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Beating French at own game, well a little anyway
Whatever successes
Kapiti Petanque Club
has in the future, no-one will forget the day
three players took three points off the world
champions.
Rex Hayes, Terry Dawson and Grant Bray did what
some of the best players in the Southern
Hemisphere could not, in their 9 - 3 loss to the
touring Frenchmen on Wednesday.
World champion Philippe Suchaud and former world
champions Bruno Rocher and Philippe Quintais,
who boasted 20 world titles between them, racked
up bigger victories at the New Zealand Open in
Auckland which attracted top players from
Tahiti
and Australia. The trio thrashed a team of
Tahiti professionals 13 - 0 in the final.
A few days later, at the Otaki Petanque Club,
the Frenchmen beat a team of Wellington's top
players 13 - 0, followed by 9 - 0 victories over
teams from Wanganui East and Khandallah, before
meeting the Kapiti trio.
Kapiti's Rex Hayes said it was "an honour and a
privilege" to play the world champs. "We gave
them a good run for their money". He had watched
the French play internationals and said "very
few countries get past zero". Asked if the
Frenchmen went easy on them, Hayes said: "No,
one of our players speaks French and they don't
ease up on anyone".
The tourists took the is first point in the
match, Kapiti equalised then went two up, the
French equalised, then took control of the game
with a five-pointer.
Khandallah's
Dirk Winnie arranged for the world champs to visit
New Zealand during last year's Trans Tasman
tournament in Australia.
Clubs were asked if they wanted to host the men
and Otaki put up its hand. The day attracted
about 150 people, including newcomers to the
sport, said club secretary Anna Simms. "It's put
Otaki on the map and I think there are also a
few people who are interested in petanque now,
so I hope we have gathered a few new members".
The tourists' schedule, which in Otaki included
a trip to Raukawa marae, official welcomes, a
demonstration, and match against three top
Wellington players, meant they were too tired to
play 14 teams in the afternoon as scheduled,
instead choosing three triples teams, including
the Kapiti trio.
Andrew Joe of
Wellington's
Windy Hills Club, who played the men, said the
visit was a "huge buzz", and would be good for
the sport. "No offence to football, but in away
it's similar to having David Beckham come out -
but these guys have won world titles and Beckham
hasn't".
The Frenchmen certainly impressed with their
pin-point accuracy. Each time an opposition
player landed a boule closest to the jack, one
of them would casually step up, throw, and knock
the boule out of the way, replacing it with
their own.
Simms was impressed by how professional the team
was, including having a full time manager paid
for by the French government, "whereas most
people in New Zealand think, 'oh petanque that's
something you play in the back yard'".
The day was captured on video by Otaki's Errol
Maffey, and would be passed on to the
Otaki
Museum archives.
Randall Walker, Kapiti Observer, 4.2.08
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