Peugeot National Triples –
Rotorua Easter 2001
This is Easter
and Rotorua, you never know what
the weather will do. “Allow for
all seasons” was my reply. We
got the lot!
Rumour has it the
piste was underwater the
Thursday before Easter and had
to be pumped out to make it
playable.
Friday afternoon
for the fundraising melee the
weather was hot and sticky. A
very good turnout and an
opportunity for the less
experienced players to team up
and improve their game by
learning from their partners for
the afternoon. Funds were raised
for the travel fund for the team
attending the World Champs.
Friday evening
and time for the NZPA AGM. A
lengthy but successful event
that gave those members who
stayed an opportunity to thrash
out issues close to their
hearts.
By Saturday
morning the southerly had come
through and most team uniforms
were covered up against the
cold. Except of course the
intrepid Bay View Sunflowers -
Jacqui, Michael and John from
Hawkes Bay who seemed oblivious
to the weather. The big upset
for the day was the relegation
of one of the top teams to the
Bowl.
Sunday the
weather was much kinder but the
play just got harder and for
many 3 days continuous play was
taking its toll. A large gallery
of spectators were entertained
to some exciting games leading
up to the final.
Sunday night
prize giving dinner was the
usual rowdy event, the highlight
being the Rotorua members
rendition of the NZPA song to
the YMCA tune. Some players also
displayed vocal talents as good
as their petanque skills. Thanks
to Charles, Ruby & Dirk for
sharing their singing talents.
Thanks also to
the Rotorua club for hosting a
very well run event - roll on
Easter 2002.
Post Script
The winning team
of Charles Peni, Louis Mesnage &
Georgio Vakauta (pictured above)
were formally invited by the
NZPA to represent NZ at the
World Champs in Monaco in
September this year. This is not
a decision taken lightly and the
winning team is given 2 weeks to
make a decision.
Players around
the country will be pleased to
hear that all 3 accepted the
invitation. This means this year
we have another capable team who
work well together and have
every chance of doing extremely
well.
A national raffle
will not be held to raise funds
- this has in the past proved an
extremely time consuming
exercise and many clubs prefer
not to sell tickets but are
happy to raise funds in their
own unique way. Many clubs now
have a permanent event on their
calendar with the proceeds
targeted to the national team
travel fund.
Please put on
your thinking caps and dig deep
into your pockets to help raise
funds for our 3 ‘Likely Lads’ to
make the trip and do us proud.
Brenda Dykes
2001 Peugeot National Championships Results
New Membership & Fee Structure
for the NZPA
At the AGM in
Rotorua at Easter, members voted
in favour of changing the fee
structure from one based on
individual membership, to one
where every member of a petanque
club will also be a member of
the NZPA.
Why change?
Since the
inception of the NZPA in 1994,
petanque has grown from a small
base of very geographically-
concentrated individuals (north
of the Bombay Hills!), to a game
that is played nationwide, with
over 50 clubs, having a total
membership of more than 1500.
Despite this
growth, the membership fee for
the NZPA has remained at $10,
with membership still on an
individual basis. While this may
have been appropriate in the
early days, it is no longer
appropriate in today’s
environment. A group of
individuals cannot truly be
called a national sporting body,
as most people understand the
term, and cannot purport to
represent the interests of all
players of the code.
The ‘normal’
structure for sporting codes is
for individuals to belong to
clubs, which then affiliates to
the national body (with or
without some intermediate
regional level). This is the
basis on which national funding
organisations such as the
Hillary Commission expect to
deal. The national body is
expected to represent all
participants in the sport, so
that the funding provided
benefits all participants also.
However, having
clubs affiliate as members is
not possible for petanque at
present. All clubs would need to
be Incorporated Societies, and
many petanque clubs are sections
of other clubs (eg Bowling
Clubs, Cosmopolitan Clubs).
Affiliating each club member
individually gets around this
problem, and also reduces the
administrative burden for the
NZPA officials who handle the
huge database of individuals (on
a purely voluntary basis).
Another important
factor is the benefit of being
able to count all players in the
country. At present, when
applying for funding or
sponsorship, the NZPA can only
count the licensed players -
approximately 400. This is a
very small number of people
playing a sport, and the
impression is given this is just
a leisure activity.
The picture
changes considerably when you
include all players in the
country - around 1500 playing at
dub level Now you’re talking
sport!
Funding for the
national body was also a
consideration. It is very hard
to budget when income from
membership fees may depend
largely on how many people
choose to enter national
tournaments, while the amount of
work required to provide
services is more directly
related to the number of people
playing the game overall. Club
membership is not so volatile,
and will provide a more secure
funding base, and one that will
move more closely in line with
costs.
What does the
NZPA do?
Initially, the
main reason for joining the NZPA
was probably to be able to play
in national competitions, as
this was one of the requirements
for entry. Unfortunately, this
has led to impression that the
NZPA is only for these
competitive players.
But this is not
the case; organising national
tournaments is not its only
function. The most important
function now is to be a means of
communication between all
petanque players in New Zealand
- providing information on what
is happening in the world of
petanque generally, at local,
regional and national levels;
promoting the game; and helping
players at all levels to
participate, improve their
skills and knowledge of the
game.
The NZPA does
this by publishing a regular
magazine, coordinating club
information; and being an avenue
for general queries about the
game. It is also a forum by
which people can have input into
the way the game develops in New
Zealand.
Since 1999 a
‘club pack’ has been sent out to
every club in the country with
the magazine mail out. This pack
contains regularly updated clubs
database, updated playing rules,
entry forms for national
tournaments, copies of Pétanque
NZ and other bits and pieces. To
date this has in effect been
subsidised by the individual
NZPA members, since Clubs have
not paid for this service.
Much of this
information has been put on a
website, enabling direct and
speedy access for anyone with
access to a computer. And of
course setting up and
maintaining the website is not
costless.
These activities
benefit not only ‘competitive’
players, but players at all
levels. For example, it is much
easier when visiting other clubs
or playing in a local tournament
if you know that everyone is
playing to the same rules.
Clubs also
benefit by having a means of
getting information on their
club to prospective members,
through the Clubs database
handbook, or on the Internet.
The NZPA Secretary fields many
enquires from people wanting to
know what dubs are in their
area, or an area they are moving
to, and how to contact them.
The magazine is
also a source of ideas for
clubs, as they can see what
others are doing in terms of
fundraising, types of
tournaments and other
activities. Further developments
planned include providing
coaching and umpiring courses,
which will result in formal,
recognised qualifications and a
series of publications aimed at
providing readily available
answers to some of the most
frequently asked questions, such
‘How to Play’, ‘How to Build a
Terrain’, ‘How to form a Club.’
Why $5?
The decision by
the NZPA Committee to recommend
a $5 fee was made following
careful consideration, taking
into account the funding needs
of the Association, and ability
to pay. Compared to most other
sports, $5 is very low to
affiliate to the national body.
The Committee believes that it
is a reasonable and realistic
fee, and should not be unduly
onerous for Clubs financially.
So what do
members get for their $5?
Each member who
affiliates through their club
becomes a member of the NZPA and
is entitled to vote at the AGM.
They will then have access to
all the information their Club
will receive from the NZPA.
Enough magazines
will be distributed to each club
to ensure reasonable and timely
access for everyone, on a “read
and pass on” or “Club Copy -
stays here” basis.
NB: None of the
$5 will be used for the travel
fund for players representing
New Zealand in overseas
competitions.
Competitive
registration extra
If club members
wish to compete in national
tournaments they will need to
register individually with the
NZPA, and pay an annual fee of
$10. This is to cover the
additional administrative costs
associated with holding such
tournaments (processing of
entries, seeding; setting
formats and draws; allocating
venues, ensuring compliance with
tournament conditions and
protocols etc). Registered
players will receive their own
copy of the magazine, but it
will still be distributed via
their club.
What happens if I
don’t belong to a club?
If you don’t
belong to a club or your club
chooses not to affiliate to the
NZPA, you can still become an
individual NZPA member for $15.
The extra cost is to cover all
NZPA infonriation, induding the
magazine, being sent to you
personally.
Where to from
here?
The new system
will apply as from next year, ie
for the financial year ended
December 2002. An account will
be sent to clubs early in the
New Year, with the amount
calculated on the number of
members as at 31 December 2001.
This will allow plenty of time
for clubs to consider the
decision whether or not to
affiliate.
If a club chooses
not to affiliate, they cannot
expect to continue receiving the
same level of information and
services from the NZPA as at
present. A certain amount will
be available through the
website, but it may be more
limited than at present.
Most clubs, while
they may have to think about the
best way of raising the funds,
agree this development is a sign
that the sport is growing - not
the end of petanque as we know
it - and see the benefits of all
clubs officially coming under
the umbrella of the national
organisation.
If you would like
further information on the
affiliation, talk to an NZPA
executive member or contact the
Secretary.
Barbara
Whittington
Personality Profile – Denise
Bavidge
Denise was
introduced to petanque at a
recruitment drive by the Bay
View club in the Hawke’s Bay in
October 1997 and along with
husband Geoff Greer thought of
this as the ideal game to play
as a couple. Their first real
tournament was the HB Harvest
Weekend tournament which they
won - they couldn’t believe
their good fortune and this
wetted their appetite for
competitive play.
January 1999 -
the Peugeot NZ Open was a great
experience and the pair had
decided this was an opportunity
to play with the best in the
country and also get a taste of
overseas expertise. On the
Saturday morning prior to the
start of play they were
mesmerised by the practise of
the Tahitians and decided to try
and do their best, hopefully
learn plenty and try to win at
least two games. They came
fourth and drove back to the
Hawke’s Bay in a state of shock!
Easter 1999 -
along with Murray Porter, Geoff
and Denise won the Peugeot
National Triples and found it a
great privilege to represent NZ
at the World Championships in
Reunion Island in September of
the same year.
October 2000 -
Oceania competition Tahiti.
Again it was a wonderful thrill
to represent NZ with the biggest
highlight; coming third in the
Women’s Singles competition.
Denise was also awarded the Fair
Player trophy for the
competition.
For the future of
the sport, Denise would like
petanque to achieve a greater
profile nationally and believes
greater media coverage of
national tournaments would
hopefully encourage more
competitive and younger players
into the sport. Denise also
believes the NZPA needs a
greater profile coming through
player membership that would see
the NZPA grow into a strong
force, ultimately gaining a
stronger profile.
New Zealand
players are fortunate to be able
to enjoy well run tournaments
that encourage inexperienced
players and Denise would like to
see more young players feature
in up and coming events. As a
player who has not received any
coaching she finds tournament
play is a means of gaining
experience - even if it is
learning the hard way - it also
offers the opportunity to pick
the brains of more experienced
players.
Most importantly
Denise enjoys the opportunities
to meet people and develop
friendships.
Brenda Dykes
Club Profile
-
Matai
Petanque Nelson
A small group
who were playing regularly
at a public terrain in
Nelson found they were
constrained in their
attempts to improve their
enjoyment of the game and
approached the Matai Club.
They successfully requested
a terrain be developed on
the gounds, along side the
bowling greens at Kinzett
Terrace in Nelson.
An interim
committee meeting was held
on March 12, 1998 and
petanque was incorporated
into the Maitai Bowling Club
and Pool Association. The
club also offers Housie and
Sioux Line Dancing. For the
next 12 months the club
sourced many organisations
for funding of the proposed
development.
Thanks to
Nelson City Council, Tasman
District Council, Hillary
Commission and Westpac
Community Trust plus a
generous donation from a
private individual all of
whom provided for the
development of 6 aggregate
based, crushed-shell pistes,
boules, umbrellas, rakes and
seating.
The
development stage matured on
April 11, 1999 when the
first AGM was held and
office holders were elected
to run Maitai Petanque.
The club has
held many successful events
and enjoys a very social
calendar. An association
with Alliance Francais,
visits to retirement
villages and a vineyard gala
keeps member enthusiasm up.
Trafalagar Lifestyle Expo
saw the club hold petanque
demonstrations recently and
the club hosted the Sports
Tasman Schools Petanque
Competition in March this
year.
The club has
a current membership of 36
and club play is Wednesday
and Saturday at 1.30pm and
has a non-smoking policy.
Kiwi Petanque
-
Canterbury/Marlborough
The emphasis
in Year 2000 has been on
training teachers with the
intent of enthusing them to
pass on their basic coaching
skills to classes of pupils.
During 2000,
some 60 teachers were
trained in ten different ‘in
service’ training courses at
various schools around the
Canterbury province. This
trend continues in 2001 with
8 courses scheduled to
August 2001. Sport
Canterbury advises that
petanque is the most
requested training course by
teachers.
The ‘in
service’ course notes
invites teachers to bring
their classes to the
Christchurch terrain to
experience petanque played
on a more appropriate
surface than grass and
several schools have taken
advantage of this offer.
Around 40-50 pupils of all
ages have taken part in
these visits. The move has
been away from taking
petanque to Kiwi Sport field
days as this has proved too
time consuming and recommend
the better use of resources
lies in targeting the
teachers.
Canterbury
intends organising their
first ‘inter school’
tournament this year in
conjunction with the South
Island Triples event. Sport
Canterbury continues to be
very supportive by providing
photocopying of all course
notes and has agreed to
assist in obtaining prizes
and sponsorship for the 2002
tournament.
Sport Tasman,
in conjunction with Maitai
Petanque in Nelson are under
way, having held a
successful ‘inter schools’
tournament in their area.
Diane Findlay
-
Otago
In primary
schools there are few staff
members with sufficient
knowledge of petanque to
coach their charges. However
Caversham Petanque has
responded to the challenge
in the Otago area.
Two members
have qualified to Level One
coaching and along with the
support of many enthusiastic
club members, have over the
past 18 months undertaken,
regular weekly coaching
sessions for children. The
children’s ages ranged from
5 years upwards.
Coaching has
also been undertaken at
intermediate schools in
readiness for their school
interchanges and the club
has provided pistes and
umpires for their games. As
well the team travelled to
outlying schools to show
pupils the game of petanque
as part of the DARE
programme.
One school
invited the coaches to their
grounds for a day so all
pupils could experience the
game and a week later sent
their senior pupils to
Caversham Sports Club where
they split into two groups
to take part in both lawn
bowls and petanque. This was
a new experience for the
bowlers who could see the
benefit of “catching them
early!”
Coaching
clinics for teachers in the
Dunedin area were also held.
Advice to schools interested
in putting down their own
pistes has been given and
several schools have
completed the task with more
under construction.
The highlight
of school petanque in 2000
was a one-day tournament
open to Primary,
Intermediate and Secondary
school pupils in Otago held
on November 1st, 2000. There
were 36 teams with one group
travelling 80k from
Balclutha.
Sponsorship
from the Otago Daily Times
provided good prizes and a
trophy for the winners. No
differentiation was made
between the various age
groups and the overall
winners were a team of
Standard 4 pupils from St
Bernadette’s school. This is
one of the schools that
sends its pupils for
coaching sessions during
school time throughout the
year. All in all - a very
satisfying result.
With Sport
Otago providing transport,
coaches have also travelled
to Oamaru and Balclutha to
conduct courses for teachers
that have been well
attended.
In early May
a tutorial for the College
of Education was held over 3
days (10 hours total) for
budding teachers, a great
opportunity to get the word
out.
Terry Holt
Harrassment Policy
As requested by
the Hillary Commission, the NZPA
is required to provide a
harassment policy for petanque.
In line with this, any player
who feels they have been
harassed in any form should
contact the tournament organiser
or any Executive member.
New Zealand Petanque Association
News
Your Committee
had another productive 2 day
meeting in Wellington on 17 & 18
March. Issues discussed
included:
-
Arrangements
for the National Triples
tournament at Easter, and
preparations for the AGM.
-
Publications
Manager and Club Database
Coordinator. These were
established as co-opted
positions on the Committee.
Diane Findlay will fill the
latter role. She was not
standing again for Committee
but is happy to continue her
great work in making sure we
know what and who’s what
with Clubs around the
country. Brenda Dykes will
carry on her sterling work
as Publications Manager.
All NZPA
publications are to be
channelled through the
Publications Manager, and
she will also be the
coordinator for the NZPA
website.
-
Based on
correspondence from the
Hillary Commission, which is
promoting harassment free
sport, the NZPA will draft a
policy for petanque. The
NZPA will not tolerate
harassment of any sort
(physical. verbal, or
sexual), and will take
action if it occurs.
-
Protocols
will be drafted for players
going overseas as
representatives. These will
outline what is involved,
the responsibilities of NZPA
and players.
-
Changes to
conditions of entry for
overseas teams to the New
Zealand Open - in
particular, teams will need
to be notified to NZPA two
weeks beforehand, and entry
fees must be paid before the
tournament. No entries on
the day.
-
A series of
booklets will be produced
for distribution to Clubs
and members. The first one
will be ‘How to Play’. A
publicity brochure is also
being prepared for general
use in getting people
interested in petanque.
-
It was agreed
to recommend to the
AGM
that subscriptions for the
year ended December 2002 be
set at $5 per Club member
for general membership, to
be paid through Clubs, and
$10 for competitive
registration (for those
wishing to compete in NZPA
tournaments) to be paid on
an individual basis as at
present. (See Article
elsewhere in this
publication for more
detail).
-
Welcome to
the newly-formed Ngaruawahia
Club.
-
Acknowledge
the contribution of Regis
Gomez, our website manager
for the past few years.
Regis has put a great deal
of time and effort into
managing our site over the
last few years. It cannot
always have been an easy
task to assemble and
coordinate all the
information that has been
‘thrown’ at him, and we feel
that Regis can take much of
the credit for petanque
players having access to the
range of information now
available on the web.
-
Completion of
Hillary Commission funding
application - to get money,
we have to let them know
what we’ve achieved over the
past year, and what our
goals are for the coming
year. This covers coaching
and umpiring development,
membership and
participation, junior sport
development.
-
Updates from
organisers on arrangements
for 2001 National Singles
and Doubles tournaments at
Labour Weekend Singles
format will be 16 pools of
4, starting at 12 noon on
the Friday. Entry is to be
restricted to 64 players
(because of time and numbers
of pistes available).
Some players
will have automatic right of
entry (the top 32 from last
year’s singles, plus those
not able to enter because
they were representing NZ
overseas, ie World Champs
and Oceania teams). These
players will be notified in
writing. The deadline for
taking this up will be the
end of August After that it
will be first come first
served as usual. Entry forms
will be out with September
magazine, and on the
website.
-
A letter had
been received expressing
concern at the poor
organisation and running of
the petanque section of the
NZ Masters Games at Wanganui.
Although the NZPA has no
direct involvement, it was
agreed that we should write
to the organisers and try to
get things done better in
future.
-
With the
increase in entries in
national competitions, it
was agreed that the top 32
players in national
tournaments will be
allocated seeding points,
starting with the 2001
Easter Triples.
-
Umpires - it
was agreed that the NZPA
will use non playing,
qualified umpires at its
tournaments wherever
possible, and will pay costs
of travel if necessary. The
certification process for
gaining umpiring
qualifications is almost
complete. Anyone who is
interested in becoming a
qualified umpire, the NZPA
would love to hear from you.
-
It was agreed
that clubs/organisations
wishing to have their
tournaments NZPA-approved
should send in details -
proposed format, accordance
with NZPA conditions and
protocols, and the Secretary
will send a letter of
confirmation.
-
Following
issues raised by a member,
it was agreed that we do not
need specific age and
nationality questions on the
membership form. The
‘breakpoint’ for senior/
junior members will be 18
years of age. A Privacy Act
statement is also to be
added to the form.
-
The next
meeting will be on 7 July
2001. If you have anything
you’d like raised at this
meeting (or at any time of
course), please contact the
Secretary.
Barbara
Whittington
Umpiring Qualifications Proposal
The NZPA has
recognised for some time the
need for qualified umpires and
Terry Holt, has been busy
planning a national umpiring
structure. The British Petanque
Association has agreed to assist
until NZ has suitably qualified
people to take over the role.
This could take some time to
fully implement but a start
needs to be made if we are to
keep up with the rest of the
petanque world.
The first exam
arrived in April from Britain
and will be sat by a group of
South Island players at Queens
Birthday in Dunedin.
Players who think
this is an area of the game they
are interested in should
register their interest with
Terry or an NZPA committee
member.
Remember
qualified umpires are not
permitted to play in tournaments
they have been contracted to
umpire. And once a player puts
their hand up to become a
qualified umpire they will be
expected to be adjudicator at a
reasonable number of tournaments
each year. |
