Red-hot Aoyama trounces HSPC in league

Legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus once said, "you don't judge a champion by the way he celebrates winning, you judge him by how he takes defeat."

After getting trounced 7-1 at Aoyama on Saturday in the Tokyo Petanque League (TPL), the Myoshoji boys took the loss very well, so well in fact, they "celebrated" until 11:30 p.m. at the ground!

Aoyama's Adrian Buehler is one of the best players in Japan and if he brings his "A Game" to the piste, you certainly better have yours. Bob and Raj did on Saturday and that still wasn’t enough. Adrian and the ever steady Yokoyama san combined for a very convincing 13-3 win in the opening game.

On court 2 Steve and Greg were on cruise control, rushing out to a 10-0 lead before Albert, whose game has matured tremendously in recent years, anchored a steady revival with Ogawa san to lock it all up at 11-11. From there Steve had a chance to win – or possibly lose! – the game and after flirting with danger by hitting the top of the bit, HSPC moved to 12-11 before Aoyama seized the game with two points.

HSPC then shuffled their teams and introduced Scott, Bob's good friend from the US, and even though he hadn't played for two years, he soon found his touch. Teamed with the experienced Bob, they came close to stealing victory before Takahashi san won the game in style, shooting out two boules for the win.

In the fourth game, Raj and Vas got out to a rough start against the red-hot Adrian and Yokoyama san and were trailing early before rallying to make it a good contest, though they two eventually succumbed, falling 13-8.

HSPC then introduced two fresh faces into its line-up, baseball players Big Bill and Chris, who also performed admirably considering they hadn't played in years, but once again victory proved elusive.

It was left to Steve and Greg to salvage some pride for the day, defeating Albert and Ogawa 13-6 san in a replay of their opening game, but the damage was done.

Congratulations Aoyama, you played great.

So at the halfway point in the TPL, three teams sit atop the standings, HSPC, Aoyama and Mon Soleil.

Full results can be seen on the TPL website.