Four members of the Zanesfield Petanque Club traveled to Amelia Island, Fla., last weekend for the Petanque Amelia Open.
The Amelia Open is the nation’s largest petanque tourney with players from nine countries and 20 states. The field included 10 world champion title holders.
On Friday, Nov. 8, ZPC member Lucy Johns played with Valerie Hudson (Las Vegas) in the Women’s Compact Doubles tournament. There were 24 teams playing four rounds of five ends. The top eight moved on in the single-elimination bracket. Team Johns ranked sixth but lost their quarterfinal game.
On Saturday, Nov. 9, the main doubles tournament was conducted with 172 teams. Lucy Johns was the youngest player at age 10 to play in the tourney. Lucy and Justin Bo Johns went 4-1 to rank 30th, Ziggy Kessouagni and Peter Mathis (California) went 4-1 to rank 37th, Shannon Hodge and James Banks (Florida) went 3-2 to rank 72nd. Hodge was not originally playing in the tourney but was asked to fill in for a injured player starting in game three.
The team of Lucy and Justin Bo Johns moved into the main Concours A tourney with the top 32 teams. They were paired to play Phillipe Quintais, a 13-time world champion who is considered the best player in the sport. Team Johns put up a fight but lost 7-13.
Kessouagni and Mathis were placed in Concours B. They won all five games in their bracket to be the winners of Concours B.
Hodge and Banks were placed in Consolante A. They lost their first game to drop to Consolante AA. They won two games to reach the semifinal but then lost.