Sam, Bocce Player, Shows Us His Supreme Skills

 While setting up to play today (Wednesday) Sam came over as an interested bocce player to try out petanque.  We immediately conscripted him into the game and fortunately he was on my team because he was terrific.  He shot away boule after boule with ease.  I recall, years ago, when our club played in a competition against bocce players and the bocce players outperformed us handily.  If you're ever up in Lake Orion, at the Palazzo di Bocce, if you look in the trophy case, you'll see a big silver cup they won in that competition.

Sam surprised us all with his bocce expertise translated into expert boule shooting

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 5  Tall Jeff   Jeff  Tim  Abu  Sam  (Abu filled in for whem Sam left)

13  Pat  Fred  Maury  Nick

 



Father and Son Take the Piste and Show their Genetic Sports Prowess

Father and Son at the Petanque Courts (Maury B. and Tom B.)

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 13  Jeff,  Jeff  Tim

10 Fred  Pat Nick

 

The game started off with us (Team-Jeff) absolutely slaughtering our competition, perhaps going for the 13/0 skunk.  But then Team-Pat inched their way up the ladder, earning themselves 10 points rapidly before taking the 13/10 loss.

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13  Jeff  Fred

4  Tom B.  Maury B.  Tim

Tom B. shows his father some very professional petanque pointing

Maury B., recently celebrated his birthday, and a long-time anniversary of his working at his firm.  He brought his son, Tom along to the courts to play a game or two and show us that his sports skills were handed down genetically to his son as well.

Long Time Player, Jeff, Returns to the Piste for Excellent Pointing

 We haven't seen Jeff for years, but he's been practicing with his own set of boules and it showed today when he put in point after point with his "rapid backspin" style of boule throwing.

Tim takes advantage of the new food court at Cadillac Square Park

Team-Pat Catches Up Quickly

Richard "Buzz" Crozier Passed Away This Past Saturday

This past Saturday (June June 22nd) I received a call from Deric who resides in the same building as Buzz.  He told me that Buzz passed away as a result of injuries from falling.  We had only just seen him the week previous, he was crossing Woodward with Marley in tow going into Campus Martius.  Always a soft-spoken gentleman, we will miss Buzz.  Regards to his wife, Timmi Crozier.

Very recent photo of Buzz and Marley.  This was about two or three weeks ago (early June).  Buzz came by to watch us.

He was always invited to participate, because we all know that the game of petanque is available for people of all stages of mobility.

Mark Weisgerber and Buzz Crozier.  Buzz had regained his strength and was playing standing for a season.



Buzz Crozier started playing petanque with the Detroit Petanque Club in 2009.  At the time, he was still in his chair.

You can also see Hal D'Darpini, Tom Cipollone,  Tim Clabuesch, and Eric Cetnar in this photo.  Eric passed away recently too.  I'm glad we had a chance to meet them.

Pizza party with the club.  Buzz thoughtfully provided the food for the party.  He was always very generous.

Friday's Game with Photos and a Violin

Photographer: Rita T.

13  Pat Tim

11  Fred Jeff

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13  Pat  Tim  Abu

11  Fred  Jeff  Alpha  Nick

We were accompanied by a barefooted violinist 

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Detroit Petanque Club's Point System Updated & Corrected

After some careful examination, I found the old club spreadsheet to be lacking in some important data crunching features.

Here is the updated club's score table.

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As you can see there are some interesting statistics going on here, namely Winning-Percentages and Point-Spread Averages.

The Winning Percentages show how likely it is for a particular player to win his or her game.

     Nick leads the pack at a 67% win percentage, followed by Abu (at 62%) and then Alpha (54%)

     Win Percentage =  (Wins x 100) / Total Games

But winning is only half the battle, you also want to measure how "well" you've won, in essence, the point spread average.  Winning 13/1 is a better point value than winning 13/12, likewise losing your game 1/13 is much worse than losing 12/13.  The point values (see below) are awarded for those spreads.

     Abu tends to win his games with a bigger point spread 2.04 (and his losses are more narrow margins).  He's followed by Me, Nick and Alpha (close averages 1.96; 1.95; 1.94 respectively)  Sam has a 1.93 but since he has only 3 games in the sampling, his average doesn't have enough data points (yet) to note it as statistically sound.

What does this mean?  Well, clearly, if you had a team composed of Abu, Nick & Alpha - then you'd have quite a powerhouse, statistically speaking.  It also means that players can think of themselves in terms of not only how often they win, but how well they win.  As for team composition, we can also try out forming teams that are statistically more evenly matched (of those that show for game play - obviously).

Latest Scores - and a Tournament in Royal Oak on Saturday (June 8th)

 13  Pat Nick  Tim  Abu

8  Jeff  Fred  Deric  Mark  Candice

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13  Pat  Abu  Alpha

1  Jeff  Alix  Mark

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13  Pat  Alix  Alpha

12  Jeff  Candice  Abu  Mark

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13  Abu  Nick  Candice  Tim

7  Jeff  Deric  Pat

The Alliance Francaise of Michigan is running a petanque tournament on Saturday (June 8) 1-5pm at the VFW Park in Royal Oak (on the baseball diamond, corner of Lincoln and Wilson).

There is a $25 entry fee per Adult (Kids 8-16 are free)

The day includes Instruction/Practice, 3-Game Tournament, Championship Round.

There will be prizes, snacks, drinks, and dessert.

Space is limited, so you must register by today:  (248) 538-5440  or  infor@frenchinstitute.org (you can pay via credit card)