Brrrrr !

Whatta Day - and Knight!

First of all, congrats to the New York Yankees... they've done it again!

Secondly, as it gets colder, we should still be seeing players at the piste in Cadillac Square, but hopefully wearing sensible winter gear. Some players have found fingerless gloves (really just 1 fingerless glove) to be effective at both keeping the boule hand warm and offering some dexterity. I've used close-fitting velcro-closure gloves with the fingers partially trimmed off on the left glove (i'm a lefty) with some positive results.

See you down there!

Monday's Games with Pat; Buzz; Maury; and Deric

Happy Halloween Everyone!

I'd like to add that Maury and Eric pulled a six-pointer on Friday (all in one round). Maury beleives it is the first of the season and I'd say that is probably true. Good going guys!

Mark gets a solid skunking from Buzz and Tim W.

Whew... what's that smell? Oh... another skunking. This time, Buzz and Tim W. delivered the goods against Mark and Tee. There was one moment when the 13/0 was going to be risked, but fortunately for Tim/Buzz it was Tee who pushed the opposition's boule in for a clean run of 13 points.

Other events: Mikey is back, and playing just as well as if he had never left. I'm not sure how he does it, but perhaps it is his Sampson-like beard growth... "don't shave Mike"

Abu Gets a Skunking

Mary, of Honigman Miller, joined us today upon invitation from Maury. Let me tell you, she is a very quick learner, attributed perhaps to her many years of bowling. Right away Mary pointed with excellence, and if not for my lousy shooting, we would have taken that 5/4 game!

Mark cycled by, off to some important architect meeting no doubt...

I'll have to check in with Mikey as we've not heard about his move down to Florida.

Pat Brings out his Big Balls

Jeff being called away for a fire drill, the players made do with their own boules. Pat brought out his 3 lb. wonders from Marseilles which served him well. "Maury's pointing was excellent," added Andonian - the pair took both games 13/6

Petanque... of Course!

What a nice combination of games for today! Our own game was pretty close, with Pat/Abu keeping slightly ahead of Tim and me... but then we had some lucky breaks, and Tim laid in a very close boule which Pat tried (3 boules!) to shoot away. Fortune was with us this day, 3 misses!

Chinese Invade Detroit - Can you say "Carreau" in Mandarin?

Amidst the loud Rat-Tat-Tat-Tat and heavy Thwumps of machine guns and mortar fire, the Detroit Petanque Club continued to roll their boules, like hand grenades, down the piste for their usual afternoon game playing. "I know that Detroit was rated Most Dangerous City in the United States," shouted Jeff Widen above the clamour, "but this is ridiculous!"

Actually, the noises were part of the production of the Red Dawn re-make that has been shooting in and around Detroit for a month. We're all getting used to buildings getting blown up, military vehicles including tanks and haf-tracks moving through the city as well as many uniformed Chinese "soldiers" marching about at $100 per day.

Close Game Says "Mob Rob"

Close game today (VIDEO) Maury was pointing perfectly, but we carefully planned our moves, letting Buzz lay in the strong anchoring first boule, then allowing the opposing team to over/under throw a few boules, then having Tim point in; Pat shoot away anything close and I came in for finishing up points. Effective strategy. We were behind 8 to 12 and had to hold them for three rounds, but we concentrated on not giving them their thirteenth point. May I add that Nancy and Buzz went boule for boule many times which always makes for a great game. Tim C. came in like a movie star with some difficult shots.

Mild Weather = More Players

We had a nice crew today, with Pat playing with Deric (for the win 13/11) against Mark and Tim C. That was a close game.

I teamed up with Tee against Maury and Buzz (another close game, it came down to a 12/12 and i was able to roll in a 13th boule.)

The second round had Pat back to the office and Eric coming in as replacement. We mixed the teams and played to 7 points.

Weather Warmed Up - Let's Play Petanque!

Last week was horrible weather-wise. Today, however, very nice. No wind, pretty temperate out... about 60 degrees... some sun. Surprisingly, only Maury, Deric, Tee and me (Jeff) for the hour.

Ah well, just remember, the winters are Looooong in Michigan, so come out and toss a boule.

Getting Cold - but hardy Michiganders still make a showing

a tad freezing these days, but we'll try to make it out there as much as we can. The other day it was just me and Deric playing but it was a fun set of games (I don't typically "rank" the games with less than 4 players). Yesterday I had a surprise meeting so I couldn't make it out to the piste, but today, if it's not raining, I should be out at noontime.

Boule Disparity Creates Automatic Defensive Positioning

Tough day for my team. We had two teams of 4 players each - meaning: 16 boules in play. Unfortunately, it took us 4 or 5 boules to beat the close boule - leaving a disparity of boules... 7 boules for the opposition to use, and only 3 or 4 boules for us (after having depleted our pointers). This forced us into a defensive position almost immediately (stunting the shooting aspect of our team because the shooters now had to be the pointers). Upon reflection, I should have mixed up the "batting order" a bit earlier -- perhaps rolling in the initial boule ust to keep us at a 1:1 boule use ratio. Who can really say how it'd turn out?