Are the Vosges ready to take up the challenge of the Masters?

Masters 2021 (3rd stage)

These Wednesday and Thursday, in Thaon-les-Vosges

“So far we were missing an event of great importance. We do a lot of little things and mid-size organizations. But we needed something consistent, which would allow the commune to be talked about beyond the borders of Thaon-les-Vosges, beyond the Grand Est, and at the national level. “

When he began the presentation conference of the two days of competition, which will take place this Wednesday morning between the Rotonde and the stands of the Robert-Sayer stadium, Cédric Haxaire, the mayor of Thaon, was immediately clear. Of course, we will talk about sport by welcoming the best pétanqueurs on the planet. But not only.

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With the Masters, his city appears in a calendar where it rubs shoulders with a prefecture, Nevers, a sub-prefecture, Montluçon, as well as tourist references, such as Saint-Tropez and Six-Fours-les-Plages. Not bad, when you know that this caravan is followed by many aficionados.

In addition, the L’Equipe channel will devote its prime-time on Sunday August 8 to the semi-finals and the final, which will be played this Thursday afternoon. Not to mention the reruns that will follow. Ideal when you want to find a place next to Épinal, the omnipotent.

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Are the locals like in 2005?

Especially since the image that will remain of this meeting should be anything but negative. Think, with the hard bleachers at the entrance to the ES Thaon lair, an infrastructure built in the past to equip a tennis court that has never seen the light of day, but also with the back of the Rotunda, Quarterback, the communication agency that created this competition, has arranged its stands in such a way that the four playing areas of the main square are perfectly surrounded. And that goes so far as to speak of a “cauldron”!

A configuration that could give rise to sacred emotions in the public, as long as the “local” team, which will be appointed on Wednesday, gets it into their heads to reproduce the performance that the Lorraine selection made up of Boulageois Fabrice had allowed themselves. Riehl and Tony Pispico and the Longovician Philippe Woelffelé in 2005 in Contrexéville. To know how to overcome all the champions present and win the stage.

That’s good, Philippe La Posta, the representative of Quarterback, said this year, the locals are defeating the forecasts. On the first Saint-Tropez stage, on June 30 and July 1, they made it to the final and last week, during a particularly eventful Montluçon lift, they reached the semi-final. So, the Vosges, ready to take up the challenge?

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