Two Years Running

Rain does not cancel a final in Hoboken. It just makes the steel louder.

On Sunday afternoon at Pier A Park, with the Manhattan skyline standing across the river and the cold wind pushing rain sideways over the gravel, Dylan Rocher and Jean-Pierre Subrenat did what everybody had come to watch them do: they won. The pair beat Mamitiana Raherison and Rija Ramampiandra in the Concours A final of the 2026 US Open of Pétanque and took home the $1,600 top prize — for the second year running.

Back to back. At the Open, in October, in the rain. That is how you make a habit.

The tournament ran October 10 and 11, hosted by La Boule New Yorkaise, and drew 67 doubles teams — players from all over the United States plus Canada, Mexico, France, England, Germany and Switzerland. Sixty-seven. That is a lot of circles chalked in the gravel, a lot of steel, a lot of measuring.

Saturday was the pretty day. Clear sky, fall air, the kind of October afternoon that makes you understand why people move to New Jersey on purpose. Sunday was the other kind of October day — cold, wet, the kind that tests who actually wants to be there.

Five Swiss-system rounds sorted the field. For the newcomers: the Swiss rounds are the tournament’s sorting hat. You play five rounds, your record decides your bracket. The best teams go to Concours A, the next tier to Concours B, then Concours C, and the rest play the consolante. Nobody goes home after Saturday. Everybody gets a second day.

Each concours then split into four pools, with the top two from each pool feeding an eight-team knockout bracket. Both losing semifinalists placed third — a French habit that says if you lost to the champion’s side, you do not need to beat the other loser’s side to prove anything.

The semifinals in Concours A told the story before the final did. One side of the bracket had Rocher and Subrenat, the defending champions, moving through the cold like men who had seen this movie before. The other side produced Raherison and Ramampiandra, a pair with enough talent to make the final interesting and enough pride to make it uncomfortable.

Third place in A went to Stéphane Robineau and Guillaume Gimenez on one side, Tahiry Rakotomanana and Njara Razafy on the other. Read those names. That is the US Open’s whole thesis in one semifinal bracket: France, Madagascar, America, all standing in the same gravel with the same rain falling on them.

The final itself was a wet-ground game, and wet ground changes everything. The boules skid. The cochonnet gets nervous. A pointing shot that would sit down politely in October sunshine takes a runner’s start instead. The winning team in weather like that is not always the most talented team. It is the most experienced team — the one that adjusts instead of complaining.

Rocher and Subrenat adjusted. They have been adjusting together for years.

The rest of the brackets

Concours B belonged to Dah Eytah and Bouha Mhaaimed, who beat Tijjani Raouf and Ibrahim Karim in the final. Third: Olivier Saye and Abel Jimenez; Olivier Bellostas and Damien Brülhart.

Concours C went to Thomas Canestraro and Mohammed Zegued, over Leo Fleitas and Eli Fleitas — two teams from the club’s own developmental pipeline, which is what you want to see in a C final. Third: Samba Seck and Rose Saengdecha; Ed Porto and Peter Wiant.

And the consolante — the bracket where the weekend’s optimism goes to get honest — was won by Dawan Sangasri and Olivier Hidalgo, who beat Philippe Trang and Manon Dancausse-Trehin. Third: Shannon Robinson and Debbie Cameron; James Ovando and Mark Green.

Total prize money across the four brackets: $6,900. Entry was $130 a team. Nobody gets rich at the US Open. Nobody is trying to.

What the weekend means

Here is what I keep coming back to: the defending champions won again, on the same terrain, in worse weather, in front of a bigger crowd. In an amateur sport, that is not supposed to happen. Amateurs are inconsistent. That is the definition. But Rocher and Subrenat keep showing up with professional consistency in a tournament that pays like a hobby.

Two years running. Put that on a banner.

The other thing worth noticing: 67 teams, seven countries, one pier in New Jersey. The US Open started as a club tournament and is quietly becoming something else — a fixed point on the North American calendar, the weekend the continent’s best players circle in pen.

La Boule New Yorkaise built this from nothing. Free lessons in the parks. Friday melées. Gravel borrowed from the city. And now October’s climax is a two-day international that ends with champions in the rain holding a trophy in front of Manhattan.

Rain does not cancel a final in Hoboken. It just makes the steel louder. And on Sunday, it was singing for Rocher and Subrenat.