Sunday, September 19, 2004

We Played For Hours...

Today was a bit cooler at the Royal Oak Terrain de Petanque than normal, hence, very few "Scoreboard" T-Shirts on display and plenty of long sleeves.

There were quite a few familiar faces, as well as a few new ones ("Terry"). We broke up into 6-pairs, playing 3 doublette matches for a while. Strangely, the two biggest fans of Petanque were not present, namely Monsieur Ken and Monsieur Joe. I delayed as long as I could, but then it was game-time, and we all tossed out our boules for team selection.

A few games in, and Joe arrived, letting us know that he was delayed due to the fact that he couldn't hasten the Christening ceremony he had attended that morning. I asked him if he dunked his boules in holy water to give them extra "carreau" power.

Ken still missing in action, and knowing he had his new boules to show us, I guessed he may have been sent, much to his dismay, on an emergency mission to Istanbul or Kzakahstan.

The piste is in need of some gardening, as testament to Michel pulling weeds from the eastern portion of the field during the many times his team was well ahead in points. I've heard he sometimes sprays down the terrain with a backpac-tank of weed killer, a photo I hope to capture and post here one day. Perhaps a flamethrower would also prove effective.

We played until 7:00pm (usually we end at around 5pm) - and all had a very good time.

See you next Sunday, I'll be practicing on the local ballfield out back.


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