Excellent Shooting from Matt T. Today

One of the highlights of captaining a petanque club is watching players progress from being a newbie pointer transforming into a threatening shooter. I'm not saying that shooting boules is for everyone, pointing well is always "the point" of the game, but taking that leap of faith by throwing a boule with all your might at a target really puts your boules on the line. When you miss in pointing, you're still relatively near to the cochonnet, but if you miss in shooting - it's Bye-Bye-Boule - and very obvious.

Matt T. was on my team today, as we played against the double threat of Pat and Tim. What was interesting is that Matt (who is merely 15 games (or so) into the sport, asked if he could be the lead shooter for our team, and I could take up the pointing position. I'm always for a player's increased skill set so we switched roles for the bulk of the game (right up to the end where we beat Pat & Tim 13/12. Matt made a good percentage of his shots, I'd say 75% of them. Excellent.

Afterward we played a tete-a-tete (1 on 1) game. These games have to be played a little more carefully in that you usually only shoot once per round. Matt held his own. So now we have the makings of a new shooter for the club. That's great progress.