Alec & Yacob Win The NY Open
SATURDAY STARTED OFF with a surprise at Bryant Park—giant transformers and heavy machinery all on the path around the lawn, which had been dug out to make way for the ice rink. Suddenly we had lost most our courts. And we had 30 teams scheduled to compete in the 2008 New York Open.
But the club pulled together. With the help from the management of Bryant Park, we manage to scrape out enough courts to go on with the show. And it was competitive. Four games to qualify the top 16 teams for Sunday.
Sunday was single-elimination. Xavier-Ernesto beat Ti-Thiam, the previously undefeated Steve-Lucien, and Laurent-Remy, from Canada to get into the finals. Alec-Yacob beat JPS-Eric in a game that could easily have gone the other way, Mo-Ziggy, and Yngve-Gilles.
The finals featured 2 teams that had met earlier on Saturday, with Xavier-Ernesto beating Alec-Yacob, 13-12.
The game starts with a bang, with both shooters hitting and staying. But Alec-Yacob takes the lead 1-0. In the next few rounds Ernesto misses 7 shots in a row, some just right over, some cheeking the boules. Alec-Yacob takes a 6-0 lead.
Yacob shoots and hits but takes the bouchon and boule back to a previously wayward point 12 meters away. A few overthrown points later by Alec and Yacob leads to an easy 5 point round for Xavier-Ernesto. It’s still 6-5 for Alec-Yacob but it’s now a game.
A few more rounds. Now the score is 8-7 for Xavier-Ernesto. Six meters. Xavier points one boule and Ernesto and Xavier shoot 5 times, staying 4 times. But Alec and Yacob pointed all six boules, the last one with the game (5 points on the ground) on the line.
At 10-8 Xavier-Ernesto, Ernesto hits one but misses 2 shots. Xavier puts a fantastic, tight defensive point in the back of the point. But Yacob manages to point around it for 3 points.
Now 11-10 Alec-Yacob, Ernesto hits a shot almost 10 meters long, with his boule coming straight back 2 meters. Another great point by Alec and Ernesto misses one just long and one just to the side. Xavier does well to cover defensively. But once again Yacob slides in a point to win the game. Final score 13-10.
- 1st: Alec Stone Sweet, Yacob Nour
- 2nd: Xavier Thibaud, Ernesto Santos
- 3rd: Laurent Mirabeau, Remy Bouchard
- 3rd: Yngve Biltsted, Gilles Ray
- 1st: Richard ‘Ti’ Meas, Amadou Thiam
- 2nd: Charles Kossi, Guy Rabarijaona
- 1st: George Gaultier, Alexis Herzberg
- 2nd: Saul Dingfelder, Tom
- 3rd: Hal Stevens, Chris Stevens
- 4th: Mick Hurbis-Cherrier, Gustavo Mercado