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President’s Report
I would like to
begin my report by
congratulating the Oceania team
for their performance at Noumea
earlier this month.
Barbara
Johnston’s gold medal win in the
Women’s Singles Championships on
the first day was a great way to
start the tournament and we had
other excellent results in the
doubles and triples as well. I
won’t go too much into the
Oceania Championships as it has
been covered very well
elsewhere, but I would like to
say thank you to the team
members and supporters who
travelled to Noumea for helping
to make it such a great trip.
At our last
Petanque New Zealand committee
meeting we discussed and agreed
on the preferred regional
structure for the future of
petanque in New Zealand. Under
the structure New Zealand will
be divided into five regions
with two of them further split
into two sub regions.
The regions would
be Auckland, Central (divided
into east and west), Wellington,
Northern South Island (divided
into 2 sub regions) and Southern
South Island. The exact areas
are still to be finalised.
The regional
structure is very important as
it will enable us to appoint
national coordinators for
coaching and junior development.
Alongside the national
coordinators will be five
regional coordinators. The
national and regional
coordinators will meet to set
policy and the regional
coordinators will be responsible
for carrying out the policy
under the guidance of the
national coordinator. This is a
very brief explanation of the
structure. We will explain it
further in a future issue of the
magazine.
The PNZ committee
sees the setting up of coaching
and junior development as the
key to the future of petanque in
New Zealand.
As this edition
of the magazine goes to print,
the team and supporters for the
World Championships (to be held
in Grenoble, France) has left
New Zealand. We wish them all a
successful trip. Look out for
results and other information on
the PNZ website. I will try to
email information back each day
of the championship.
I wish all
pétanque players in New Zealand
a very enjoyable summer season.
Graeme Morris
2002 Peugeot National Singles
Championship
The 2002 singles
was played at two venues. To
quote Graeme Morris during the
prize giving ceremony, this was
truly a tournament of two
halves. The first half began, as
planned, at 8.00am Saturday 24
August at the Park Avenue Club’s
terrain. Apparently people began
arriving as early as 7.00am but
at least two players, travelling
from the Kapiti area, found the
8 o’clock start something of a
challenge!
Anne Cook from
Park Avenue welcomed the
players, Brian Smith reminded
them of the rules and conditions
for play and at 8 o’clock on the
dot the tournament commenced.
Competitors from Auckland,
Hawkes Bay, Rotorua, Wanganui,
Palmerston North, Wellington and
Christchurch were present with,
understandably, the largest
contingent from the Wellington
region.
There was also a
small but enthusiastic group of
spectators who appreciated the
opportunity to observe some of
New Zealand’s best petanque
players in action and were
clearly intrigued by the
differing styles of play.
Progress
throughout the day was excellent
but unfortunately the weather
was not. The morning stayed
clear but by mid afternoon those
not wise enough to bring their
wet weather gear were looking
decidedly damp - still quite
happy but damp.
By 4.00pm,
however, most had completed
their scheduled games and knew
whether they remained in the
championship or were to play in
the consolation pools for the
following day. Either way, they
all appeared happy to be indoors
for the social hour of nibbles,
hot drinks or something even
more warming from the bar in the
Park Avenue clubrooms. The
organisers could be forgiven if
they went home feeling that the
tournament was going swimmingly.
At 7:30am on
Sunday morning swimming was
about all that was possible on
Park Avenue’s terrain. While the
competitors drank coffee, caught
up on missed breakfasts and even
began a card game, the
organisers pondered the various
options available and after a
phone call to the Kapiti club
announced that the tournament
would transfer to that terrain.
With remarkably
good humour almost all involved
accepted this option and (to
borrow yet another term from
rugby) kept their eyes on the ‘boule’,
ie the successful completion of
the tournament.
At Kapiti the
terrain was dry, the weather
cold and the welcome from the
Kapiti club warm. Play was soon
under way and again spectators
were treated to some amazing
play. By mid afternoon the
remaining eight players in both
the Championship and the Plate
were identified.
Players from
Auckland, Hawkes Bay, Palmerston
North and Wellington were in the
Championship and players from
Rotorua, Hawkes Bay and
Weffington in the Plate. Players
from Auckland, Rotorua and
Wellington did battle to
determine the winners of the
four consolation pools.
By the time the
semi finals began we had a
petanque version of the Williams
sisters in one of these - Gordon
Dykes playing his father, Neil
Dykes (both from Wellington) -
and in the other Geoff Greer
from Hawkes Bay confronting
Georgio Vakauta from Auckland.
At the end of two very close
games Gordon Dykes and Geoff
Greer played off in the final
with Gordon going on to win the
championship.
The final of the
Plate was between Rex Hayes and
Gary Craig, both from
Wellington, and to the delight
of Kapiti members present, Rex
Hayes was the eventual winner.
Roy Zeier, Wellington, won the
1st Consolation: Allan Fletcher,
Auckland, won the 2nd
Consolation: Andre Noel,
Auckland, won the 3rd
Consolation and Jacqui Hurst,
Rotorua, won the 4th
Consolation.
The tournament
concluded before 5.00pm and,
given all that the organisers
had to contend with, was a
successful and enjoyable event.
I, for one, went home tired,
frozen but very satisfied.
Tommy Werry
2002 Peugeot National Championships Results
The 2002 Singles Championship Final
Both players came
into the final game after
closely fought wins in their
semi finals. Geoff Greer (Hawkes
Bay) beat Georgio Vakauta
(Auckland) after applying early
pressure on the reigning
champion and holding on for a
great win. Gordon Dykes
(Wellington) won a family battle
with his father Neil in the
other semi.
Geoff put early
pressure on Gordon with tight
pointing and after two ends led
4/0, however the third end was a
turnaround. Geoff pointed in
well, but Gordon shot twice and
got two carreaus 3 points to
Gordon.
The game
continued with Geoff trying to
out point Gordon’s shooting
game. After the eighth end the
score was 10 - 8 in Gordon’s
favour. The ninth end saw Gordon
out pointing Geoff with his
second boule, Geoff shot and
missed, then pointed long. This
gave Gordon the chance to shoot
Geoff s boule, which he did -
the carreau giving Gordon three
points and the game 13 - 8.
Gordon’s shooting
was the key to him winning this
game, he shot nine times with
six successes but most
importantly five of these were
carreaus. Geoff was the better
pointer in the final with a
success rate of 65% as against
Gordon’s pointing percentage of
50%. However the game flowed in
a way that gave Geoff little
opportunity to use the shooting
skills he had used so well
against Georgio in the semi
final. He shot only three times
for a 33% success rate.
This win makes
Gordon Dykes the youngest
National Singles Champion at the
age of 18. He joins Leilani and
Andrew Mailei in winning a
national championship title
while still a teenager.
Michael Emerson
2002
Oceania Championships, Mont Dore, New
Caledonia
-
New
Zealand Team
Men: Gordon
Dykes, Neil Dykes, Andy Gilbert, Michael
Rocks, Ken Stentiford, Kevin Stentiford
Women: Jane
Gilbert, Barbara Johnston, Sue Neilson,
Elizabeth Rocks, Marie Stentiford,
Claire Wilson
Report
The easiest place
to start writing about the trip
would be at Auckland airport.
The team and supporters met at
7.30pm in team uniform as
requested by team manager
Graeme. It was a great start to
the trip as we immediately
looked and felt like a team. The
New Zealand petanque team.
From a personal
point of view it gave me quite a
buzz to be among all those
silver ferns on display and
worth the countless hours of
practice we had all undergone to
get this far.
By the way, if
you don’t manage to read all the
way through this article, skip
to the end. There are a number
of people mentioned who deserve
some thanks for their input to
the team effort.
A delay on
departure of two hours at
Auckland was quite acceptable
once we learned the previous
flight had to turn back to
Auckland when only 40 minutes
out of Noumea due to bits
falling off the plane. We felt
it was ok to check that our
plane had all the wings and
engines pretty well glued on.
Time spent in the departure
lounge was passed as Michael
Rocks dragged out his indoor
boules set (what else?) and beat
everybody on the team. Some
passing Americans wondered if
that was the real game we were
going to play.
Arriving in
Tontouta Airport at 4.00am New
Zealand time left us with a
further one hour coach trip to
the hotel which saw most of the
team in a semi sleep state as we
gathered the room keys and
headed off for our rooms for a
whole five hours sleep before
meeting for breakfast at 9.30am
local time. Manager Graeme got
the prize for the best snorer in
the team. A trophy he retained
for the whole week, according to
his room mate Terry.
As a side note,
we were met and welcomed at the
airport by Michel Hamblin and
Solange Bourez who made sure we
were introduced to Jean-Claude,
our coach driver for the week. A
nice touch, especially at 3.00am
in the morning, local time.
Sunday - I should
add that the Hotel Le Stanley
was half an hour away from
anywhere you wanted to go.
Transport on the Sunday was
limited to the local bus service
so we all jumped on board and
headed into town to Centre Vile.
In Noumea there are terrains
everywhere and we found a couple
of fair sized ones in a shady
patch and started to loosen up
our arms.
The temperature
was in the high twenties and
shade was a welcome feature for
those who had left a single
digit climate at Wellington
airport the day before. Graeme
split the teams up and a mini
competition took place with the
supporters also taking part. As
our games continued, the locals
turned up and started their
games. As we were limited in our
French speaking ability, there
was not a lot of communication
between the two groups beyond
sign language but they were a
good natured crowd to play
alongside.
Later in the
afternoon Gordon wanted to have
a game with the locals and was
warmly invited to participate if
he wanted to front up with his
quarter of the side bet of
NZ$1800! Those locals were
playing for serious money.
Gordon declined and came back to
join our group. Maybe it was a
wise move.
Lunch was at the
local McDonald’s as nothing else
was open on a Sunday. The Happy
meal cost $15 and was a taste of
things and prices to come.
Christian and
Rolinka joined us with Solange
and Michel and announced that
the New Caledonia Association
would be hosting us from Monday.
During the course of the evening
Graeme and Assistant Manager
Trevor took part in a delegates
meeting which resulted in an
unofficial Trans Tasman test
being organised for the Monday
afternoon at the Magenta Piste.
I’m sure there were other
matters that were discussed but
the chance of taking on our
Aussie counterparts was the most
important thing for the players.
Monday - The day
dawned bright and sunny and the
view out across the lagoon was
stunning. Here’s a tip for
future travellers. If Kevin
Stentiford is in your group, try
not to have a have room right
above the only piece of ground
that is flat enough to practice
petanque. You can ignore that
advice if you always wake up
before 6.00am anyway. Kevin was
there ‘to play petanque and not
lie in bed till lunchtime’. If
they awarded Gold medals for
practice time, it would be
Kevin’s for keeps!
After breakfast
we adjourned to the pool side
where lots of decisions were
made. When and where we would
have some shopping time was one
query that was sorted. The other
query was who would lead the
haka. In the absence of a fit
and lithe warrior of long and
proud Maori lineage, the
leadership was given to the
first one to volunteer to give
it a go. That would be Andy.
After everyone
giving their contribution to how
and why the haka should be
performed, a format was settled
on and with Trevor’s
instructions to ‘give it some
gusto, Andy’ we rehearsed by the
pool. It wasn’t too bad for a
first attempt and it scared away
four seagulls and a couple of
Aussies that were hanging by the
pool.
After a practice
at the shooting competition on
Kevin’s terrain we headed off
for lunch and the Trans Tasman
test. Other than Jean Claude
driving away with half the team
still left inside the hotel it
was a very pleasant day. The
food was a set menu and differed
somewhat from the usual Kiwi
fare. A relaxed lunch put the
whole team in the right frame of
mind for the Aussies.
Triples was the
format decided on and we squared
off against our opponents on a
terrain that offered a few
surprises with its subtle rolls
and gullies. The first round was
even at 2 games apiece. The
second round was definitely one
sided at 4 - 0 in the favour of
the Kiwis! That made it 6 - 2 as
a test. A couple of the Aussies
then offered Ken and I a game of
doubles. Watch out for Ken as a
player of the future. With his
excellent shooting game the
Aussies didn’t actually get on
the scoreboard. We left the
terrain with the Aussies
discussing rearranging their
team formats. All in all, a good
days play!
Tuesday - In the
morning the delegates had a
meeting at the hotel, so I
received firm instructions from
Graeme to ‘put the team through
the haka a few more times’. When
I looked around after breakfast,
most of the team had jumped on
the bus and headed off to the
beach and the shops. The haka
practise was cancelled, sorry
about that, Graeme. I knew where
I would find Kevin and Ken so I
wandered round to the spot below
our bedroom window and had some
practise games with Ken and
Kevin and anyone else still
around.
Rolinka did a
great job as the arbitre until
the Aussie contingent arrived to
move into our hotel. Some, I
hasten to add not all, of the
Aussie contingent were
stereotypically loud. On a
personal note it didn’t take
long for me to get a little
tired of the “Aussie, Aussie,
Aussie, Oy,Oy,Oy” chant. They
seemed to tire of it when a Kiwi
team member asked them if it had
taken them long to learn the
words of their song!
After lunch at
the restaurant we were all
bussed off to see the
competition terrain for the
first time. We weren’t allowed
to practice on it but we were
surprised and pleased by what we
saw. It was flat and smooth with
a light covering of crushed
metal.
Having been
warned that all the other teams
play a high lob/plombe game
because of the rocky terrains we
were pleased to see a terrain
that would take a half lob or
even a full length roll with out
too much deviation. Back spin
would be a key element in
pointing but the terrain would
even take a rolling shoot shot,
so even the ‘tirer’ shooting was
not strictly needed.
And then it
rained on our parade!
I’m serious. An
hour before the opening parade
of players, it started to rain.
And it rained right through the
parade of athletes and the
opening speeches. Bugger! This
is New Caledonia, it’s supposed
to be hot and sunny not cold and
rainy. Never mind. The speeches
didn’t go on for too long and as
they were all in French we
didn’t understand what they were
saying, anyway.
Christian was an
absolute gem with his
translations and gave us a very
brief précis of what was going
on while we got wet. There was a
buzz among the athletes. Maybe
it was because it was the first
time at this level of
competition for all the Kiwi
team, but our Kiwi buzz was
somehow buzzier.
We were here and
wearing the silver fern for the
first time and the smallish
crowd were all watching us in
the parade ring. It’s a great
feeling that you can’t really
put down on paper.
After the parade
we managed a brief practice in
the car park area until the rain
got too heavy and then we walked
to the town hail (about a mile
away) in light rain to attend
the civic reception for the
teams. Already our uniforms and
caps etc were becoming a
collector’s items and the prime
target for souvenir hunters. We
posted guards on our gear bags
and settled down to enjoy the
reception.
The Mayor of Mont
Dore gave us a great welcome and
put on a display of island
dancing that was excellent.
Midway through their display, we
were called on to give our haka.
They expect all Kiwi teams to do
the haka and we did it pretty
good, despite a few nerves.
At the end of the
reception we bussed off to the
restaurant and then headed home
for an early night. Back to the
hotel by 8.30 and tucked up in
bed by ten. The waiting is over.
Tomorrow the games start. I’d
have to say that the team were
all looking forward to day one
of the competition. Bring it on!
Wednesday - Awake
at 5.00am and into the
restaurant for breakfast at
6.00am sharp. A continental
breakfast and back to the rooms.
Pack your gear and be waiting
for the team bus at 7.00am. It’s
interesting to note that after
half the team being left behind
on day one, the Kiwis were
always first in line to get on
the bus for the rest of the
week.
Day one is
Singles, which means there are
around 32 games going on at the
same time in round one. One of
my prime goals was to avoid the
fanny. Being drawn against a
Tahitian in the first game I
decided to play a defensive
strategy until I saw how he
played. Being 6 - 0 down after 2
ends meant that defensive play
was perhaps inappropriate and I
went down 11 - 1 before I could
develop a winning game style.
The concept of
only playing to 11 points in the
first round was not popular with
the Kiwis or the Aussies and
it’s something that should be
looked at. It was also a strange
pool draw system that I still
don’t quite understand. There
were only 3 players in our
barrage pool and one of them got
a bye for their first win.
Now I’m looking
for my second opponent. Let it
be an Aussie, please? No such
luck. My second game was against
a New Caledonian and aggressive
play on my part saw another 11 -
1 defeat. It’s now 10.15am and I
have the rest of the day to
consider a new strategy that
didn’t depend on defensive or
aggressive play.
I couldn’t work
anything out so I watched the
other team members at work. Jane
fannied her first opponent and
was then fannied by her second
opponent. She lost her third
game in an excellent spectator
spectacle and went down 11 - 9.
If I miss out any significant
scores, I hope Brenda will do
some editing to avoid me
offending anyone. Everyone
played to his or her best
ability:
I had some
sympathy for Ken who drew
‘Robert’ as his first ever
international opponent and went
down 11 - 4 after playing some
excellent petanque. Half the
team made it through the first
round, Maria & Neil advancing
into the top 8 before
elimination. That left the whole
team to get in behind Barbara as
she quietly worked her way past
some very stiff opposition.
The day
progressed and so did Barbara.
In the semi final she beat the
Tahitian who had won the
previous two women’s singles
Gold medals and before we knew
it, we were watching Barbara, in
the fading daylight, fighting
for the gold medal.
It was a great
game which Barbara won 15 - 10.
She was up against Pauline
Taruoura a tough opponent but
Barbara wasn’t overawed and hung
in there to thoroughly deserve
her medal.
After the men’s
final the Kiwis all gathered to
watch the medal ceremony. It’s a
very intense feeling when they
play ‘God defend New Zealand’
and you are singing it in honour
of a team mate and you feel a
small part of that victory I
guess you had to be there but it
remains one of the fondest
memories of the week.
After bussing
back to the restaurant and then
to the hotel, the team met for a
coffee at the poolside to review
the day and congratulate
Barbara. We hit the sheets
around 10.30pm. No major
celebrations as it’s doubles
tomorrow and another 6.00am
start.
Thursday - It’s
the Doubles round today. Playing
with Michael as my doubles
partner. I’m feeling a little
more confident and hoping for a
good draw. Waiting for the team
coach at 7.00am and the team is
still buzzing over Barbara’s
gold medal. We’ve all touched it
for luck and are more than ready
for the competition. There are
fewer nerves, as we now know
what the standard of play is
likely to be.
The doubles
pairings are Jane and Barbara,
Liz and Sue, Claire and Maria,
Andy and Michael, Neil and
Kevin, Ken and Gordon. Going
down in our first game (11 - 6
as I recall) we were keen to
meet the Aussies in our next
game.
After a slow
start with defensive play from
both teams Michael and I drew
away to win 11 - 4. That left us
with a must win game against New
Caledonia. Although we went down
11 - 5 the game was actually
closer than it seemed and we
were on the fight back trail at
the game’s end.
I‘d have loved
some of the games in round one
to have gone to 13 points. The
men’s team did not fare so well
in the doubles with all 3 teams
being eliminated in Round 1. The
girls however all advanced to
the second round where they all
met tough opponents and went
down fighting.
Let’s not forget
that Maria and Claire rolled a
Tahitian team 11 - 2 in their
first round. I believe Sue and
Liz also despatched a couple of
good teams in order to advance.
There was much hilarity form the
‘smart tarts’ (Sue and Liz) and
much talk of ‘pink elephants’
which they will tell you about.
I have some
theories on the relative skill
levels between the teams that
I’ll put in as a separate
article if Brenda has the space.
The shooting competition was
held at midday. Match play was
suspended for two hours at
midday to avoid the hottest part
of the day. Elimination play
took place at the midday break
on Wednesday and Thursday to
find the top 16 shooters, Men
and women, for the final shoot
out on Friday. Of the Kiwis Jane
was the only female and Andy and
Ken were the only male Kiwi
representatives to make the top
16.
A special mention
here for Andy who had to have an
extra shootout for the 16th spot
in the final round with the New
Caledonia shooting champ. Andy
won amid great humour from the
New Caledonian’s team mates.
Through a translator one of the
Tahitians added that we were
effectively in the top 16
shooters in the southern
hemisphere. We thought that
might be stretching the
statistics a little, but what
the heck, it gave us all a boost
anyway.
Another nice
touch was the Aussies becoming
honorary Kiwis when they were
eliminated and rooting for New
Zealand teams.
By 3.00pm the
entire Kiwi team were no longer
figuring in the days play and we
spent the time watching or
having practise games or
resting. Sleep deprivation was
becoming something of an issue
with the early starts and long
days play before we got back to
the hotel. On the Thursday night
we arrived back at the hotel at
10.45pm which made for a very
long day from the 6.00am
breakfast call.
Friday - With the
usual 6.00am breakfast call and
7.00am team assembly for the
bus. We discovered a few health
problems kicking in. Sue had
gone back to the hotel mid
afternoon on Thursday with no
voice and flu symptoms. Several
of the Aussie team and the Kiwi
team were coming down with a
sore throat. We put it down to
the hot and dry conditions and
the dust being raised by the
very rare breeze. Sue resolved
to play on the Friday and we
fielded a full strength team,
much to first reserve, Brenda’s
relief.
Another aside.
The organisers had loosely
organised an after match
function at a local nightclub.
Starting at 11.00pm, NZ$20 to
get in and NZ$25 for a whiskey
and Soda. The Kiwis and Aussies
decided to have our own pool
side after match function back
at the hotel, which was well
anticipated by both teams.
The triples teams
were Barbara, Liz and Claire /
Jane, Sue and Maria / Neil,
Gordon and Michael / Andy, Ken
and Kevin.
Our game got off
to a good start with opening our
score against the Aussies with
two points on the first end.
Then it turned downhill. The
Aussies grabbed the game away
from us with good play and
walked away with the game 11 -
7. That loss to the green and
gold was not in our plans and we
faced a tough game against the
Tahitian team to stay in the
competition.
The Tahitians
started strongly and after two
ends we were 6 - 0 down. Two
ends later we were level at 6 -
6 and the Tahitians were on the
ropes. Their confidence was gone
and we were in full control of
the game. It was a nice feeling
that lasted for maybe half a
minute and the Terrain Gods had
a say in the result.
Kevin sent the
cochonnet down to 9 metres to
stretch their shooters and
promptly pointed our first two
boules a couple of metres short.
It was just one of those things,
a bad bounce and then hitting a
soft spot that gave the
Tahitians the game again. A
third point to within 2 inches
of the coch was carreaued and we
gave away five points and the
game on that end. So that was
our triples team on the
sidelines for the rest of the
day. The triples pools were
different again from the
previous days play with one pool
of 5 teams and one pool of four
teams.
The first round
didn’t finish until 5.00pm and
then there was elimination play
for the last eight still to
come. We watched some very
exciting games with the girls
going right to the wire in all
their games. The only triples
team to advance was Neil, Gordon
and Michael. During the course
of the midday break none of the
Kiwi shooters advanced to the
last eight but we were still
pleased in getting to the last
16.
As the daylight
faded all the Kiwis watched
Neil’s team advance to the
semi-finals where they met a New
Caledonian team at the peak of
their game. The score line was
more one sided than the game
itself and it was a tremendous
display by both sides. Neil’s
team moved into a playoff for
the bronze medal so you can
guess which game the Kiwis were
watching and rooting for. It was
one of the better games of the
tournament we’d watched.
Gordon was on a
roll and shot and hit the target
15 times in a row before his
first miss! Michael was getting
most of his points in and around
the cochonnet and forcing the
Tahitian shooters to bring out
their best shots. The watchers
had to feel sorry for Neil. In a
display of attacking petanque,
more often exhibited by Gordon,
Neil shot for 4, 3,2 and 4
points. Each time he hit the
target and the target boule
carried the cochonnet or
disturbed other boules to give
the point away. It almost seemed
fated they were not meant to
pick up the bronze. They went
down to the Tahitians and
finished in 4th place, but it
was a classic game to watch
between two excellent teams.
At the conclusion
of the finals there was the
medal ceremony and then the
handing out of the trophies.
Team manager Graeme is a tall
chap anyway but I swear he grew
another six inches as he was
called up to the podium to
accept the third place trophy.
During the
closing formalities there was
another excellent display of
dancing by the cultural group
who opened their performance
with a pretty good haka. By the
time medals had been presented
and all the shirt swapping had
taken place it was a very tired
but happy bunch of Kiwis that
boarded the bus to arrive back
at the hotel at ten past
midnight!
The management
team of Graeme and Trevor
weren’t on the bus. They had to
attend a delegates meeting and
got back to the hotel at 1.30am!
Remember we had all started the
day with a 6.00am breakfast some
20 hours earlier. Needless to
say, the planned poolside party
did not take place as most of
the team had booked themselves
on a boat trip that required us
all to be ready for the bus at
7.00am having already packed the
suitcases to condense from 10
rooms down to 2 rooms.
Saturday -
Fifteen sleep deprived Kiwis
hopped on a bus, without
breakfast, at 7.00am and headed
to town. The local market was a
source of some food (apple tart
for breakfast?) and definitely
the best cup of coffee I’d had
all week. Rallying at the jetty,
for the boat to Amedee Island,
we were greeted by an old native
guy. He might have been Maori
but we weren’t sure.
With his guitar
he was greeting everyone aboard
with a song. He saw our NZ caps
and started into ‘Pokareana’,
which we all joined in with.
Then he said the magic words
‘Kamate, Kamate’ and everyone
joined in with the best haka of
the week. A good start to a
great day.
It would take
another three pages to talk
about the boat trip. Ask one of
the team who went. We fed sharks
four miles out from the island.
Went in a glass-bottomed boat to
see the tropical fish, fed
sharks thirty metres out from
the shore we had been swimming
off! Sunbathed.
Saw sea snakes.
There was some interesting folk
lore that the snakes were
poisonous but only had small
mouths and could only bite you
on the web of skin between the
fingers or on a rather delicate
part of the male anatomy. One
wonders how they did the
research for the latter half of
their advice but no one tested
the theory in our group. We saw
more sea snakes on land and
right on the pathways and
kiddies playground that we saw
in the sea. Which made you a
little careful about where you
sat down.
Oh yes, and the
author is the undefeated
petanque champion of Amedee
Island. The Maitais that were
served with lunch went down very
well. The first five did! They
were so good; Gary took two
litres of the liquid into
protective custody. We arrived
back at the hotel at 5.30pm and
proceed to shower etc and pool
the food and drink to have a
drinkies session before we left.
The Aussies came
and saw us off which was an
indication of the friendships
developed. Michel and his boys
came and saw us off at 9.30pm
onto the bus and gave every team
member a shell necklace. Again,
another nice touch from our
hosts.
Solange was
everywhere. Solange has been
over to our open tournament. At
the Oceania she was there to
meet us at the airport at
3.00am, she was an arbiter, she
played in the singles, she made
the last 8 in the shooting. She
was at the airport to see us off
at 1.00am. She helped us out
when we hit a major ticketing
problem at the airport. It was
such a pity she couldn’t speak a
word of English so we could
thank her properly for her
efforts. But there were a number
of people like Solange who went
out of their way to help all the
teams.
We’re getting to
the end of the trip and the trip
came to it’s conclusion at
5.00am in Auckland airport. The
team thanked Christian and
Rolinka for all their assistance
at the airport and then said
their goodbyes to each other
before the baggage claim. There
were a few tears being shed at
the end of a tremendous
experience. We’ll meet again on
the terrain, guys and I look
forward to it.
Results
Barbara Johnston: 1st Womens Singles
1st: New Caledonia; 2nd: Tahiti;
3rd: New Zealand; 4th: Australia
A
few highs and lows
The high of highs
would have to be Barbara’s Gold
medal!
As the week
rolled on, the other teams were
showing us a great deal of
respect in their play and that
was something we all were aware
of.
-
Definitely we
had the best uniform.
-
It was the
talk of the tournament about
how the Kiwis had such a
great team spirit. The
Aussies were convinced we’d
hired a professional sports
motivator. It seemed a shame
to shake their belief, so we
didn’t. As a contributor to
the team spirit, none of us
spoke French which rather
limited our ability to mix
with the other teams.
-
Finishing
higher than the Aussies was
another real high.
-
The growth in
each player as the
tournament progressed was
another high. On day one,
the singles is a very lonely
place to be as you shake
hands with a Tahitian
opponent for your first ever
game at International level.
-
The gap
between the Kiwi women’s
team and the Tahiti and New
Caledonian women’s team is
closing fast, thanks to the
standard of play by our
girls.
-
The gap
between the men’s teams is
still wide and despite the
wins we did have it is only
closing very slowly.
Nonetheless, we had a few
wins and that is a real
plus.
-
Players for
the future. Gordon and Ken
both showed themselves as
the possible ‘Georgio’ of
the future and the future of
the game is looking good.
May I be selfish
and thank a few people who made
a real contribution to the
success of the trip
-
Camp Mother
Brenda.
Always rallying around and
amusing us with her ways of
getting onto the bus going
in the wrong direction. Way
to go, Brenda.
-
Chris and
Jacquie Young, Terry, Gary
and Murray
Always a part
of the team and offering
congratulations and support.
Thanks Guys
-
Allan
Fletcher.
Allan spent
well over an hour at the
National singles passing on
advice. He also phoned the
team during the week to
congratulate the gold medal
winner. It made it even
better to know the guys back
home were thinking of us.
Thanks Allan.
-
Ian Baker and
Brian Smith gave up a whole
weekend to join us in
Palmerston North to offer
coaching and training
assistance. Much appreciated
guys.
-
Christian and
Rolinka.
There were
few announcements in English
except when Christian
grabbed the mike. Rolinka
was quietly making sure
people heard the appropriate
messages For the
translations and for just
being around and offering
support
-
Graeme and
Trevor.
The manager
and offsider There were few
problems on the tour and
that was in no small part
due to the leadership of
these two. They played
little petanque but played
every boule we played. It
was a learning curve for
everyone on the tour and you
two made the learning curve
a little less steep.
And a final
comment. I wanna go back and
play them again! I’m sure we
could all play a little more
comfortably now we have had that
first experience of playing at
that level. It’s only two years
to the next Oceania, and it’s a
home court advantage. Better
start practising.
Andy
Gilbert
PNZ News: Summary of
committee Meeting, 27 & 28 July
2002
-
Sponsorship
tournament
protocols to be amended to
reflect that any secondary
sponsorship must not
conflict with national
sponsorship.
-
Seeding
system - to remain as
is.
-
2003
tournament venues:
Triples:
Auckland; 22nd/23rd February
Doubles:
Rotorua; Labour weekend
Singles: Bay
View; last weekend in August
-
Website
affiliated
clubs to be separate from
non-affiliated; latter will
be recorded only with name
and location.
-
2002 FIPJP
meeting
-
Oceania
Graeme Morris
is team manager, Trevor
Neilson assistant manager
and reserve player. Brenda
Dykes and Rolinka Fouquet
are reserves for women’s
team.
-
Constitution
-
voting
rights should be in
proportion to member
numbers in regions
-
no
provision for individual
membership
-
agreed
not to have definition
of Club, for flexibility
-
further
work needed on set up
and operation of
-
Executive/Board before
put to members, so no
SGM at Singles.
-
Magazine
Brenda to
look at options for
introducing colour.
-
Playing rules
agreed to
re-issue BPA, indicating
which rules are subject to
clarification
interpretation.
-
Umpiring
-
all
Committee members will
take the umpiring course
in conjunction with the
next Committee meeting
-
deadline
to be set for
introduction of
non-playing umpires at
national tournaments;
make it a preferred
condition now add to
tournament protocols.
-
Risk
management
agreed to ban
jandals and open-toed shoes
at national tournaments, in
line with international
rules.
-
10th
Anniversary 2004
will have a
‘special’ edition of the
magazine; subcommittee
Brian, Brenda, Ian.
-
Coaching
-
Tournaments
-
agreed to
keep open entry at this
stage
-
start
time will be 8.30am as
from 2002 Doubles
-
tournament organisers
must ‘police’ play,
especially on second
day, to keep things
moving
-
agreed
not to wait for all
games in the pool to
finish before starting
the next round.
-
qualifiers to be down to
16 after first round
-
as from 1
January 2003, membership
of an affiliated club
will be a requirement
for entry to national
tournaments.
-
dress
code to apply as from
Peugeot 2002 Doubles
reasonable standard of
dress required
-
no
smoking on terrain
during games
-
requirement for shooting
competition to be
incorporated in
protocols
-
need
checklist for PNZ
liaison person to ensure
all aspects of protocols
have been covered by
tournament organisers.
-
World champs
-
delegate
to FIPJP goes regardless
of whether NZ team
competes
-
continue
policy of the team that
wins the Triples
representing NZ at World
Champs
-
PNZ will
not be responsible for
fundraising for the 2003
team
-
agreed
not to introduce
financial or other
incentives for players
to represent NZ at World
Champs.
-
Fundraising
general
set up
fundraising committee to
fund Petanque NZ.
-
Australia/NZ
test series
PNZ is
interested; format needs
amending.
-
Merchandising
we do not
want to sell product (except
for 2004 Anniversary)
-
PNZ profile
Graeme to try
and contact Murray Deaker
and Richard Swaney.
Barbara
Whittington - Secretary |
