2013 California Commemorative Cup

Here we go again… The Commemorative Cup.
Why by the way is this event called the Commemorative Cup?
According to Louis Toulon, it was created to celebrate and pay tribute to La Pétanque Marinière’s founding fathers: Louis Toulon, Jean-Louis Bontemps, Marcel Parnell, René Di Maio, and Charles Davantes.
Merci messieurs!

Contestants came from all over California in an effort to get their names engraved on the Perpetual Trophy.
In case you had forgotten, last year’s winners were Claudie Chourré and Etienne Rijkheer who defeated Ed Porto and Teri Sirico in the finals.
They teamed up again this  year for a second win.
Can it be done?
Improbable, unless they are on a Lance Armstrong regimen (which of course they will deny).
Just kidding guys!

The field looked good due in part to David Riffo and Christine Cragg who laid some highly visible strings on the ground to delimit playing boundaries.
The field was also groomed again last Saturday by a handful of volunteers.
Thank you all ladies and gentlemen for your help.

The weatherman promised good playing conditions and he kept his word. We enjoyed a cloudless sky and except for a few hours in the morning the temperature hovered around 70 degrees most of the day.

Viennoiseries” were offered by Jean-Claude Bunand. Thank you Great Bearded One! “Avec un boulanger on n’est jamais dans le pétrin.”

The format of the tournament was Mixed Doublettes (1 man + 1 woman).

Since we have twice as many men as women in our club, I assume that women were in hot demand. It is nice to be wooed ladies, isn’t it? Was it flowers? Candy? Money?
Your secret is safe with me.

Last year 20 doublettes participated in this tournament. This year we got 32!

Here are this year’s contestants:

1. PJ Mallette/N. Garrett //  2. M. Couglin/Nicole Coughlin
3. J.M Poulnot/S. Mattei // 4. F. Moser/T. Efron
5. P. Wellington/B. Hall // 6. T. Parkinson/ H. Sammons
7. J. Sarafian/A. Paulsen // 8. K. Evoy/S. Bowman
9. J.C Etallaz/ G. Etallaz // 10. E. Rijkheer/C. Chourre
11. E. Porto/T. Sirico // 12. F. Menhaus/B. Howard
13. D. Riffo/M. Bricca // 14. M. McMillan/C. McMillan
15. F. Haney/D. Haney // 16. B. Bardet/K. Summers
17. A. Marchand/E. Marchand // 18. D. Carlton/C. Jones
19. A. Lofaro/E. Lofaro // 20. A. Gusella/D. Gusella
21. L. Toulon/C. Cragg // 22. J. Gautier/M. Di Maio
23. J. Lecouturier/L. Kraft // 24. B. Passmar/C. Van Der Meulen
25. E. Moilanen/S. Garcia // 26. R. Dunn/T. Whitney
27. B. Lysten/B. Forte // 28. M. Menefee/E. McTaggart
29. P. Kos/I. Koss // 30. J.C Bunand/J. Krauer
31. R. Di Maio/H. Facchini // 32. D. Feaster/N. Feaster

If I misspelled any name, please forgive me for I just read handwriting.
If you see any mistake, send me a brief e-mail and I shall correct my mistakes.

Two 13 points qualifying games were played before lunch, and as a result 16 teams advanced to the Concours, 8 teams ended up in the Consolante A, and 8 teams in Consolante B.

After lunch

Consolante A
Parkinson/Sammons won 1st Prize by defeating Bardet/Summers

Consolante B:
Mickey and Nicole Coughlin won 1st Prize
by defeating Dunn/Whitney (13/3)

Bottles of wine for all winners.

Concours:
Semi-finals

Riffo /Bricca defeated Sarafian/Paulsen (13/4)
Di Maio/Facchini defeated Mallette/Garrett (13/10)

Finals:
David Riffo and Monique Bricca won the finals by defeating Di Maio/Facchini (13/2)

IMG_0350

The stars of the finals were definitely the women, with men playing supporting roles.
Both Monique Bricca and Helga Facchini did superb pointing jobs and both absolutely deserve to have their names engraved on the Cup.
If there was a special medal for pointing, I would give it to Monique who, on a scale from 1 to 10 would get a 9, while Helga would get an 8.
Men did what they were supposed to do, assist the women, keep quiet and strike when required.

Congratulations David and Monique!

Yesterday, Genevieve and Jean-Claude Etallaz also celebrated their 47th wedding anniversary.
Congratulations to the lovebirds.

A good tournament, and a good sign of things to come.

Alain

PS: To look at pictures (slideshow) of this event, turn the sound of your computer on, click on the “Home” link at the top of the page, and click again on “My photos” located on the right side of the page. Enjoy.

One thought on “2013 California Commemorative Cup”

Comments are closed.