Marseillaise! It was a grand success last year, with over 75 teams competing, 4 or 5 from the U.S.

A couple of U.S. teams finished in the money last year owing to them running a couple of consolantes in addition to the Concours. The Concours was won by an excellent Canadian triplette, headed up by Yanick Laulhé, one of the sons of Claude Laulhé, a five time member of Canada's world's team.

This year it is in Longueuil, just next to Montreal, July 16-19.

(click on poster to enlarge)

One can look forward to a very well run event. It is an "open' tournament, anyone can participate. Expect the level of play to be high. A couple of lunches and a dinner are included, as are samples from Ricard of their popular beverage. Oh yes, there is prize money, too!

Website is www.pre-mondial-ricard.com and email is micheltargiroff@hotmail.com

THE HEART OF TEXAS PETANQUE CLUB TOURNAMENT

Hello everyone ,I am proud to say that the first tournament organized by THE HEART OF TEXAS PETANQUE CLUB was won by the club itself and the beautiful cup that Thierry Amisse made will remain as a trophy in Austin, TX where the club resides until it will be put back in competition the next time the club will again organize a tournament

The GOLD: winner representatives of the club were Amine Najah and Arsene Dupin

There is so much to say about today and how organically the tournament came together So the first thing to do is to say Thank you to all of you who came and participated and every one's support whether you were there or not Also, one of the major contributors to a magnificent success today was -the Weather It didn't rain on us during the entire tournament in the mist of every weatherman predicting rain today I think because of the goodness of those smiling faces coming together to one of the greatest games on this planet ,the heavens opened up the sun for us

People came as far as San Antonio 4 teams of great players one of them took SILVER : Michel Costa and Patrick Lanchais and two other members also from The HEART OF TEXAS PETANQUE CLUB Jacques and Spiros Petratos took BRONZE We had 2 great official referees Rick Armstrong and Jerome Potts A+ LOVE Arsene

By Arsene Dupin

Update on Summer Events in Europe

International Events Coordinator, Robert Pierre, also from the venerable FPUSA Southwestern Region, sent us this update (interesting enough to be posted verbatim):

“Luckily enough, a request from John Krauer made me do some research about Zurich. Here is the outcome:

La Pétanque en Suisse : Pas de Grand Prix International de Zurich 2009 !

Posté par jovial5 le 21/4/2009 20:10:00 (240 lectures) Articles du même auteur

Des circonstances indépendantes de sa volonté obligent le Comité d'organisation d'annuler le Grand Prix International de Zurich qui aurait dû se dérouler en août prochain...
La Ville de Zurich entreprend jusqu'en été des travaux de réaménagement dans le parc de la Josefwiese, qui seront achevés dans la seconde moitié de l'été. Comme il n'est pas possible à l'heure actuelle d'évaluer la place et les installations qui seront disponibles alors, le Comité d'organisation du Grand Prix a dû se résoudre à annuler la manifestation cette année.
Nous présentons sincèrement toutes nos excuses aux boulistes de Suisse, France, Allemagne, Autriche, Europe de l'Est, Espagne, Italie, Grande-Bretagne, Israël, Etats-Unis… qui avaient prévu de nous rendre visite cet été.
Il faudra donc patienter jusqu'en août 2010 pour que se déroule la 40e édition du Grand Prix International de Zurich.
D'ici-là, le Comité du GPI ZH vous souhaite une belle saison estivale et se réjouit de vous retrouver nombreux et en pleine forme en 2010 sur les terrains de la Josefwiese à Zurich.
Sportivement vôtre,
Le Comité<...

In short, no Zurich this year.”

Breeding like coat hangers!

Turn your back for a second and another petanque terrain appears, like coat hangers breeding in a closet!




This little beauty of a California terrain is home to the Petaluma Valley Petanque Club.



You can do the same with 80 yards of gravel ( about 6-7 big dump truck loads) and a nice front end loader with a box or blade on the back.