2007 World Petanque Championships

• New Zealand Team

• Results

• Player Profiles

• Delegate's Report - Christian Fouquet

      Ron Sandilands, Murray Porter, Simon Faby

Championships

Round (1): Belgium: Lost 6 - 13, Italy: Lost 1 - 13, Japan: Lost 10 - 13, Taiwan: Won 13 - 0,

Australia: Lost 4 - 13

Round (2): Germany: Lost 4 - 13, Seychelles: Won 13 - 11, Germany: Lost 6 - 13

Coup de Nations (Nations Cup)

Round (1): India: Won 13 - 3, Monaco: Lost 2 - 13, Singapore: Lost 12 - 13

Summary: Played 11 games; Won 3, Lost 8. 

Shooting

Qualifying Rounds

Ron Sandilands, 17 points

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Player Profiles

Murray Porter

Murray is a true kiwi, born in New Plymouth although he has lived most of his life in Napier.

On leaving university (with a mathematics degree) he raised a few eyebrows after deciding to buy a fish and chip shop.

A few years later he became the owner operator of an export fish factory, which he operated until recently and now, as we all know, he is employed by Heinz Watties Ltd.

Together with his wife, Joanne and their two children Michelle 14 years and Grant 12 years, he enjoys the Napier lifestyle and is a very active member of the petanque community as the very successful and respected senior selector and Editor of the Petanque New Zealand magazine.

Murray has been playing petanque since 1996, when he discovered the game by chance when one day he noticed his neighbour, a past National Singles Bowls Champion, raking a limestone area where his garden used to be. The neighbour invited Murray to join him and another neighbour in an upcoming triples tournament to be held at one of the local wineries.

Murray has had a string of petanque successes, most notably:

• 1999: National Triples Championship with Bayview club mates Geoff Greer and Denise Bavidge followed by playing in the World Championships on Reunion Island.

• 2003: Manager of the National Team that won the inaugural Trans Tasman Challenge in Melbourne.

• 2004: Member of the National Team for the Trans Tasman Challenge in Masterton

• 2006: Manager/Selector of the successful National Seniors Team in the Trans Tasman Challenge in Levin

• 2007: National Triples Championship with Ron Sandilands and Simon Faby

Murray is excited and keen to return to the world stage of petanque as a player once more. He will partner fellow player Geoff Greer for some serious training and practice in the coming months.

Ron Sandilands

Ron is also a kiwi born and bred. He has enjoyed an exciting working life in sporting goods companies including 40 years with world wide company, Slazenger.

He has been President of New Zealand Sports Goods Industries Association. Having already represented New Zealand in tennis, squash and table tennis, he laments that “his joints suffered accordingly resulting in two new knee joints, hip replacement and spinal fusion. A triple heart bypass in recent years then set me up as fully reconditioned for petanque”.

Ron has celebrated 51 years of marriage to his wife Judi and they have 3 children, 6 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren.

Like Murray the game was introduced to Ron during a visit to New Caledonia and, being really keen, he joined the Cockle Bay club upon his return to Auckland. Anyone who knows Ron would attest to his intense competitiveness and Ron attributes much of his petanque successes to this.

Key petanque accomplishments:

• Runner up National Doubles Championship

• Third equal National Doubles Championship twice

• Represented New Zealand twice in the Trans Tasman Challenge

• 2007: National Triples Championship

• plus a healthy mixture of regional titles

Having played a range of sport at national and international level, Ron has realistic goals for the World Petanque Championships:

• Playing well for my team

• Ensuring I play to my maximum level

• Supporting my team at all times

Simon Fabey

Simon was also introduced to the game by a neighbour, non other than John Pettit, about nine years ago. Simon is a very talented petanque player, as those who play at the Atomic Cafe on a Saturday morning will confirm. His no nonsense style of play always ensures the game is played at a fast pace and to a high intensity.

Simon came to New Zealand over ten years ago with his beautiful wife Anna. Having spent many years running very busy restaurants in Tahiti and Vietnam

(which seated over 300 people) and with three adult children living in various countries, they eventually settled in New Zealand to enjoy a quieter retirement.

However, Simon and Anna, being the active people they were, soon carved out a life of routine involving travelling to many petanque tournaments around the country where they would often feed any stray player with the most delicious and wholesome dinners.

Sadly Anna passed away unexpectedly two years ago and Simon’s loss is felt strongly by the petanque community. Simon is such a gentleman and the whole petanque community is behind him as he embarks on this lifetime opportunity. He will certainly be dedicating this experience to his lovely wife Anna.

This year Simon has had a string of successes with his regular partner Ron:

• Epson Centennial Triples with Ron and Murray

• Kennedy Park Triples with Ron and David

• Finalist in the Auckland Regional Triples with Ron and David

• 2007: National Triples Championship

David Lippard (Manager)

David is a familiar figure to many people on the national petanque scene. He is a member of the Herne Bay Petanque Club and has played petanque at an international level and coached the sport for over 15 years

In 'real life' he is a project manager and company director, so brings excellent organisational and leadership skills to the role.

David is already working closely with the team on preparations for the trip. An action plan and training schedule has been developed and the team is underway organising sponsorship.

Player Profiles: Petanque New Zealand magazine, Winter 2007, Joanne Lippard

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Delegate's Report - Christian Fouquet

Wednesday 12.9.07

Contacted the secretary of the organising committee, Mrs Orapan, to check that all NZ team photos, arrival times and any other details had been received.

She assured me that everything was in order, and she was looking forward to meeting the team. She informed me that the team was to be based at the A1 Hotel which happened to be next door to my rented apartment. Pure luck!

Sunday 16.9.07

Met with the Tahitian team and the Swiss team at the A1 Hotel. Also met the Dutch team playing petanque on the beach next to the hotel. The Dutch coach and president offered their best regards to Graeme Morris who had formed a good relationship with them during his years in office.

Monday 17.9.07

Went to the stadium with the Dutch delegation to check the pitch and layout. Pitch looks and feels like an unfinished road in NZ. Concrete-like base with huge stones on top, and very uneven. I saw some plastic circles which meant that the Thais had practiced on the terrain since it was built.

Tuesday 18.9.07

NZ team arrived at 2.30pm at the A1 Hotel. Before their arrival I organised all the bags, badges, meal and gala dinner tickets. When the team arrived they were welcomed by Terry Lambert, my wife Rolinka and me.

After unpacking their bags in their respective rooms we went for a stroll looking for a practice terrain, shopping centre and Internet cafe, and finished with a cold beer on the waterfront cafe. At 7.00pm we all went to the welcoming dinner in the A1 Hotel. No other NZ teams to the World Championships have done this before.

Wednesday 19.9.07

Practice at the stadium. We tried to have the team throw a few boules in the stadium, but the security guards promptly sent us outside to practice on a terrain which was completely different to the actual stadium.

The temperature was close to 37° in the sun in the morning. After 2 games everyone had had enough, and it was back inside to watch the rehearsal for the opening ceremony.

The Opening Ceremony

This was a very colourful ceremony with young kids in marching band outfits, and local schools entertaining us for a good two hours.

The Shooting Competition

Ron shot 17 points and Ian from Tahiti had the highest score of all the nations (52). Congratulations to both of them, and thanks to the 5 supporters from NZ, 4 from Hibiscus Club – Rosie and Nick, Bill and Lyn and terry Lambert from Herne Bay.

Thursday 20.9.07

I attended the International Congress. A full English version of the minutes of this meeting will be sent to the PNZ, so I will cover only the highlights here:

• 8.45am Start

• Presidents Report

• Budget 2006 verified by Holland and Tunisia

• Budget 2007 (from 1 January to 31 August)

• Speech by African representative on executive committee who talked mostly about the struggle of the African countries with the financial burden to commit to the FIPJP

• 2008 Worlds at Dakar (Senagal) in November 2008 was confirmed

• 2006 & 2007 results from all international tournaments.

• Michel Signaire talked about the 12 countries who have not paid their fees, and are not taking part in these games as a result.

• Dr Cervetti talked about the anti doping policy. He is on the Olympic Committee and advised all the countries to learn the rules. The maximum alcohol level permitted was 0.50 g per litre. Any athlete who is taking medication must notify the organisers before playing games or risks elimination if found out during random tests

• Break at 10.15am

• FBT (petanque sponsor in Thailand) offered all delegations a chance to purchase boules and shirts

• President’s dinner on Friday at 8pm at the botanical gardens. Each country to send two persons

• 2009 World Championships will be in Maastricht (Holland) in September 2009 ( confirmed by the President)

• Presentation of Swiss System of competition. I have a copy and will pass it to the PNZ

• Open Forum – Australia President requested a meeting with the FIPJP regarding the Oceania situation

I will not elaborate on all the games played by the NZ team as these will be covered in the Manager's report, except to congratulate the team for achieving the results they did under very difficult playing conditions.

Congratulations to Madagascar for becoming World Champions in the shooting competition, and to France for winning the triple world championship once again.

Over the week in Pattaya I made good contacts with a lot of countries such as Holland, Singapore, England, France, Belgium, Taiwan, the Czech Republic, Thailand, Switzerland, Tahiti, Vietnam, Italy, Mauritius, Germany, Monaco, Tunisia, and of course, Mr Victor Nataf the French selector who is keen to send a French team to NZ in January 2008, which I believe would be great for NZ petanque.

Australia’s president and I had discussions regarding Asia/Pacific tournament invitations, coaching and refereeing, and everyone is positive about the relationship with NZ. Mr Andre Deramond, President of APA is opening a school for petanque in the near future under the umbrella of the CIEP (Mr Claude Ralui) and is encouraging NZ to do the same for the future of petanque in both countries.

His program targets young players using a tried and successful format in France. I personally believe he is right.

Presidents Dinner

My wife Rolinka and I attended the President’s Dinner with the hosting nation. We were welcomed at the Botanic Gardens, and the welcoming committee consisted of two baby elephants dancing to Thai music. The food and decor was fantastic and everyone enjoyed the evening of entertainment. I will hand over the gift from Thailand to the PNZ representative at the national singles in Auckland.

Gala Dinner

This was the last occasion to meet all our favourite players, exchange shirt, take photos and enjoy the good food and dancing if so inclined. The evening finished fairly early  as a lot of the players were exhausted from the competition.

Departure Day for the Team – After shaking hands with all the countries who were getting on the buses, the NZ team left Pattaya. Suddenly Pattaya became quiet after 50 countries left at once. For me it was a time for a good rest before going back to work

Christian Fouquet

October 2007