"Pétanque tournament? Where? In the village?" my husband asked Charlène, one of our young neighbors.
"Can I enter?" he pressed on after Charlène affirmed that for the first time in many years, our little village in the Auvergne was going to get together for a friendly competition. I was sure my husband was joking. After all, he had played the game maybe three times in total in his entire life. And he did not even know the official rules. But he seemed undeterred.
"How many people in a team?" he pressed on. Charlène explained that you needed three players to enter the competition. She seemed amused by my husband's excitement.
"I'll play with you in a team." she said. Then both my husband and Charlène turned to my son.
"Sure" he chuckled "I'll be your third."
So here they were, the only team with two players who had never played boules before. Thank goodness for Charlène. In a quick practice session, she explained the rules and shared a few tricks with her novice teammates. And to my big surprise, they were not even that bad, though I was highly skeptical that the locals would be pleased to have such beginners in the competition.
The next day, the three went down to the village pétanque court and signed in. It was a perfect day, not a cloud in the sky, and just cool enough in the shade. In a suspenseful first match-up, the little trio beat the opposition 13-12. They lost the next round 9 to 13, but then won the third 13-9.
Amazing, no? Though they did not make it into the finals, they were pretty pleased with themselves. Over-all, they made it into 7th place out of 16 teams.
Next year, I think I will get them official T-shirts.
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