Freddie P's Blog

July 6, 2009 @ 15:07

Once again weather wise it was an unsettled weekend in the Kawarthas but the competition was hot and heavy as all the trailer fold got together for our annual bocce tournament.

It's called the Jeff Laird Memorial Bocce tournament and we like to hold it annually, but you might remember that last year sucked the big one as far as the weather went so it got washed out.

This year we decided to hold it a little earlier in case the same thing happened but luckily we were able to withstand the stiff cold wind and mostly grey skies to get 'er done.

I'm the only two time champion in the park having captured the trophy and golden shoes in 2004 and 2005. After a two year drought and then the rain out I bounced back this year and made it to the final only to lose to a good fella named John McLeod.

This was definitely a case of home field advantage. I like to play in one part of the park while Johnny likes to play in another. When it came down to the final we flipped a coin to see who would choose the starting point and McLeod won. I was forced to make the long trek up to the area surrounding his trailer and the battle was one.

At one point I was down 15-10, but I battled back to take a 16-15 lead before losing 21-17. It was a bitter pill to swallow but I have no excuses. I lost fair and square and had to settle for the silver medal and everything else that comes with finishing second.
There were some other highlights.

I spanked Dan Duran's ass 15-3 in my third match and then had to listen to excruciating whining about me delaying the match too often while I waited for other games to play through. I won't go into huge detail only to say with so many people playing, sometimes the road gets crowded and if you have control of the pallino (small ball) you can wait till they pass before throwing it.

Duran the big suck didn't like this. Especially after he was leading 3-1 and I took a 13-3 lead.

Another highlight was my wife's performance. Delyse doesn't have a long or rich history in this tournament but she did us all proud on knocking Mike Kimber out of the tournament in the second round. Kimber is a perennial bride's maid but I think we all have it in the back of our minds that one year he's going to break out and win it all. Not this time and that's more than OK.

A few shout-outs. To April Ansell. Her parents are new to the park and therefore new to the tournament, but this kid (26 years old) can play the game and she zoomed all the way to the semi-finals against me. I had to tame the tigress 21-15.

And again, thanks to Pam Kimber (Mike's wife) she's the organizer of the tournament and the sister of Jeff Laird, who the tournament was named after. She always makes sure that every last detail is looked after and that everyone has a great time.

Yes, Saturday turned out to be a great day and so did Sunday thanks to the pause in grey skies, rain and cool temperatures.

We all hung out, re-hashed the tournament and soaked in the precious sun.

This is a picture of my darlin' Delyse and MIke Kimber, the guy she knocked off.

This is a picture of two future bocce players. Riley and Josh.

And this is a video of the awards presentation after the tournament. It's about seven minutes long, but nobodies forcing you to watch it. Ya peckers!