July 18, 2009

A chilly day for July (68 degrees?) but a pleasant day for petanque. Below are the CPC Super Championship totals (I  figured out how to shorten the averages, Ian!):

June 27, 2009

Man, I didn’t take my own advice. Ten members of the club played from noon until 5:00 pm in 90 degree temperatures. I must have not drank enough water, my head was spinning at the end and I fell asleep as soon as I got home. It was still a great day for petanque. One game that I was involved in was particularly competitive with Ziggy and Wesley being pitted against each other. I was on Wesley’s team, which won 13-11 on a final shot by Ziggy which bumped our boule (which was touching theirs) closer to the cochonet.

Here are the updated CPC Super Championship totals. The rankings are sorted by total points as highlighted in pink:

It seems that the key to doing well is simply to show up and play. To demonstrate this point, here is the rankings as determined by number of games played. The difference between the two is not great:

I don’t know if we should try to make a ranking system that looks at your average instead? It seems like that doesn’t encourage participation as the more you play, the more likely your average is to decrease or remain unchanged. Any thoughts?

June 14, 2009

Here are the updated CPC champsionship totals. Ziggy’s brother Wesley joined today. He’s pretty good, although not as consistently deadly as Ziggy. He did win every game he played though.

EDIT: It has been pointed out in the comments that Wesley only won two games, and lost one. I will update this for the next CPC Championship totals.

Shoot Like the Pros

The best way to learn how to play petanque is to watch and copy the masters. Every time I play with someone more experienced than myself I find myself playing better than normal because I try to replicate their form and technique. While we don’t always have the luxury of playing with Marco Foyot or Phillipe Quintais, we can still learn a lot from watching free petanque videos scattered across the web

Here are two videos that were posted recently on http://www.petanqueamerica.com (also, check the site out if you need a new set of boules).

In the first one, I particularly like the short blond kid’s shooting form. I’m sure there were a lot of misses that they didn’t include in the mix, but watching them – how old can they be? – makes me realize how much work I have left to become even average by French standards.

This is an old video (1998) with some of the current masters when they were a bit younger playing in a tournament. It’s worth watching to notice how each one shoots a little differently. Which brings me to my final point: even though you need to learn from more experienced players, you need to find the shot that works naturally for you.

May 30, 2009

Bob H. was pointing like a pro today. A group of little league kids that were watching us deemed him the best player in the group (which he was yesterday!).

Dan D, Loic and myself played three games. No pictures and a short post, sorry. Here are the updated CPC super championship totals. I’m going to be knocked off the leader position very shortly if I don’t get my game in order!

My Sunday Afternoon

Fred, my brother-in-law from France, was in Chicago this past week. We’ve never played petanque together before, although I heard he was very good and had even beaten one of the top players in France in a tete-a-tete game. On Sunday afternoon we went to the bocce piste at Clarendon park and played four games, of which I lost four (although I was ahead 12-7 at one point until he warmed up and beat me 13-12). I can honestly say he is the best person I have ever played against; he is a shooter but points well enough to force you to shoot his first shots. How good of a shooter is he? We held a little shooting competition at the end of the afternoon…3 balls each at 6-7-8-9 meters. He hit 10 out of 12 boules (that’s 83 percent).

I guess what I’m saying is, I need to go live and practice in France!

Oh, this is the guy he beat tete-a-tete (Suchaud, the shooter in the black hat).

May 9, 2009 – PICNIC!

(More photos can be found at our FLICKR site)

The highlight of today was a potluck picnic. Sausages, rice balls, pasta salads, chips…and hey, I think might have even seen a bottle of wine and a couple beers passed around (shhhhh). The food sustained us for the entire afternoon. John, Ian, Miwa, Matthew and myself didn’t leave until 6:00 pm.

We had two guests, Donna and John. Also, Matthew joined us today. He has played with the club before and is returning with a pointing precision that led one of my teams to victory.

Here are the charts for the CPC Super-Championship.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

(NOTE: above chart is a work-in-progress…but it’s a pretty cool excel spreadsheet which is self sorting and tracks changes over the entire season)

We were at McGuane park on this beautiful Saturday. Dustin S. showed up for the first time this season and we received a new member…one Abderahim from Morocco. Abderahim is a veteran of petanque but a newcomer to Chicago. I predict there will be epic matches between him and Ziggy.

We also started the CPC Super-Champion competition today. Three points are awarded to winners of a game while everyone who plays receive one point for participation. The two players with the highest totals at the end of the season will go tete-a-tete for the Super Champion title. I will try to keep a running total of the points in this blog as soon as I get my hands on the tally sheet.

No pictures today, I forgot my camera.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

High winds and threatening clouds didn’t deter the club from an afternoon of petanque. Today saw the return of Ziggy and the introduction of a new member, Ned. Also in attendance were John, Bob A, Bob H, Dan, John, Jimenez, Loic, Brandon and Ian. Ian showed up on crutches he earned from a game of basketball, but was still able to hop around and shoot quite well.

We were eventually rained out, but not before three games.

You can see more photos of the day at our FLICKR site.

Nice Day . . .

But everyone was out of town. We played at McGuane Park with 60 degree temperatures and a few clouds. Three people showed; Bob Abramski, myself and Jimenez Lai (new member) played two sets. Bob won both games but the last one was tight until the end. Final score; Bob-13, Brandon 11, Jimenez 11. I meant to take pictures to post…next time.

The club is trying to alternate locations every weekend so weather permitting we will play at Forest Park next time. Keep your eye on the message board for details.