President’s Report
Well another year
is almost over and it has been a
good one for New Zealand
petanque with very good
performances at the Oceania and
World Championships.
The Oceania
championships have been well
covered in the previous issue so
I would like to mention the
World Championships in this
article (although there are
other articles appearing in this
issue from some of the
supporters).
Our team of
Georgio, Seti and Andrew
performed very well at Grenoble,
achieving the highest ranking a
New Zealand team has had at the
championships (17th out of 47
teams). They made some of the
more ‘rated’ teams take notice
of New Zealand petanque.
An example of
this was our 11 - 13 loss to the
eventual runners up Morocco. The
fact that all members of our
team had been to world
championships before certainly
helped in the performance and
the results.
During the
championships I had a very good
meeting with the Australian
President, Andre Deramond and
Chinka Steel from their
executive. We agreed on a format
for a Trans Tasman test series
to be played in Australia
(probably Victoria) next year.
As well as the
test series in Australia we have
been invited to send coaches to
Australia in February to attend
a ‘coaches’ training seminar
which will be run by an English
speaking French coaching
director. This Trans Tasman
cooperation is good for both
countries and I am sure there
will be more of it in the
future.
The coaching
seminar is particularly timely
because we are about to set up
our national coaching structure
which will consist of a national
coach (advisor) and 5 regional
coaching advisors. These people
will then be responsible for the
formation of the coaching
strategy for the country and for
ensuring it is carried out in a
consistent manner. We are also
going to put in the same
structure for junior
development. I believe that
these initiatives are the key to
our sport moving forward in the
next few years.
I would like to
wish everyone a merry Christmas
and a very happy New Year and I
look forward to meeting up with
many of you on the piste in
2003.
Graeme Morris –
President
Peugeot 2002 Doubles
Championship – November 25 & 26
Held at Labour
Weekend in
Christchurch,
the Peugeot Doubles
Championships attracted 40 teams
with the eventual winners on
Sunday afternoon of Christian
Fouquet and Niau Ruta who
defeated Charles Peni and Allan
Fletcher after a hard fought and
intense final.
The weekend
started with a fun melee on
Friday 25th from 5 – 8.00pm with
players registering by 4.30pm.
An experienced player was drawn
to play with a less experienced
player and the concept was mix’n
mingle. Players played 3 games
with 3 different partners being
awarded 3 tickets for a win, two
for a draw and one for a loss.
A raffle type
draw ensued with winners taking
their choice from a prize table
of wine, vouchers, cheese packs
and caps. Feedback on this
concept was that players
preferred this to a ‘winner take
all’ melee as the emphasis was
on fun and meeting other players
rather than winning.
The objective of
practise on the terrain for
visiting players was achieved
plus a relaxed social event.
Some local first time players
were greatly encouraged by the
friendliness and willingness of
seeded players to share their
tactics and skills.
The competition
proper commenced at 8.30am on
Saturday and continued until
5.30pm when players adjourned
upstairs for a 3 course dinner
followed by a mini cabaret
performed by the Riccarton
Players who sang a selection of
songs from their forthcoming
production of ‘Chess’.
This was preceded
by an item ‘Short People’ which
could only be described as
undescribable! The finale was
‘Clappy’ an intricately
choreographed number performed
under black light where only
white hands, faces and feet
showed up. Two of our visitors,
Anne Sinclair from Dunedin and
Dirk Winnie from Wellington,
were volunteered for ‘Clappy
Version 2’ and performed with
distinction and some talent.
Sunday dawned
bright and clear (again!) but
clouds threatened. The semi
finals were nearly finished when
a warning phone call was
received advising of a severe
hail, thunder and lightning
storm on its way. The players
were warned and ten minutes
later - down it came. The
heavens literally opened and
large hailstones covered the
terrain like snow and pooled on
the shade sails which were
threatening to collapse.
The players had
to be kept off the terrain as
there were real concerns over
lightning and the possibility of
metal boules or the shade sail
struts attracting a strike.
After the storm had passed and
the sails were cleared, stop
cocks opened to drain the
terrain of water and the sun
came out (again), the semi
finals were resumed.
The final was an
intense and absorbing battle
culminating in the presentation
of prizes by Graeme Morris,
President of PNZ assisted by the
President of Christchurch
Petanque,Ivan Hansen.
Diane Findlay -
Tournament Co-ordinator
2002 Peugeot National Championships Results
Umpires Report
Having been
involved in the setting up of an
‘Official’s Structure’ for the
National body I was pleased to
be asked to officiate at the
recent Peugeot 2002 Doubles
Championship held in
Christchurch.
The allocation of
a designated official for events
has been discussed by the
Executive for some time and
anything which allowed players
to focus on their games without
being dragged away to give
decisions had to be a plus.
Not only the
unwilling official is affected
but also his playing opponents.
Being from the Deep South meant
that, although inexperienced, I
would be completely neutral. I
feel the role was very
successful for the competitors
for the following reasons:
-
There was no
need for a disputes
committee to be set up, and
only once was one suggested.
-
Play
proceeded at a good pace,
perhaps by wearing the
stopwatch openly on the
first day this discouraged
slow play? I did do random
timing, and up to the
quarterfinal only one team
transgressed and by only 4
seconds!
-
Various
players came to me for rule
interpretations which
assists in having games flow
and increases players
knowledge to pass on to
others.
-
There were
many positive comments
regarding having a non
playing umpire.
-
The umpire
was available to assist with
draws.
-
Etiquette
rules such as smoking on the
piste could be enforced.
Rulings over the
two days included:
-
Playing wrong
boule on two occasions
(Article 23)
-
No smoking
rule on a few occasions (PNZ
and Local).
-
Boule
validity (in or out of play)
(Article 19).
-
Penalty for
absent players. (Article 32)
-
Observing
silence when players playing
(Article 17)
-
Picked up
boule prior to agreement
(Article 27)
I was also asked
to observe a game in progress
for any improprieties
Comments
I believe the use
of a non-playing umpire is
necessary for the smooth and
unquestionable running of an
event as prestigious as our
National Championships.
The umpire should
be inconspicuous and there to
assist the players and
organising committee. To allow
him/her to do this we must
decide on what rules, if any,
are flexible as many new players
cannot understand why some rules
are flagrantly broken.
A non-playing
umpire should be present at all
situations in the draw process,
especially if the Tournament
Organiser/Convenor is also a
player. This will protect that
person from criticism.
I would suggest a
string ‘dead boule’ line would
be an advantage inside the
wooden ditch board (by 300mm) to
save disputes on whether the
boule has touched the board or
not.
I was happy with
my inaugural performance but
felt that inexperience allowed
me to have my (correct) ruling
debated by a spectator. Umpires
rulings are final and binding,
right or wrong and like all
officials they take the blame,
support is what they require,
not argument regardless of how
well meaning it maybe.
Terry Holt
National - Umpiring Coordinator
World Championships 2002 -
Grenoble, France
Well going into my third
Petanque World Championships I
thought that maybe the novelty
would have worn off and I would
be a little less enthused.
Nothing could be further from
the truth!
This year was different from the
past in a number of ways but the
most significant was that I was
the Chef de Delegation of the
Irish team. Yes, I was the big
‘Irish Cheese.’ However, all
that meant was a lot of running
around and boring meetings to
attend. The main significance of
this was that I was doubly busy
supporting both the Irish and
Kiwi teams.
At
the opening ceremony I led the
Irish team out carrying the
Irish flag which was a novel
experience and one I enjoyed
considerably. The only wierd
moment came when they were doing
the draw and asked for the
delegate from Nouvelle Zelande
to come forward and I took a
half step before realising that
I was now with the Irish team.
For
the first time the speeches were
translated into English but if
they were boring before when I
didn’t understand them they were
even more boring when I did
understand them! While it was a
fantastic experience to be out
in the middle, by the end of it
my back and feet were killing me
and we were all glad that it was
over.
The
delegates meeting on Thursday
morning was a bit of a farce
with so little time to discuss
critical issues such as the
future of petanque worldwide.
The international committee
asked why so few countries were
prepared to host the world
champs and then when Singapore
showed willingness they were
ignored.
The
feeling we got was that the main
European countries don’t want
the cost and hassle of
travelling so far. There was a
strong undercurrent from the
non-French speaking countries
and the African nations that the
international committee while
professing to want a truly
international sport was being
very self-serving.
A
suggestion that a levy of one
euro per registered member would
support the world champs and
further development of the game
worldwide was immediately
dismissed. This was hardly
surprising given the fact that
the French Federation has over
400,000 members and while they
are very rich they are unwilling
to subsidise everyone else which
is how they see it. Things need
to change but it will definitely
take time.
Play began at 2.30pm on Thursday
and New Zealand had a tough draw
that was made considerably
easier by the late arrival of
the team from Ivory Coast
meaning we had an automatic
victory We lost our second game
to Cameroon who despite the fact
that they are fairly new to the
World Champs were a very strong
team that went on to do very
well.
We
then went on to beat the
Norwegians reasonably easily.
This meant that with two
victories in the first round we
were through to the second round
without the need to go through
the repechage, a fate not
avoided by the Irish team.
The
next day I was up early again to
support Ireland through the
repercharge rather than having a
relaxed morning due to New
Zealand not having to play This
supporting two teams wasn’t
easy. Ireland failed in the
repechage and was consigned to
the Coupe de Nations (Nations
Cup).
New
Zealand started play in the
afternoon and had another tough
draw meeting Morocco first, a
team that had won the world
champs before. We certainly made
them sit up and take notice as
we put them under considerable
pressure and took them to 13 –
11 a result which we can be very
proud of.
The
Moroccans then went on to play
the Belgians who had won two
years earlier in Portugal and
were expected to win. In one of
many upsets at this tournament
the Belgians were beaten and so
we had to play them for a spot
in the final sixteen. They came
out strongly, smarting from the
loss to Morocco and to a certain
extent New Zealand went in
somewhat overawed to be playing
them. They whitewashed us and we
were fannied to be dumped out
into the Nations Cup.
The
following day we discovered our
draw for the first round of e
Nations Cup and were not unhappy
to discover we had Australia and
Great Britain, as well as the
Italians who were not playing as
well as they had in previous
years.
Our
first match was against Great
Britain and didn’t go well at
all. We were beaten rather
easily and therefore had to face
the Aussies knowing that a loss
would see us out of the Nations
Cup.
Graeme did a great job of
boosting the guys after the loss
to Great Britain and they went
into the Bledisloe Cup of
petanque thirsting for victory.
They were magnificent and the
Aussies had no answer to their
accuracy and superior tactics.
We thrashed them 13 - 2 and
honour was preserved.
That meant we had another chance
at the Poms, who had lost to the
Italians, to decide who would go
through to the quarter final. We
were a different team in the
second match and were very much
in charge throughout. At 10 - 7
ahead Seti did a perfect carreau
for what Graeme and I thought
was the match and we leapt up
cheering and went to shake the
Poms hands only to be told that
it was only 2 points on that end
and the score was 12 - 7. So we
rather sheepishly sat back down
and waited for the opportunity
to leap again.
The
Poms took the next two ends and
the score sat at 12 - 9. The
next end was going in their
favour and we had a couple of
bad boules causing the cochonnet
to be moved quite some distance
away from all except one of our
boules. Naturally with 5 boules
in hand they went to try to
knock our boule away to maximize
the end for them.
As
their shooter had only hit about
twice in the whole game we
weren’t too concerned. On his
first throw he missed our boule,
hit the cochonnet knocking it
out and giving them four points
for the four boule they had in
hand.
It
was a pure fluke and a cruel
twist of fate to knock us out at
that point. Unlike the Austrians
who had knocked the Irish out
with a similarly lucky shot and
were embarrassed to have done
so, the Poms tried to claim that
the shot was always a
possibility.
It
was a poor shot that missed its
intended target by a wide margin
and an undeserved victory but
nonetheless a fantastic all
round performance by the New
Zealand team. We have definitely
arrived on the world scene and
no one will take us lightly in
the future.
The
Moroccans went on to lose to the
French in the final. The gala on
Sunday night was held in the
stadium and was, as always, a
fun event where we get to mingle
with all the teams. After the
prize giving and a fantastic
show by a troupe of dancers
doing a range of dances
including the ‘Can Can’, the New
Zealand team and yours truly
invited the victorious French
team onto the stage to do a haka
for them.
They were immensely impressed
especially Eric Sirot, their
fourth player who found himself
face to face with Andrew who led
the haka ferociously. The
applause was tumultuous and once
again New Zealand had left a
highly favourable impression
both on and off the piste.
I
can’t wait for Geneva next year
and have no doubt that it will
be another fantastic experience.
The support crews from New
Zealand were most appreciated by
the team and it would be great
to see an even larger contingent
next year.
Phil Doyle
World Champs 2002 – Grenoble,
France – A Supporters View
On Wed 25th Sept,
Barbara Nicholls, Jean and Ian
Baine - Park Ave Club joined
myself and Rex and Shirley Hayes
from the Kapiti Club and along
with Graeme Morris Manager/Group
Leader left NZ for the World
Champs in Grenoble.
First stop
Singapore
Our tour of the
old and the new Chinatown was
for the Kapiti three first-time
travellers an ‘eye out on
stalks’ experience - we saw a
completely different culture and
life style. All that washing
hung on sticks out the windows
of apartment blocks and the
aroma of the stalls, whether it
was incense or spices. We also
learned how important places of
worship are to people the world
over.
Graeme Morris the
petanque player is also very
good at walking, a skill he was
to illustrate to us many times
on our tour!
Among the
attractions we saw the famous
Raffles Hotel and had a very
relaxing ride on a bumboat on
the Singapore River.
Onto Paris
The NZ team of
Georgio, Seti and Andrew met us
at the hotel ‘Forest Hill
Villette’ in Paris - they had
travelled a different route from
the supporters.
While the NZ team
got themselves organised, Graeme
Burnard, the Travel Agent had
organised for the supporters to
go to Versailles and
Fountainbleau, the Kings Country
Retreat, and also a visit to
Barbazon, a little French
village - absolutely delightful.
One of the many
memorable days for me was in
Paris when Graeme walked us
along the banks of the River
Seine to meet with Georgio, Seti
and Andrew and play petanque
under the Eiffel Tower.
It was relaxed
practise for them but special
for me - playing against the NZ
team. Afterwards Georgio, who is
a good as Graeme at finding his
way around a big city, took the
others back to the hotel while
Graeme took Shirley, Rex and
myself to Notre Dame which was a
moving experience to see that
beautiful cathedral, very
spiritual and a chance to pray.
World Champs,
Grenoble
On Monday 30th
when we went to organise our
tickets for the championships we
were able to play some games on
the rough roadway beside the
magnificent stadium sited in a
beautiful tree filled park.
Watching NZ among
the teams from all over the
world made us so proud. The team
played so well together, each
anticipating the others moves
and adapting the game to suit.
As a triples team they operate
very well.
We shouted our
support for them, waved the NZ
flags Ian had brought and used
my washing line to hang the NZ
flag on pole at the area where
we were sitting.
It’s hard work
this supporting, one feels that
positive energy is projected
forward to the team. They
acknowledged our presence with a
wave or a raised glance in NZ
supporters’ direction.
That was
brilliant, when one considered
that 43 other countries were
doing the same. Not quite that
many supporters, but certainly
Holland was very strong and we
gave them a run for their money.
We cheered for
the Irish team as well because
of Phil Doyle their Manager and
Peter Dennett their Coach - both
loyal Kiwi Supporters.
When our team
performed the haka in the drinks
tent the day before the final it
was enthusiastically received by
everyone and so emotional that I
could feel shivers down my
spine. I never knew that Seti
had all those tatoos on his
body!! Impressive!
We farewelled the
NZ team before we left Grenoble
as they were flying home while
we headed to Nice for 4 days.
The NZ team
really appreciated having
supporters along and we were
really proud - they were a
credit to NZ petanque.
After the Champs
- the tour continues
One of the most
interesting visits by the
supporters was a visit to a
petanque museum at Vallauris on
the French Riviera. Ian Baine
had organised this because of
his connections importing Obut
boules. It was a most
enlightening visit showing how a
boule is made in 2 sections and
also showed different types of
boule from bygone days.
Normally you are
charged to go through the
Museum, but the eight of us, did
not have to pay. So not sure if
it was Ian’s influence or the
fact that we were Kiwis!!
I saw a different
type of measuring gadget
demonstrated - a magnifying
glass like device held up at
players waist height down over
the cochonnett with circles
radiating out to define which
boule was closest to the
cochonnet. Could prove to be
controversial though and we
learned the manufacturers were
not making any more - Peter
Dennett bought the last one.
We flew out of
Nice bound for England and home
on October 11.
Additional
Highlights
Before we left
Rex had arranged for the
Supporters to visit the local
Seyssins Petanque Club in
Grenoble.
What surprised me
was the casual attitude as men
and women just strolled up,
biked and fell into groups and
played where they stopped to
chat - very informal. And the
ground we played on was no
manicured piste, but the actual
roadway. They split the six of
us up and we played with the
club members, which was very
exciting when you do not speak
French and you want to point and
the team person wants you to
shoot.
The NZ team
joined us here and we stayed for
the opening of a new indoor
piste. Some of the other teams
came as well, Thailand and
Senegal.
We also had the
opportunity to play at Saint
Paul de Vence on the French
Riviera outside the famous cafe
there.
The local
petanque club came at 1.00pm to
open up and some of the men
played with Graeme, Rex, Ian,
Jean and Barbara and children
played also as their school had
finished at 12 noon.
Jan McHardy –
Kapiti Petanque
Avoca Petanque Trip – November
2002
In 2001, seven
New Zealanders travelled to the
Pyrenees Petanque Tournament in
Avoca, 120km west of Melbourne.
After reading Trevor Neilson’s
enthusiastic report in Petanque
New
Zealand’s
magazine, and encouragement from
those who went last year, a
total of 19 from New Zealand
went to this years tournament.
Most of those going took the
chance to spend up to a week’s
holiday as well as playing the
petanque tournament.
Ella Harris of
Northcote Petanque Club reports
on her experience of this
trip.......
Saturday 16th
November saw the first of the
travellers (Ann Clayworth)
depart from Auckland at 6.00am
closely followed by another
(Ella Harris) at 6.45am on the
first step of another petanque
adventure. Catherine Maher,
Margaret’s sister who flew in
from Wellington, met us at
Melbourne Airport. We arrived to
a very dry Melbourne and caught
a taxi to our motel at St Kilda.
Our hostess at the motel was
definitely an Australian,
speaking excellent ‘Strine’.
After first
sussing out the tram system we
bought a one week tram pass and
headed off to Middle Park to try
out the Melbourne petanque
terrains in anticipation of the
pending tournament the next day.
And hard and dry were they! We
practised for an hour or so in
the sizzling hot sun then
decided to go food shopping - so
back on the tram thru St Kilda
and on to the Acland Street
shops.
Both St Kilda and
Acland Streets are full of cafes
that occupy the pavements and
they were just humming over the
weekend.
On our return to
the motel the rest of the
travellers (Mary Burgess, Yvonne
Boow, Claire Matthews and
Margaret Maher - all from
Northcote Club) arrived along
with Terry Lambert (Herne
Bay) and partner Susan.
Then a change of
plan - the tournament organised
for the next day for Middle Park
has been changed to the St Kilda
Club - so our practice at Middle
Park was to no avail.
Sunday dawned hot
and fine so we all headed off to
the St Kilda terrains to find
Grant, Janet, Sarah and Claire
Hackett and Bill Lockwood (all
from Mt Albert) had arrived from
Kyneton. The terrains were a
very fine red scotia (coating us
in a very fine silt) and rather
hard to read. Unfortunately no
Kiwi teams made it into the
final but we had lots of fun.
The St Kilda
Bowling Club is the oldest club
in Melbourne and is trying to
rejuvenate itself and has
enticed young people to come and
play in a great social
atmosphere - it was great to see
a hundred of them having the
time of their life at the Club.
We ended a great day with a
mixing and mingling in the
Clubhouse.
Then followed 4
days of shopping, a boat trip on
the Yarra, a visit to the
casino, shopping, a bus trip out
to the Great Ocean Road
(kangaroo, motel and koala
spotting), a visit to the jail,
and of course more shopping!!
Late Thursday
afternoon we headed out to the
Airport to meet up with Michael
Emerson, Ian Baker, Douglas
‘Tiger’ Hay (Palmerston North)
and Bernadette
Lawton
(Kapiti), pick up three rental
cars and head off to Avoca.
After one car decided to take an
entirely different route we all
safely arrived in Avoca.
After a meal at
the Victoria Hotel we departed
to our accommodations,
Bernadette, Douglas and Ian
upstairs at the hotel, Terry,
Susan, Michael, Margaret and
Catherine to their B & B and
Mary, Yvonne, Ella, Claire and
Ann to their motel, only to find
it completely closed up!!
A quick phone
call from the hotel quickly had
our host opening up. By this
time we had found we intensely
disliked the Melbourne water and
Avoca wasn’t much better. It
affected us all and by Friday
Yvonne needed to go to the
Doctor with what turned out to
be gastro ententis.
So armed with
tablets Yvonne spent a quiet day
in bed to hopefully come right
before the tournament.
The rest of the
combined NZ contingent headed
out to the Blue Pyrenees
Vineyard for lunch. And very
enjoyable it was with one of our
party trying Kangaroo!
Avoca is
surrounded by vineyards and a
lot of these are run by French
expatriates, hence all the
petanque played. The name
Pyrenees comes from a
mountainous area between Spain
and
France but there
was nothing mountainous about
the area we were in.
We left Melbourne
and did a very gentle climb to
Ballarat which is meant to be
‘up in the hills’. The land
around both Ballarat and Avoca
is very flat, a plateau with the
occasional hill, nothing like
our hilly countryside. It was
also very, very dry like
Melbourne and they are expecting
huge fires this summer.
After lunch back
into Avoca and a quick survey of
the terrains, slightly sloping
from top to bottom, a mixture of
white granite and road chips and
only about 11 to 12 metres long.
Friday night was
registration at the Golf club -
next door to the motel and back
to the Victoria Hotel for tea
and an early night before the
big tournament.
Saturday dawned a
lovely day and Yvonne was
pronounced fit and well and
rearing to go much to our
relief.
All the NZ party
assembled under a big picnic
shelter that we nabbed at 7.00am
to ensure we had plenty of shade
during the long hot days. The
proceedings were opened by the
Town Cryer and play commenced.
Saturdays play
consisted of 5 games to 13 to
whittle the original 88 teams to
32 for play on Sunday, 16 teams
in the principle and 16 in the
consulate. It was a long and hot
day with the temperature
reaching 35 degrees and we were
more than happy to return to our
motel/hotel/B & B to relax. More
petanque was played later that
evening back at the motel under
lights (pointing in the other
direction!) - it is very hard to
distinguish a cochonnet from
dried leaves - some players were
seen on hands and knees trying
to locate it!
Sunday dawned a
lot cooler and fortunately for
us stayed overcast and never
reached the 40 degrees forecast!
The first 3 or 4
games on Sunday were to sort out
the 16 teams to play in the
principle and the 16 teams in
the consulate. The New Zealand
contingent ended up with 4 teams
in the principle and 1 team in
the consulate.
Claire, Ella and
Anne played in the principle and
were knocked out in the
quarterfinals by the 3rd
placegetters.
Margaret, Yvonne
and Mary played in the
consulate. The camaraderie and
support both our teams received
was fantastic. It is hoped many
of the Australians will attend
the New Zealand Open in January.
The rapport between the players
and the bystanders was great,
especially with the French
nationals acting to their
audience.
The final was
between 3 local chaps and a team
of two of the winners from last
year, Gerard Burton, his son
Quinsly and our own Michael
Emerson (Herne Bay). It would
have been great for the local
chaps to win but we had to be
patriotic and support Michael -
and Michael, Gerard and Quinsly
came through to win -
congratulations Michael.
We were a very
tired group that evening but
still had energy to party that
night We all returned to the
motel and the party continued
along with the spa bath being
put into action.
Monday meant the
end of our trip was nigh and it
was time to pack up and head
back to Melbourne to catch our
flights home.
What an enjoyable
time we had, people were so
friendly everywhere. Those who
we had met in Melbourne greeted
us like old friends in Avoca.
What a great game petanque is -
may we all have many more
petanqueing days ahead of us.
And guess what, we may even do
it all again next year!
Ella Harris –
Northcote Petanque
I
can do this
This was the
refrain echoing around the
Christchurch Petanque terrain as
22 triples teams from the
Special Needs groups of various
secondary colleges in Canterbury
met five weeks ago for their
first petanque lesson.
Diane Findlay,
South Island Kiwi Sport
Coordinator was approached some
three months ago by Jenny Gosney,
Sport Opportunity Officer for
Sport Canterbury and asked
whether she felt petanque would
be a suitable sport for this
special group of students.
Jenny was looking
for a sport with simple flexible
rules that would cater for all
levels and types of disability.
The group had been introduced to
soccer during the winter season
and after an initial period of
adjustment had been able to
enjoy a weekly interschool
league. The eventual aim is to
assimilate some of the teams
with mainstream students also
playing petanque.
Diane & Jenny sat
down together to talk about the
details. Diane was stunned to
learn of the numbers likely to
be involved and quickly decided
that triples would be the better
format as the number of teams
might have to be limited to the
available boule and a triples
team could play against a
doubles team if one team member
was not able to play on a
particular day.
The league was to
run for six weeks and the exact
format would be decided once
entry numbers were known.
Entries were called for via
Secondary School Sports Director
(Kerry Henderson) and 22 teams
entered. Each team was required
to provide either an
accompanying care giver or
teacher. Most of the care givers
and teachers were pre trained
prior to the commencement of the
league.
It was decided
that four pools of four and one
pool of six teams would be the
best format. No one had any idea
of the ability level of any of
the teams but it was obvious
that some of the teams needed
more space than others for
wheelchair movement and one team
did not have the hand or arm
strength to cope with the usual
metal boule so played with
plastic boule. Both these groups
played in the six team section.
The first day
could only be described as
organised chaos. The four team
pools had been colour coded,
red, blue, green & gold. Each of
the pool controllers wore a name
tag and a shirt of the
appropriate colour, the score
boards were tagged with a ribbon
for the pool colour also. Within
15 minutes the teams had been
sorted out to their respective
sections and tuition started.
The pool
controllers were responsible for
initial tuition, coaching and
gentle correction of technique,
scoring and most importantly
heaps of encouragement. The
teams each played one game at
their own pace. It was not
possible for all teams to
complete a game in the hour of
allotted time so each point was
important.
The second day
was not nearly as chaotic. The
teams knew they were in say the
blue section which always played
on pistes 1 & 2 and were able to
go straight there and managed to
play a longer game. Lots of
laughter was heard as the teams
settled down and began to
interact with their pool
controllers and enjoy competing
with the other team.
After the third
day’s matches, the teams were
redrawn into different colour
pools with their peer teams. eg.
all the first placed teams from
the first round in one pool etc.
The next pool round has been a
more even competition and the
pool controllers have remarked
on the improvement that various
players have made as the league
progresses.
The league
results are collated weekly and
forwarded to Sport Canterbury
for inclusion on their web site.
The schools can then chart the
progress of their various teams’
results in the league.
A league such as
this took a tremendous amount of
commitment both by the
organizers, the schools,
teachers and care givers. The
students themselves had to take
responsibility for being ready
to leave at a particular time
and to have their hats and water
bottles with them. The pool
controllers and helpers made the
difference to the success of the
league. Their willing efforts
were very much appreciated and
without this valued input it
would not have been possible to
teach the students and run the
league.
The final matches
are to be held on November 13th
and all team members are to
receive recognition of their
achievements in learning the
game of petanque and
participating in the interschool
league. Several special awards
are being made for the most
improved and the hardest trier
in each pool and one for the
most promising player.
This latter award
is to be presented to Andrew
Hocken of Mairehau College who
also visited the terrain during
the recent Peugeot National
Doubles Championship at Labour
weekend to watch the finals.
Georgio Vakauta was able to
spare time before his next pool
draw to give Andrew some tips on
basics of shooting and backspin.
(Thank you Georgio)
Andrew is but one
of many young people who have
benefitted from learning a new
sport and interest - the game
that is our game - petanque.
Diane Findlay –
Christchurch Petanque
PNZ Committee Meeting Decisions
– 16 & 17 November 2002
-
Halberg award
Nomination
The Committee
unanimously decided that
Barbara Johnston would be a
worthy nominee for a Halberg
Sports Award, for her win in
the Oceania Singles.
-
Membership
Subscriptions and Other Fees
-
The
Committee will recommend
to the 2003 AGM that
membership subscriptions
remain at $5.00 per Club
member.
-
Under the
new Constitution (see
below), individual
membership will no
longer be available.
-
Instead
of having ‘registered
players’, all members of
affiliated Clubs are now
eligible to enter PNZ
tournaments, and the
magazine will be
available separately on
subscription at $10 per
year. The entry fee for
PNZ tournaments will be
$25 per person
-
Players’
Briefing
In order to
ensure that all players are
aware of the rules and
conditions under which a
tournament will be run, a
briefing covering these
issues will be held before
the commencement of each
national tournament. The
time for the players’
briefing will be added to
tournament entry form.
-
Footwear Rule
Following
representations from members
and a closer examination of
the requirements of the
international rules in
respect of dress, the rule
on footwear has been
amended. Petanque NZ now
advises players not to wear
open toed shoes, sandals or
jandals; those wearing such
footwear do so at their own
risk.
-
New
Constitution
-
The draft
constitution circulated
earlier this year has
been revised and amended
in light of comments
received. The proposed
new constitution will be
put for adoption at the
next AGM. Copies will be
circulated with this
December magazine, and
are also available from
the Secretary on request
(electronic or hard
copy).
-
The new
Constitution sets up an
entirely new governance
structure for Petanque
NZ, and has a different
method of electing
representatives from the
regions that will take
some time to organise.
The Committee proposes,
in order to ensure a
smooth transition to the
new regime, that as an
interim measure the
existing Committee
remains in place until a
new National Council and
Executive are elected at
the 2004 AGM.
-
Visit of
French National Coaching
Director to Australia.
-
The
Coaching Director of the
French Petanque
Federation will be
visiting Melbourne in
February next year. PNZ
has been invited to send
representatives to the 5
day course that he is
holding on coaching
structures, programmes
and strategies. We will
send at least one and
hopefully 3 people,
depending on funding.
-
This is a
great opportunity to
kick-start the
implementation of a
national coaching
structure and strategy
that will see a
consistent coaching
programme operating
across all clubs and
regions.
-
SPARC funding
SPARC (the
new name for the Hillary
Commission) has recently
released its sports funding
strategy. Petanque NZ has
grave concerns over this. On
our present classification,
we will not get any more
funding after 2003. We will
be working to get our
classification changed.
-
Oceania in
New Zealand
The Committee
agreed to propose that the
Oceania
tournament be held in
February 2005. This is a
more suitable time of year
for several of the competing
countries, and will also
enable us to ‘coat tail’ on
the Rotorua Arts Festival
for publicity and funding.
-
Us versus the
Aussies
-
The
Australian Petanque
Association is keen to
get a Trans Tasman
‘test’ series underway,
and have agreed to our
suggested format. This
is to be an ongoing
annual clash, held
alternatively in the two
countries.
-
The
inaugural 2 day
tournament will be held
next year, in Australia.
Venue and timing are yet
to be confirmed, but
will probably be in
Melbourne in May/June.
Murray Porter has taken
on the task of
organising the New
Zealand presence,
including arranging
qualifying tournaments
to select the New
Zealand team.
-
Playing Rules
-
Minor
amendments have been
made to some FIPJP rules
recently. For example,
synthetic cochonnets
that meet set
specifications are now
allowed.
-
We have
also had clarification
of various rules, where
the interpretation was
not clear.
-
The
Committee also decided
that as from 1 January
2004, only boules
meeting the
specifications set out
in the International
Rules will be allowed to
be used in PNZ
competitions (ie leisure
boules will no longer be
permitted).
-
A revised
set of Rules will be
published shortly.
-
World Champs
2003 funding arrangements
-
The team
(winners of triples)
will be responsible for
organising the necessary
funding for cost of
their travel and
accommodation. They will
have to present PNZ with
a plan for fund raising
to meet specified time
lines (set by need to
organise uniforms, pay
for travel, and take
account of need for
supporters to also make
travel arrangements).
-
A full
set of the funding
conditions will be sent
to all entrants in the
2003 Triples.
Barbara
Whittington – Secretary
World Championships 2003 -
Funding Arrangements
Following the
perennial problems with fund
raising for the New Zealand
representative teams to go to
the World Championships, and in
particular the huge demands on
time and resources placed on
Committee members, especially
the President, the Committee has
decide to delegate the
responsibility for raising the
required funds to the team
itself.
Petanque NZ will
still arrange and pay for team
uniforms, make travel
arrangements, and manage the
team to, at and from the
Championships. It will also
support funding applications,
for example to Community Trusts
or other sports funding bodies,
by supplying the necessary
documentation, information,
signatures.
However, the
responsibility for arranging the
necessary funds for travel and
accommodation, over and above
that provided by the organisers
of the World Championships, will
be the team’s. The amount
required for 2003 is expected to
be approximately $15,000.
The team will be
required to supply Petanque NZ
with a plan for how the
necessary funds will be raised,
within the required time frame,
covering:
-
Name of the
funding
coordinator/organiser (who
will liaise with PNZ)
-
Approach to
fundraising how the money is
to be raised, what sort of
methods will be used
-
How the money
will be accounted for/banked
(for example, handled
through Club or Regional
Association)
The following
deadlines will need to be met:
These deadlines
are dictated by the need to
order team uniforms, pay travel
costs, and take account of the
requirements of any supporters
tour.
If the required
funds are not in place by 15th
May, the invitation to represent
New Zealand will be withdrawn
and no team will go. Any funds
deposited with PNZ as at that
date will be refunded to the
depositor(s). |
