Report on Pétanque tournament organised by (ET's) Conversation group
We managed to put together two (ET's) teams, each one consisting of 3 players. As not allof (ET's) participants could speak English, we temporarily used English only as
a weapon to demorailze and disintegrate our opponents. It seemed to work at first but somehow lost its charm later.
Anyway, let's start at the beginning.
We came to Hartivikovická Pláž shortly after two o'clock on sunny Saturday's afternoon. We found out that we still had some time on our hands, because the B-rank tournament were to start at 3 o'clock. We cooled ourselves in the water to shake off the heat of the scorcher. After a while we stood in a court, ready to roll. There were three matches ahead of us to play, each of them planned for one hour. Our team (named DreamTeam - Jitka/Katka/Honza) started it's first game against A-team (top quality team - don't remember the name, though). For that reason we thought we coudn't stand any chance of winning. However, even though it was our first game, we did quite well. Granted, we lost 8:13 in the end, but we got a good lesson.
Our next opponent was also an A-team. This time we did even better and we managed to beat them after a long, tough fight (13:7). What a surprise and what a thrill. In the third round we met another A-team and as it turned out afterwards - final winner of the B-rank tournament. We didn't know that at that time so, powered by the previous victory and high spirit, we did our best to beat them against all odds. We were even winning for a short time but then the opponent scored six points in a row and our chances went low. We lost alright, but we lost with dignity (6:13). I don't even know what was our final place in the B-rank tournament and as nobody seemed to care about it, I guess it wasn't important after all.
On our way back angry sky showed us it's ugly face and we drove through the country being whipped and slashed by countless lightnings. The storm was wild but didn't take long so when we got back to Třebíč it'd been over. We thought that the night was still young and for that reason we decided to pit-stop in Stareč where a band called SOPEL was playing. After the performance was over, we stated that we all had a whale of a time and that similar common activities should be organised again.
Want to learn more about pétanque in English? - go to Wikipedia.
Vocabulary:
put together - dát dohromady, složit / disintegrate - rozložit / somehow lost its charm - jaksi ztratil kouzlo (účinek) / to have time on your hands - mít dostatek času / shake off - zbavit se, (doslova) setřást / scorcher - pařák, hic / ready to roll - (fráze) začít, v tomto případě také doslovně - začít házet, koulet (roll - válet, koulet) / stand a chance (of winning) - mít šanci (na vítězství) / granted - unávám, je fakt, že ... / what a thrill - jaké nadšení / as it turned out afterwards - jak se ukázalo později / high spirit - soutěživý, dobře naladěný duch / against all odds - proti vší pravděpodobnosti, jakkoliv to bylo nepravděpodobné / in a row - v řadě za sebou / lose with dignity - prohrát se ctí, důstojně / get one's butt (ass) kicked - prohrát (expresivně) / whipped and slashed by countless lightnings - bičovaný četnými blesky / to pit-stop - krátce se zastavit (jako v boxu F1) / have a whale of a time - mít se skvěle, užít si něco
