HSPC captures inaugural Tokyo Petanque League

HSPC won the inaugural Tokyo Petanque League on Saturday, January 19, after defeating the Okubo Boules Association (OBA) 4-0 in the best-of-seven playoff series at Aoyama.



The matches were all hard-fought in a good spirit, and the 4-0 scoreline doesn't reflect how close the games were.

Playing on the rocky "graveyard" piste, the teams of Raj-Bob and Steve-Greg were determined not to get away to a bad start, which had led to the team's demise at OBA in our earlier clash.

So much for game plans.

It wasn't long before Raj and Bob were staring down both barrels on Center Court, trailing 7-2 against Monty and Bernard. Greg and Steve had their own troubles, stranded in the direct firing line of "assassin" Yutaka, who couldn't seem to miss a knock out.

Patience was needed and Bob and Raj slowly clawed back, edging ahead 9-7 before holding off a late charge by Monty and Bernard.

Steve and Greg, though never trailing in their game, couldn't break away from Tom and Yutaka and with the scores locked at 7-7, the game was anyone's to win. Finally the HSPC boys got in sync and found their zone, edging ahead 9-7 before clinching a 13-7 victory.

The next round was also a good match-up with Steve and Greg holding a slim 4-3 lead over Monty and Bernard prior to Steve shooting the bit out of bounds, and with our opponents out of stock, he earned HSPC four valuable points.

But OBA again rallied and brought the score back to trail 8-7. With the pressure on, Steve and Greg found their range, edging ahead 10-8.

In the final frame, Greg was sitting on the point with Bernard's boule in second but Greg was holding third and fourth with his boules well-grouped.

With three chances to shoot Bernard's boule for the victory, Steve stood up and fired in low and hard -- a direct hit to seal HSPC's third win of the day. The result meant that the pairing of Steve and Greg managed to go through the league undefeated.

Attention quickly turned to Center Court, where Bob and Raj were trailing 12-9 before drawing on their experience in clutch situations to trim the lead to 12-10. Raj then led off and put his first attempt on the money, and after a few misfired shots from OBA, Bob clinched the third point and the league title, sparking a night of celebrations.

We'd like to thank OBA and Aoyama for their sportsmanship and hospitality and look forward to some great games and happy times in 2008!