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What a truly amazing and unique opportunity New
Zealand petanque experienced in January with the
arrival of Victor Nataf and three French world
class players.
This visit was the culmination of several months
of hard work by a number of people. It all began
during the Trans Tasman Tournament in Melbourne
last year when a small group of us forged a
relationship with Claude Raluy, a French Coach
and Victor Nataf, Technical Director of petanque
in France.
As we got to know each other a little better,
over a couple of bottles of wine, we became very
aware of how influential Victor was in the
French Federation. He is employed full time and
answers only to the President of the French
Federation and the Minister of Sport. Anyway, to
cut a long story short, we were at dinner one
evening when Dirk popped the question. Victor's
response was, as you would expect, positive. “If
you ask, I will come”.
On our return to New Zealand we contacted PNZ
who then issued a formal invitation to FFPJP. In
the meantime PNZ appointed a small group to
oversee and organise the visit. Months of
emailing, phone calls and budget preparation
ensued and finally an itinerary was set.
We kept up the personal contact as by now Victor
had become a friend. David continued this
contact when he attended the World Championships
last year in Thailand. It was at this point that
Victor confirmed the trip and the names of the
players who would be accompanying him. When
David phoned home to inform us of the names, we
were in Petanque Heaven. Three of the best
players in the world would be flying into
Auckland in January.
At
5.00am on 23rd January in his inimitable style,
Victor cruised through the arrival doors and
proceeded to have a cigarette. No mention was
made of any accompanying players. We had a
momentary pang of anxiety as we began to imagine
all kinds of scenarios – Has Victor forgot to
inform us he couldn't actually get the players
to come to
New Zealand, or has he decided to bring a youth
team instead.
As Victor returned to the group following his
smoke, we (or at least I) experienced a surreal
moment, as Philippe Suchaud made his entrance to
New Zealand. There was a lull in the trickle of
people arriving and the walkway, from the
arrival doors to the crowd, was empty. It seemed
to me a hush amongst the crowd happened and like
a production of “Stars in Your Eyes” the arrival
doors opened (I think there was background
smoke) and Philippe walked through, alone with
his usual swagger (feet pointing at 10 to 2) and
smiling. Unlike "Stars in Your Eyes" however, he
was the real thing!
A few moments later Philippe Quintais and Bruno
Rocher arrived and so the experience began. It
was really great to see Ron Sandilands at the
airport in his 2007 Pattaya world uniform. The
French team immediately recognised Ron and gave
him a warm greeting.
Once we checked the team into the hotel and
dispensed with all the pleasantries. Victor
explained why he decided to bring such a high
profile team to New Zealand. In his view these
three players (although they rarely play
together) were the dream team in France, in
terms of ability, temperament and tactics. When
selecting the players, he first asked Quintais
because he could rely on his professionalism and
leadership overseas to promote the game to a
young country like New Zealand.
He then asked Bruno because he has had great
success in his coaching tenure (2 years) and he
knew he would give a great demonstration of
overall skill. Victor then confirmed that he
knew he couldn't come to New Zealand without
Philippe Suchaud, so he was a given - a
prominent female petanquer from Auckland, who
shall remain nameless, made it very clear to
Victor that she was Philippe Suchaud's number
one fan.
During one evening in
Melbourne,
unbeknown to her, Victor placed a call to France
to speak to Philippe Suchaud. When he came on
the line Victor passed the phone to her. Without
going into detail about her quavering 'bonj our'
and dropping the phone, I would have to say the
word pathetic does spring to mind.
Victor went on to say that he supported the
objectives of the trip as set out by PNZ:
-
To promote the game in New Zealand
-
To show New
Zealand the level of petanque that is played overseas
-
To encourage greater infrastructure and
strategy in PNZ for coaching and selection
to raise the standard of play and
competition in New Zealand
It is important to note here why France is so
keen to promote the game when they are at the
top of the sport. France is pushing to get the
game of petanque in the Olympics. To achieve
this they need to increase the number of
affiliated players worldwide.
The conversation was a telling time as the
different personalities and characters of the
team began to emerge. Philippe Quintais is known
as “Big Philippe” due to his presence (on and
off the terrain) and personality. He spoke
adequate English and over the course of the trip
he frequently had us all in stitches with his
many stories and extremely sharp wit. He doesn't
miss a trick and gave us much grief about
various organisational aspects of the trip -
more on that later.
Bruno Rocher was the quietest of the three
players - probably due to his total lack of
understanding of English. He constantly laughs
at the Philippes and towards the end of the week
began to understand some of the language and
could communicate with us more.
Philippe Suchaud was wonderful. “Little
Philippe” has a great personality, always
laughing and tormenting and eating. He was the
first to know our names and he used them a lot
over the week.
We left the team to settle and shower etc. and
agreed to collect them at 3.00pm for a briefing
meeting followed by a reception at the 121 cafe.
The reception at 121 was excellent, thanks to
Chris Priestly. It was great to see a number of
past and present players chatting to the team.
Philippe Suchaud was thrilled to see photos of
his first world championship title in 1995,
courtesy of Cam Calder who formed part of the
New Zealand team competing that year.
Thursday - Coaching and demonstration at the
Epsom Petanque Club
In glorious sunshine over 50 of the best players
in the country attended Epsom petanque ground.
The day kicked off with a formal welcome by the
PNZ CEO Bryan Wells followed by a casual game of
doubles with Bruno's uncle as the fourth player
(Bruno's cousin lives in NZ and her parents are
visiting for a few months).
An hour or so of demonstration followed where
Philippe Quintais pointed round boule with a
left to right or right to left spin. He made it
look easy as he consistently pointed on the
cochonnet. Our own champ, Andre decided to have
a go and Philippe gave him a five minute
coaching session. I suspect we will see Andre's
handy work at upcoming tournaments.
Following lunch the team split up and played
three games with drawn players.
The team was very tired and jet lagged and
really struggled to perform for the whole day.
Being men and French meant that they did not
readily accept the advice of sunscreen and by
3.00pm they were very burnt and dehydrated. By
the end of the day Philippe Suchaud wearing,
white shorts, blue tee shirt with red skin
looked like a French flag.
Friday - free day
The team asked if we could organise a fishing
trip. Thanks to Cam Calder the team enjoyed a
nice day on the
Hauraki Gulf
and caught a few fish. As they returned to
Auckland
the boat was greeted by Prime television where a
demonstration of petanque played on a car park
was given. Even on this tarmac sealed surface,
the team managed to point immaculately.
New Zealand Open
The team played five Tahitian teams and our own
Ron, Tony and Ants on day one and cruised into
top qualifying position with six wins. The
French said they had one tough game against a
Tahiti
team due to Philippe S missing his shots. He was
pretty exhausted and with a quick swap with
Philippe Q, they went on to win 13 - 11.
On day two they stepped up to the business end
of the tournament and achieved a clean sweep
through to the final. Here they met the top
Tahitian team who had won the tournament at Mt
Albert the previous week. The crowd was poised
ready for a tense final. Some New Zealand
players, having only the Tahitians as a
benchmark toyed with the possibility that France
could be intimidated and nervous because the
Tahitians had strong crowd support.... Yeah
right.
Before the game commenced the French team hoped
to provide an interesting game that would be a
spectacle for the crowd. The first four ends
were tight. France decided to point and let
Tahiti attack which limited
France to one point per end 4 - 0. During the
game there was much gamesmanship amongst the
Tahitians towards the French and the crowd
sensed a great final unfolding. In the fifth
end, Tahiti missed a few shots and France seized
the opportunity shooting twice to take four
points 8 - 0. At this point it became obvious to
the crowd that the game was over and in a few
more ends it was, 13 – 0.
For those who have been fortunate enough to see
the French in action on the world petanque
stage, it was evident that they were not playing
at their usual level. They were tired due to
residual jet lag and were struggling with the
intense New Zealand sun. We asked them about the
final and how it compares to play in France. The
team explained that there are many factors that
make up a consistently successful team and
having ability is only one component.
Philippe Quintais said Herne Bay terrain was
difficult for pointing and is the type of
terrain New Zealand should be using for all its
major tournaments and selections if we are
serious about wanting to improve the level of
play. (How many heads are nodding in agreement
as they read this?).
Monday - Travel
Auckland to Masterton
There isn't a lot to say about this day other
than it will probably be the most memorable day
of the trip for the French team. Six boys
travelling in one car; need we say more?
As for the journey, Philippe Q said "I flew from
San Francisco to New Zealand in 11 hours and
travel by road from
Auckland
to Masterton in 12 hours; a journey of hills,
sheep, sheep and more sheep". The Frenchmen
referred to this day from hereon in as “Dirk
Winnie organisation” and gave us plenty of
stick.
Tuesday - Masterton
Graeme Morris
from Masterton writes:
I was introduced to Philippe Suchaud at the
first world championships I attended (Monaco
2001) and ever since he has been my favourite
player due to his exceptional skill and his calm
and pleasant demeanor on the terrain. So, to
have Philippe Suchaud, Philippe Quintais and
Bruno Rocher (along with Victor) as guests at
our Masterton Club was a great honour.
The four French visitors arrived with Dirk and
David very late on the Monday night and I met
them at the Solway Park Hotel at about 11.00pm
(thank you to Trust House in Masterton who
sponsored the accommodation for the contingent).
The Tuesday began with a visit to Paua World in
Carterton for some souvenir and gift buying
opportunities.
A mayoral reception was scheduled for 10.30am
and the French visitors were driven to the
reception in two beautifully restored Citroen
cars (thanks to
Tony Lane
and Terry Faulkner).
Mayor, Garry Daniell, welcomed the team to
Masterton and took the opportunity to test his
grasp of the French language during his welcome.
After speeches and morning tea the visitors took
Garry and the Masterton Club committee members
to the grassed area outside the Town Hall for
some petanque lessons and a brief demonstration
of their skills which included shooting a 10
cent piece off the top of a boule. Several times
the boule was removed and the 10 cent piece was
left where the boule once was.
After having observed the sport of lawn bowls
when they were at the Epsom Club, Philippe
Suchaud had asked if there would be an
opportunity for them to try the game. This was
arranged with the bowlers at our club and prior
to the afternoon petanque activities the French
visitors tried their hand at bowls. The first
few ends saw very few bowls left on the green as
the heavy handed petanque champions came to
grips with the game.
At
1.00pm a melee was held where more than 30
New Zealand petanque players (including players
from as far away as Napier and Nelson) had the
opportunity to play with or against the French
visitors. The day was very hot and we cut the
last game from the programme to ensure the
French champions were left with enough energy to
give a demonstration of their skills.
The Masterton Petanque Club owns a shooting kit
(identical to the one used for the world
championship of shooting) and we had a
competition between the two Philippes and Bruno.
Just for the record, two competitions were held
and Philippe Suchaud was the winner of both,
scoring 45 in the first match and 42 in the
second.
The large crowd was then treated to a display of
the pointing skills of Philippe Quintais (these
included spinning the boule to turn left or
right to travel around a piece of wood placed on
the piste and also playing the boule from behind
his back and over his shoulder). A game of
singles between Philippe S and Philippe Q then
completed the demonstration.
At one point Philippe Suchaud demonstrated his
shooting skills by "shooting" a boule from
Philippe Quintais’ hand!!!
A barbeque dinner and social time completed what
was a very enjoyable and "special" day. The
French visitors were at all times great
ambassadors for their country and our sport.
I would like to thank the committee members of
our Masterton Petanque Club who supported me in
the bid to have the French contingent visit our
club and for all the work they did to ensure the
day was a total success. I would also like to
thank the club members and visiting players who
supported the event.
Wednesday - Otaki
Anna Simms from Otaki writes:
We enjoyed the day the French champions came to
visit. The Frenchmen and their manager were a
pleasure to host. We were sad and disappointed
that the French could not play all the triples
games that had been arranged for them, due to
exhaustion, but we understood why the day had to
be foreshortened.
We were impressed that the teams who missed out
took it with good grace too. However, the
demonstration given by the French lifted the
game of petanque to poetry as well as teaching
us a lot, even for those who had never seen
petanque before.
January 30th will go down as a day that put
Otaki on the map and brought petanque into a
different focus than something just played at
home on the lawn. We have already received some
new members and hope to receive more as a result
of the wide publicity and crowd that attended.
Thursday - Airport
The team departed New Zealand via Wellington on
Thursday with a surprisingly mutual emotional
farewell. The team sincerely thanked New Zealand
for being such warm, enthusiastic and great
hosts during a very memorable week.
They intimated that an extended return trip in
three years would be considered provided PNZ
sort out selection and coaching once and for all
and they can return to support the
implementation of this further - during the trip
Victor met with PNZ to advise them on selection
and coaching in New Zealand. As a result of this
meeting, PNZ has agreed to develop a complete
framework for 2009 season.
This trip will go down in New Zealand petanque
history as a definite high point of the sport.
PNZ did not have a great deal of time to plan
this event. Victor confirmed the visit in
October at the Worlds so it was all systems go.
Although we would have preferred a longer lead
in time to be able to raise more funds etc, we
did not have this luxury, so we "Carpe Diem"
because this opportunity would never have
presented itself just like this again.
It was difficult to balance the needs and
requests from PNZ and the New Zealand petanque
community with those of the team. We wanted
further demonstrations and more opportunity to
play these guys but at the end of the day, the
blazing sun became our enemy.
With hindsight we should have organised all
petanque activities in the early morning or
evening only as the New Zealand intense sun was
too much for the players. We should have limited
their appearance to two areas and limit the
traveling which added to their exhaustion. All
good lessons for next time!
There are so many people who stepped up to the
plate and made this visit happen. We would like
to express our sincere appreciation to all of
you who supported and embraced this experience,
it was all worthwhile. Thank you to Auckland and
Wellington regions for their strong support and
commitment to making this trip a reality and to
PNZ for recognizing the value of such an
opportunity.
Joanne Lippard |
