Team Z Obut faced off against Team LaChance Integrale

Michigan Petanque Sports Central News Agency (MPSCNA) 11-MAR-2005

Last night was yet another spirited evening of hard hitting, tight pointing Petanque out at the Bordine's Bouledrome. Team Z Obut faced off against Team LaChance Integrale in the midst their ninth Best of Nine series.

A couple of weeks ago, the MPSCNA reporters thought they would (finally) be able to report a victory for Joe Zajac's Team Z Obut in a Best of Nine series. It was Zajac's eighth attempt against Monsieur Chance's heretofore unstoppable Team LaChance Integrale. They entered that evening 3 games to 2 in favor of LaChance, and Zajac assembled commanding leads 11-1 and 12-2 during the first two games, only to see those leads evaporate in stunning losses. Our reporting staff was so shell shocked at the time, even depressed because of our wish to finally report a victory for Team Z, that we could not bring ourselves to report Team Z's stunning defeat. (We admit that we are running out of creative ways of reporting LaChance victories, the winning streak has been so long.) So the eight Best of Nine ended 5 games to 2, as usual in favor of Team LaChance Integrale. That evening did not end there though, and Team Z rallied to win the next two games, setting the stage for last night's match.

Team Z entered the Bouledrome up 2 games to 0 versus LaChance in this Ninth Best of Nine. Mr. Chance entered the match clearly nervous, nervousness which was heightened when Team Z leapt out of the gates to a 7-0 lead in the first round. But we have often witnessed the frailty of those leads, and Mr. Chance came back to win the first round 13-11. Team Z again leapt to an 8-1 lead in the second game, a deficit this time that LaChance could not surmount, owing to brilliant pointing and textbook carreaus from Team Z, and the round ended 11-13 in Team Z's favor. The Best of Nine result at that point was 3 games for Zajac, 1 game for Chance.

The next two rounds were hard fought, seasawing up and down in the point count. Shots being fired up to four times in a round. There were numerous back to back biberons (when, on a point, the bouchon is kissing the boule). Numerous blasts sent the bouchon flying out of play. And when the dust settled, LaChance had scored two 13-11 victories, leaving this Best of Nine standing in a cliff hanger at 3 games to 3. All four games in this exciting evening of play ended in 11-13 decisions, very close play indeed.

Michigan Petanque Sports Central News believes that it is entirely possible that a Team Z Best of Nine victory might be reported in the course of the next few reports. Petanque fans - stay tuned!

(MPSCNA, in light of the unbroken string of victories for Team Integrale, is considering officially endorsing INTEGRALE as the brand to recommend for Midwest Petanquers. A decision on this endorsement is likely to be made in the next couple of weeks.)