Big Thanks to Sam for Running the Club

I see that things ran rather smoothly while I was away. Thanks to Sam for organizing things and to all who participated. The Friday game (10/22) looks a bit tough: Three experienced players against two relative newbies. I'm glad you took up the challenge! The weather has been ... on and off - so we'll just have to check the doppler each afternoon and decide. I know that in the past, we've played into November - so hopefully we'll hve a few more weeks of games.

French Visit Detroit Petanque Club and are Surprised

Though it is nothing new to us, for French folks visiting Detroit, it was a novelty to see Americans playing the popular French sport. Plenty of photos were taken, and the visitors were invited to play a few rounds... De-Troit (the straights) is a French city after all...

I will be in New York (back on Wednesday Oct. 27th) and Sam has been kind enough to volunteer to bring the boules each afternoon so everyone can continue to play. Please choose the teams fairly - and have a great time!

Petanque Still Going Strong at Campus Martius Park

I'll be out of town starting Wednesday (Oct. 20th) returning Tuesday night (Oct. 26th). Not sure if anyone will be taking custody of the petanque equipment for continual play while I'm away but I'll keep you posted.

New player, Boris played on my team - and was actually quite a good pointer - which perplezed my opponents... we lost 8/13 but still... held out own.

Alpha was playing with left and right hands... an advantage when looking for an angle!

Sam Threatens Pat's Top Spot in the Rankings

New player, Sam, has only 28 notches in his gun stock and he's gunning now for Pat's top rank spot. Will he make it? We'll find out next week...

Pat leaps over Mark W.'s Deep Double Losses

Pat A. was quite a bit down from Mark W.'s lead, but Team-Abu crushed Team-Mark with a 13/0 and 13/2 (whew!) double victory. Over on Piste (court) 2, Team-Widen/Sam had a hard time at first against Team Pat/Maury - we even tried to use the court/cochonnet positioning to our advantage (it didn't work) - but after some key points laid in by Sam and a few Tir-au-fer (shooting to the metal) shots from me (lucky) - we took the game 13/8.

Still We Won...

Though Pat declared it to be "the worst game of October" (Hey, we still have 2 weeks left in Oct.), I felt the game was so evenly matched as to have kept the final score pretty low: 8/7. Abu was really a strong player for his team today while Pat felt he could have performed better. I was glad we did as well as we had with only 2 boules per player on our team (normally a disadvantage). That last round where Team-Abu had the close point and 1 boule left and we had to expend nearly 6 boules to gain back the point was a tense moment.

Pat Teams up with Abu to Fight Back

Some might call it an uneasy alliance, but the coin toss decided that Pat and Abu would team up (with Nick) against JeffW. / DericT. and TimC. (otherwise known as Peppers).

It was tough going, and sometimes painful to listen to the excited banter between the twin-headed captain (Pat & Abu) deciding up the course of attack. But eventually, despite my team's best efforts, they were able to take the victory (13/8).

Sam brought in yet another new player, Mark W. who has immediately shown his strength in pointing. Well to my advantage, together with Sam's primo plombe pointing, we took on EricC. / Mob-Rob and DericT. also a strong pointing team. Conclusion: victory to Jeff/Mark/Sam.

Tidal Wave Sweeps Over Team Andonian

In an unusual turn of events, Team-Andonia was swept out to sea in two games. The first match had evenly distributed players (pointers/shooters) but surprisingly, the results were a bit lopsided. The second game had the players mixed; but Team-Widen chose a strong pointing team (Deric/Eric/Nick) which he felt would be advantageous - and so it was as the initial point was almost entirely controlled by Deric's first boule which held for 7 or 8 of the opponent's boules! At that point, it was "shooting fish in a barrel" with 7 boules left to point with. I know Pat will be hungry for a rematch A.S.A.P.

Pat Knocks Cochonnet Twice (for 9 points)

It is wise to keep Article-13(2) of the Rules in mind, especially when Pat is playing because he was solely responsible for 9 of his team's 13 points with two solid cochonnet strikes.

The teams were pretty evenly matched. Both sides had plenty of shooters and pointers - plus careful strategy.

In the final round, it was 8/9, and we had too many boules far from the cochonnet. My hope was to use our last three boules to tie up the front position and lay a "safety" boule in the back in case Pat would go for the cochonnet. Unfortunately, my "safety" boule landed short and captured the point... Not good when it happens to be my team's last boule and the opposition has six boules left to use!

Pat knew there was none of our boules in the back - so he went for the logically sound Article-13 cochonnet hit... and made it successfully for 5 more points (and the win).

Congrats to everyone for a tight well-played game.

Abu Shooting Petanque at 100%

Lots of fun today at Cadillac Square Park. Clark has been pointing in without a miss; and Abu has been shooting better than Pat (I dare say...) - Sam has been taking some shooting throws to gain in experience. Buzz has been using his serpentine-English pointing throw with much success; and Eric has been "push-pointing" nearly 100% of the time.

I'd love to see a match of: Pat; Abu & TimC. against Jeff; MarkW. and Clark - it'd be a good game.

We aren't alone in the petanque universe... there's a great club down in Chicago which hold tournaments every now and again: Chicago Petanque Club and here's a link to a YouTube video describing a 4,000 team (yes, 4,000 = 12,000 players) tournament in Marseilles which is a direct elimination. Marseillaise Video

See you tomorrow!

Team Honigman Trumps Miller Canfield and Klugman Empire

In a display of sheer might, the Honigman Brothers (Pat A./Maury B./Tim C.) trounced Team Canfield (Jeff W./Clark C./Lin Y.) 13 to 1... admittedly, the Honigman team used their vastly superior experience against my relatively newer players ... so we were happy tro "steal" a skunking away from them!

With Thirteen players - the games spilled on to two courts (and back to Cadillac Square Park for the space!)

Team Klugman did well, handily beating the Alpha Team 13 to 1 (also another team composed of relatively newer players).

I'd say we should break-up the Honigman team for future games so the game play won't be so lopsided... but it was worthwhile to see how out-matched teams fared against tough odds.

Likely, with the weather turning nicer, we should play back on our usual Cadillac Square Park stomping grounds. See you there!

Congrats to Team Honigman for the Double-Wins. And to Scott T. and Clark C. for ascending to the 10+ rankings.

Clark C. Produces Strong Results for the Win

Another grand day at Campus Martius Park, with Abu M. showing his bold and daring petanque style. His team seemed a bit undecided on strategy, so Petanque Coach Pat A. was on the scene calmly leading each player through the correct methods for a victory...

...but victory was not to be had as our team boasted masterful pointer, Clark C. who rolled in close boule after close boule for a non-stop attack which led to our victory 13/9.

There were quite a few times during the match when billiard physics had to be considered (or ignored at your peril). The final round gave us 3 points and the win when the sole defensive boule was shot away bringing in 4 points. Let the losing team be warned: examine the boule layout before deciding upon your play.

Campus Martius Park Petanque - Great Fun!

One of the joys of playing petanque among the same group of players is that over time you get to enjoy the improved progress in game play from new players as well as any changes in game strategy from the experienced players. Monday's game with Abu really solidified this idea as his aggressive style of shooting and taking risks for points really showed. Sam, Maury and I witnessed a bold shooter in Abu who has a "take no prisoners" attitude - a good thing. Having a formidable opponent (or partner) in boules makes for much better gameplay.

Cool Weather at Cadillac Square Park

[click on photos to enlarge them]

Buzz came by with his friend, Mike (not Mikey, a different Mike) - who was lobbing in boules like an expert. I can see already that we have a brand new pro-pointer in our midst.

The winning boule, by the way, was made by Mike when he rolled (at 10 meters) his last boule through a 4 inch gap in the opposition's front wall - to land a 13th point. Well done!

The game was quite evenly matched, as both teams were at 9 points before our team pulled ahead for the win. Of course, the 5-points we earned in the very first round didn't hurt either...

NOTE: as the cold weather establishes itself, the players all (well mostly) agreed to play across the street at Campus Martius Park (in the Sun!) Starting Monday, let's all meet over there and stay a bit warmer! If you haven't yet played petanque at Campus Martius Park, you'll enjoy it...