Tracy, Thierry and I won the Auckland Regional Triples pétanque championship on Sunday. Woo-hoo!

It’s hardly a big accomplishment in the grand encyclopedia of sporting competition, but it’s the biggest event I’ve ever won. That was sort of surprising when I first realized it, but I think it’s true. I didn’t play Little League or school sports, and when I did get interested in competing, I entered running races where I was very happy to finish above the median in my age group.

It was a good day from the start… we easily won our first two pool games. We then lost 0-13 to one of the possible favorites, but bounced back in the 4th pool game with our own 13-0 win.

Three wins in pool play meant we were in the top division going into the afternoon elimination rounds. We dispatched our quarterfinal opponents relatively easily. At the same time in the other quarterfinal, the team we smashed in Game 4 beat the one who smashed us in Game 3.

So, our semifinal game was against the team we’d annihilated just a couple hours before. Knowing we’d beaten them provided a huge confidence boost and we beat them again. So much of the game is mental.

In the other semifinal game, the two favorites battled hard. One of them had had an unexpected loss early in the day, which set things up so they met in the semifinals instead of duking it out for the win.

So here we are in the finals, for all the money. We were up against a team we know well. Two of them have lots of experience at the national and international level. Their third player is someone who played a lot more in his younger days, got away from it, and has recently come back to the game. They were quite tired after their last match, whereas we had about 20 minutes to recover between games.

The final was a real battle, and it lasted the best part of two hours. We got off to a great start, up 7-0, but they clawed their way back, and even pulled ahead. Finally, we got to 10-11, they missed a crucial shot, and we were able to put them away. There were 20 or so spectators who hung on to watch, and it was certainly gratifying to hear the ooohs and aahs when we made good throws.

I’ve gotten into a couple of other finals this season. But each time I’ve disintegrated… after playing well all day something has turned itself off and I’ve gone to custard. Somehow this time I was able to keep the focus, as were my teammates, and we won! We’ll have our names engraved onto the cup, going down in history.

To top things off, I won a raffle prize… a lovely basket full of fun things to eat and drink.

The tournament prize money was about enough to cover my entry fee and the gas for the trip. So I’m still some ways away from buying a car dealership or a pied-a-terre in the Alps with my winnings. But… one of these days…