The First Petanque America International Open was no doubt a success.
Except for a small rainstorm at the end that messed up the planned prize award ceremony, we had two days of wonderful weather and an amazing variety of teams, 72 in total - from 15 US States and 6 countries.
For European standards that may not seem much, but you have to realize that 100 participants had to fly in. The victory of the team from France, Jean-Pierre Jardinet and Michel Faurant was well deserved.
Also Jean-Pierre speaks fluently English, and is a true ambassador for petanque.
Hundreds of people - some had never seen a 'boule' in their life - were there to watch the finals.
It was as much a competition as a petanque festival. Some teams had extremely original uniforms, and thanks to Hans & Tom from Sonoma we had a truly American scoreboard - two lovely girls walking around with the latest scores.
The final 8 teams:
1. Jean-Pierre Jardinet & Michel Faurant (FRA/FRA)
2. Alec Stone Sweet & Yacob Nour (USA/CAN)
3. John Rolland & Roger Arpaia (USA/CAN)
4. Peter Mathis & P.J. Mallette (USA/USA)
5. Raymond Nielsen & Phimprapha Nielsen (USA/USA)
6. Gerard Gallianio & Marc (CAN/CAN)
7. Juan Garcia & Mamary Colibaly (USA/MLI)
8. Guy Labouyrie & Michel Crouzillat (USA/USA)
More pictures and a review of the tournament are here:
http://petanqueamericaopen.blogspot.com/
Many years ago there was no way of getting your pictures online unless you knew someone with a homepage. Or you mailed them to petanque.org, and we'd put it on the web for you. But nowadays nobody does this thing anymore, there are thousands of ways to get your images online, and our pictures-section is about as dry as the sahara. So we have had to make some changes
Lars Refn was one of the founders of the Copenhagen Petanque Club in Denmark. He is also an illustrator, and has produces a vast number of t-shirts with petanque as the theme over the years.
A positive newsflash fron Chiltern - the young ones have started playing petanque!
We often get questions about when you are to old to play petanque. Some say 90, some 100 and some 120..
A report from Tim Truluck in Charente, France.
Petanque.org integrates with flickrPetanque.org is 10 years old! Illegal Petanque ExposedA Petanque calendar for 2008Hot club petanqe and Le mondial la marseillaise a petanque 2007Big balls of steel and a tiny wooden onePeterhof Maier cup - play a petanque tournament in Russia!New link policyPetanque blog feeds updatedPetanque in the Ukraine
Flickr ideas (5 )Drawing the circle after dead jack (4 )Where to play petanque in Thailand (10 )Enquiry please? (2 )Playing Indoos (2 )Illegal Petanque Exposed (5 )most difficult shot/throw? (5 )Nice one! (1 )Terrain for SANDY soils (Florida) (52 )petanque surface aggregates (2 )Right size boule (3 )Size (1 )Article 37 – Incorrect Behaviour, (5 )YouTube has some great clips (1 )2nd boule played although 1st one made it (7 )
