Bob the ... builder?

Thanks to brother Don for the pics and blog.

Brother Bob can be seen helping with the final tamping of the piste in San Diego.
He developed his own techniques, one move was termed the "starfish tamp" and another the "kangaroo tamp", at one point he tried to combine his two moves into the "kangaroo starfish" and ended up tamping his big toe. There's also a shot of Bob explaining to my wife, Maritza, the intricacies of his tamping moves (note the blister covering tape on Bob's thumb).

Don

HSPC beefs up security measures ...

... amid introduction of new leakproof team cooler! :)))





A fine long weekend of petanque to greet Bob on his return to Japan. New boulles, new cooler, but those memorable Myoshoji sunsets haven't changed.

Bob and Don show us how it's done!

A superb series of photos here from Bob "the Pointer" and brother Don with friend Keith on the new HSPC piste in San Diego.

Those mega wine goblets courtside need filling up with some California Chardonnay!!!

HSPC hangs on to beat OBA

HSPC narrowly defeated OBA in the Tokyo Petanque League on Sunday, Sept. 6.

Racing away to a 3-0 lead in the best of eight series, visiting HSPC appeared in control before OBA rallied well to level the series at 3-3.

As darkness set in, Raj and Bill combined to earn our fourth victory before Steve and Greg held on 13-11 in a nail-biter.

Some solid play by Steve, Raj, Bill and Chris to carry Captain Crumble. Thanks guys.

Thanks also to OBA for a fun day, a superb spread and some loaded G and Ts!

HSPC opens court in San Diego

A big hello to brother Don in San Diego, who has just completed building his own petanque piste in his backyard! Way to go mate!

Construction required Don to shovel about 8 tons of 3/8-inch playing surface material from his driveway in the front of the house into the backyard.

Good to see you building up those shoulder muscles to carry your brother on his upcoming return home! :)

Greg

A day of disappointments ...

HSPC could only manage a draw against Aoyama Petanque in the Tokyo Petanque League on Saturday July 11 at Myoshoji Park. After both clubs split the first two games, Bob and Raj won the third and Steve and Greg were leading 10-6 in the fourth but squandered the opportunity to take a 3-1 lead.

From there Bob and Vas lifted us to 3-2 but Steve and Raj couldn't hold on for the win against Ogawa and Yokoyama san. With the games tied 3-3, Vas and Bob came up large to beat the hot pairing of Adrian and Albert, but Greg and Raj fell to Bernard and Mochizuki san to see the day end at 4-4.

Both teams blew several opportunities to score big and, as hard as it is to say, a draw was probably the fairest result.

Big thanks to Vas who once again played great, winning both his games. Sorry we couldn't do the same.

More pics to come later.

HSPC kick starts league campaign with vital victory

After two narrow defeats, and a scrappy draw, HSPC finally posted its first victory of the 2009 Tokyo Petanque League campaign, overcoming Sagamihara Belle Equipe 7-1 on Saturday, June 20.



Raj and Big Bill earned MVP honors, going undefeated in their three games, while Bob also played a great anchor role, teaming up with three different partners – Greg, Chris and Vasili – to post an impressive 4-1 record himself.

Determined to get off to a fast start, Greg and Bob came out of the gates like Usain Bolt, dashing to a dream-like 10-0 lead before the sprint race turned into a battle of endurance and, after hacking into the lead with two 4-point frames, Sagamihara leveled the scores at 10-10.

From there the fading HSPC boys caught a bad break when Bob's clean knock out sent a boulle into the bit and after some pinballing, the target ball settled amongst three of Sagamihara's boulles. With only one ball left, Greg needed to throw a quality shot to at least have a chance of extending the game but his effort came up well short and a gutted HSPC were left wondering how we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

The second game featuring Raj and Big Bill, two players renown for lifting their games to match the occasion, started in a similar style with HSPC taking an early lead before Sagamihara fought back. Our opponents had a chance to clinch victory and take a 2-0 lead but failed to grasp the opportunity. Sensing a win was there to seal, Raj and Bill held their nerves and slammed the door shut on a 13-12 victory to even the score at 1-1.

Fresh off an amazing 61 on the golf course on Friday, Chris entered the match, teaming up with Bob in a critical Game 3 for a 13-8 triumph. Unlike his native banana-bent state Down Under, Chris was straight and true on the piste, his pointing packed with the poison of a thousand Cane Toads.

Raj and Bill teamed up for two other victories, as did Belarusian bamboozler Vasili and Bob, while Greg and Bob erased the pain of their opening defeat with a tight 13-11 result as HSPC rolled to an impressive 7-1 triumph.

Despite early warnings from the local constabulary following a complaint about "dangerous steel balls flying high," the celebrations continued well into the night and morning, with Steve joining in the festivities, making an emergency dash from Narita Airport. Top effort mate!



Next up, HSPC takes on undefeated rivals (and good friends) Aoyama Petanque at home in another "must win" scenario for the Peter Pan Boyz.