Frank Cianci
In the beautiful fall Texas sun, the top three teams in each of our 12 divisions, plus five wild card teams, saw their lifelong dreams realized playing in the Robson Ranch Bocce Club Fall 2023 playoffs! Will the event mark the finale for our Tinkertoy PVC pipe courts? Will we be playing on our new courts next season?
The quality of play continues to improve each season. We saw favorites go down in flames and wild cards make it to late rounds. Don’t Stop Ballievin’ (#11 seed) became the newest Club Champions, beating #17 seed Can Am Rollers in a thrilling finale. The Canadian expat team looked good, eh, but they were no match for Don’t Stop Ballievin’ and its Italian-heavy roster. If this were curling, the Canadians would probably have done better, but Italians are genetically predisposed to excel at bocce! Rumor has it that the Canucks intend to file a petition to limit the number of “Hi-talians” per team. Bocce Amici (#22) finished third, Bocce Nostra (#15) finished fourth, Boccismo (#10) finished fifth, and Bocce Della Verita (#9) finished sixth.
Our thanks and gratitude go to those volunteers who made the event successful. Club Vice President and Playoff Coordinator John Humphries did another incredible job. During his vacation, he entered scores, calculated rankings, and created drawsheets. Nearly 500 players were included. The turnout was impressive, even though several teams elected not to participate.
More volunteers were courtside. Commissioner John Nallon supervised matches all day Tuesday, then was up and on the road at 6 a.m. on Wednesday to pick up our bagel order. He rushed them—fresh and still warm—back to the Ranch. Mary Ann Cianci met him there, and the two of them sliced bagels and set up the food on the patio bar. Mary Ann coordinated the refreshments for the event. In addition to the bagels, we had scrambled eggs, cheese sauce, cream cheese, jelly, and peanut butter, so players created all kinds of bagel sandwiches. Around noon, kegs of beer began to flow, accompanied by a variety of snack foods.
Club board member Steve Ventura was at the patio at dawn each day to lay out the PVC court pipes, scoreboards, and bocce sets, making it easier for arriving teams. Steve collected scoresheets, filled in the draw sheets, and updated the tournament board. Commissioners Mark Meier, John Nallon, and Steve Ventura assisted with rules interpretations and kept the event moving along.
Finally, thanks to the capi (captains), commissioners, and club board members for their hard work towards making 2023 another successful year!
Watch for our new Bocce Club Bulletin, the club’s newsletter! The Bulletin staff members are Donalee Hollenbeck, Donna Lepore, and Ginny Mitchell. If you have information for the Bulletin, please send it to [email protected].