The champions of the 2024 Edmonds Petanque League were crowned recently in the last game of the last match after six weeks of competition.

Partners Cris Dreher and John Hunt defeated their rivals Bill Laprade and Larry Thomas on June 9. Close behind, Philippe Geraud and Patrick Trompeter ended their campaign in third place.

According to the club’s Jack McHenry, the annual League competition — an intramural round-robin series of games scheduled among 13 doubles teams from the Edmonds Petanque Club — is a nail-biter.

“For these six weeks, the essentially recreational Edmonds Petanque Club becomes all business and competition takes priority,” McHenry said. “Without question, this year’s tournament was the most closely contested in the history of the club, as at least four teams were in the hunt for a medal until the last boule of the last game. Congratulations to Cris Dreher and John Hunt for their well-earned first- place finish.”

Then, on June 19, the league season concluded with a fun one-day tournament among all the teams that had taken part in the previous six-week competition. In the one-day tournament, Jack McHenry and Brien Meilleur emerged in first place. Bill Laprade and his son Jed Laprade finished second. John Hunt and Cris Dreher finished third.

The petanque club now turns its attention to its annual petanque festival, the Bastille Day Tournament, on July 14. If you are curious about the game, stop by the Edmonds Civic Playfield on Sunday, July 14. You can enjoy the French accordion music and learn the rudiments of the internationally popular sport of petanque, which organizers say has a firm foothold in Edmonds.