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Our hearts are broken

Classic City Tribute to Diane:

thanks, Rob!

Obituary:

Diane Klonowski peacefully passed away at her home in Athens, Georgia on March 1st 2022. Diane graduated from St. Hedwig’s High School and Goldey Beacom Business College in Wilmington, Delaware. She worked as a business administrator at Junior Achievement and the University of Delaware, in both the Mathematical Science and Medical Laboratory Science Departments. Diane was a resident of Newark, Delaware before retiring from the University of Delaware and moving to Athens, Georgia. In retirement, Diane delved into four main passions: quilting, gardening, petanque, and volunteering. She was a ribbon-winning quilter and a member of the Cotton Patch Quilters Guild. She was an avid gardener, earning her Native Plant Certification from the University of Georgia State Botanical Garden and subsequently transformed her home garden into a Certified Pollinator Habitat. She also volunteered at the Botanical Garden and never missed a local plant sale or opportunity to expand her garden with a trip to Grower’s Outlet. Diane was also a member of the Boulevard Garden Club. She loved playing petanque with the Classic City Petanque Club, through which she played in several international tournaments. Diane’s love of reading led her to Books for Keeps where she helped promote reading and literacy to children in Athens-Clarke County. She was a Key Volunteer for Books for Keeps, an organization that held a very special place in her heart. Diane was kind and generous, sharing her passions with others, from her participation in the Quilter’s Guild Charity Bee to spearheading the Little Free Library in her subdivision. She happily divided plants for friends and neighbors and hosted little Misses Evelyn and Tabitha in her garden for butterfly catching. She worked tirelessly to improve the quality of life for her community.

Diane is preceded in death by her parents Joseph and Frances (Pajewski) Moderacki, stepfather Steven Sikorski, and daughters Francine and Lynda Marie. She is survived by her loving husband of 51 years Frank; her daughter Kim, and her partner Dean Firschein, whom she held in the highest esteem; nephew Ed McCarthy (Darlene); several cousins, especially Cindy Greenamoyer and Kathy Phillips, and many friends in Delaware and Georgia. Not to be forgotten are her “fur” boys, Colt and Buddy.

A special thanks to her best and most cherished friend Mary Williams and her friends at the Classic City Petanque Club for their compassion and support.

Relatives and friends are invited for visitation and services beginning at 9 am on March 12th at the Doherty Funeral Home; 3200 Limestone Rd, Wilmington, DE 19808. Burial will take place afterwards at All Saints Cemetery; 6001 Kirkwood Highway, Wilmington, DE 19808. A celebration of her life is being planned in Athens with details forthcoming. In lieu of flowers, please honor Diane with a contribution to Books for Keeps, P.O. Box 49761, Athens, GA 30604.

2021 Year in Competition

Classic City Petanque Club is proud to announce that Al Davison has joined Allen Cassady as a FPUSA certified Club Level Umpire. Cassady and Davison are the only two certified umpires in the state of Georgia.

Additionally, the club is pleased to announce winning teams in every tournament Classic City Petanque Club (CCPC) has participated in during the 2020 season.

World Championship Women’s Triple Qualifier 

Heidi Davison, Cheri Sutphin and Denyse Haney (Carolina Petanque) – placed 5th in Concours

Mid-America Regional Select Triples 

Al Davison, Frank Klonowski, Michelle Commeyras – placed 3rd in Consolante

Additional teams:

Pat Schlotzhauer, Diane Klonowski, Charlie Appleby

Heidi Davison, Gail Hawkins, Mike Evans (Carolina Petanque)

?? forget anyone

Atlanta Petanque League Open Mixed Doubles

Al Davison and Honor Woodard (Carolina Petanque) – winner Group B Consolante

Additional teams:

Heidi Davison and Michelle Commyeras

Rob Trevena and Gail Hawkins

Ron Schely and Dennis Hammond (Boules de Leon)

Mid-America Regional Mixed Doubles 

Rob Trevena and Michelle Commeyras – placed 2nd in Consolante

Additional Teams:

Al Davison and Gail Hawkins

Heidi Davison and Mourhite Louali (Carolina Petanque)

Amelia Island Open and Ladies’ Compact Tournament

Ladies Compact

Diane Klonowski and Debbie McCaleb played (placed) in the Quarter Finals

Heidi Davison and Gail Hawkins

Michelle Commyeras and Sally Ross

Marilyn Appleby and Pat Schlotzhauer

Amelia Island Open

Heidi Davison (CCPC) and Tracie Jeffries (Carolina Petanque) – placed 2nd in Consolante Group DD

Ray and Debbie McCaleb – Winner Consolante Group E

Charlie Appleby and Rickamer Hoover played the Quarter-Finals in Consolante Group C

Frank Klonowski and Marilyn Appleby played the Semi-Finals in Consolante Group C

Sally Ross and Michelle Commyeras – placed in Consolante B

Ron Schely and Dennis Hammond (Boules de Leon) – placed in Consolante C

Gail Hawkins and Al Davison – placed in Consolante D

Tom Robinson and Pat Scholtzhauer – placed in Consolante E

2021 Sports Director’s Report

This reported was presented at our Annual Meeting on 10-28-21 and distributed to the membership.

Sports Director’s Report for the 2021 Annual Meeting of

Classic City Petanque Club (CCPC)

Club play days

  • Established 3 regularly scheduled play days per week (more than any other club at a single location with better overall attendance)

Better training in skills and rules

  • Club members continue to improve their skills and knowledge of the rules
  • High-lob training session conducted

Court improvements

  • String boundaries and boule holders added; improved scoreboards; surface enhancements; and generally making it cleaner, safer, and more inviting
  • Several work days with excellent member participation!
  • Expansion request submitted to ACC; staff actively working on a response

Intramural tournaments

  • 2 month-long tournaments – a CCPC “invention”
  • Our first-ever 1-day, all-day tournament panache
  • Approximately 20 + members plus 3 guests participated in our three club tournaments

Stronger presence and relationships with FPUSA, Atlanta Petanque League (APL) Carolina Petanque (CP), and others

  • Al and Heidi regularly play with CP helping to develop strong personal relationships with the leadership and top players
  • Gail and Michelle played with CP at Winston-Salem
  • Tom played with CP at the Hickory Boule-O-Drome
  • Al  and Tricia Domingo (new President of APL) maintain regular contact
  • Heidi is working with National Sports Director, Songmi Keating, to improve and enhance the list of Umpires registered and available for Tournament Directors to use

FPUSA and Open tournament participation

  • Heidi (4), Al (3), Michelle (3), Gail (3), Rob (2), Pat, Diane, Charlie, Ron, Frank
    • Heidi (with 2 CP players) – 5th place in Women’s World Qualifier
    • Al, Frank, Michelle – 3rd in Consolante Asheville Triples
    • Al (with Honor) – won Group B Consolante APL Open
    • Rob and Michelle – 2nd Consolante Morganton Doubles
  • Allen served as Umpire in 2 FPUSA tournaments; will umpire at Amelia Island Open
  • Al passed his umpire exam becoming CCPC’s 2nd FPUSA Certified Umpire
  • CCPC has the only two club umpires in the state of Georgia
  • CCPC will be represented in Amelia with 6 teams + 2 additional club members teamed up with players from other clubs

Friday Night Boules  – informal and fun “pop-ups” held from April 23-October 29

Play the terrain in front of you – no whining!

Gary Jones, Carolina Petanque stalwart and all-round guru of all things boules, recently published an article on the Carolina Petanque blogspot about the various kinds of playing surfaces one may encounter around the USA and the world. It is a good read! http://carolina-petanque.blogspot.com/

Above is an excerpt from the article – be sure to click on the Carolina Petanque blogspot link to read the full article.

Crash! Boom! Ouch!

The terrains at Lay Park suffered a freak tree fall last week. A 70-foot tall oak tree came was uprooted in the storm. The damage to the terrain was minimal other than having this giant oak laying across all 4 courts. ACC Leisure Services and other agencies are expected to clear the tree and repair damage to the chain link fencing and our stairs sometime soon. One just never knows…

CCPC Teams headed to tournament play

CCPC will field 3 teams for the Carolina Petanque Regional Triples tournament in Asheville on August 29th. We are very proud of our players representing our club – including 3 players who will be participating in their first-ever FPUSA tournament!

We are also sending a number of teams to the upcoming Open tournament in Atlanta in September and to the Carolina Petanque sponsored Regional Mixed Doubles FPUSA tournament in Morganton, NC in October.

Of course, we are sending 7+ teams to the Amelia Open tournament in November.

Allez CCPC!

String boundaries now installed!

CCPC volunteers continue to improve our courts at Lay Park! We recently had another work day where we installed string boundaries to mark the areas of play – we no longer rely on the dreaded landscaping timbers as our boundaries! This addition “normalizes” our petanque terrains and brings them in line with the FPUSA rules and the type of piste that most clubs use. We also redistributed the gravel top-coat and smoothed the playing area. Thank you CCPC members!

CCPC Club Play Days – Time Change 10:00am start

As we always do around this time of the year when the weather starts getting hot, we have changed our start time for our Tuesday and Thursday regular club play days. Now, we’ll start at 10:00am. Sunday club play day remains at a 1:00pm start. We welcome everyone and you can always come a little earlier and find folks playing or come a little later and join in the fun!

CCPC Represented at FPUSA Womens World Qualifier

CCPC is very proud of Heidi Davison’s representation at the Womens World Qualifier. Heidi was recruited to join a team with Carolina Petanque’s Denyse Haney and Cherri Sutphin. They qualified 8th on Saturday to put them into the Concours bracket with some of the best women players in the USA! On Sunday, they made it to the quarterfinals before being eliminated. Heidi’s team finished in a tie for 5th place! Best of all, Heidi developed quite a reputation for her excellent and consistent pointing and strategy calls – helping Classic City Petanque to continue to build our reputation as a club to watch. Thank you, Heidi! Allez CCPC!

Great coverage and great photos of the tournament at: https://morganton.com/news/local/gallery-petanque-world-championship-qualifier-held-in-morganton/collection_ba8f409c-b405-11eb-94cc-3354c175dc30.html#anchor_item_11

New play day! Tuesdays!

CCPC membership has approved changing our regular Monday play day to Tuesday, instead. This allows our play days to be more evenly spaced and we will have access to restroom facilities on Tuesdays. We now play on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. Our “cool season” hours start on October 1st – we are playing in the afternoons at Lay Park: Tuesdays and Thursdays and Sundays 1:00pm. When the weather heats back up again, we’ll switch back to morning play. Come play boules y’all!