President’s Message December
2003
This is the last
report I will be sending Brenda
for the magazine. Some of you
will be aware that Brenda is
stepping down from the positions
of magazine editor and
publications’ manager
(including the
website).
Brenda has done a
wonderful job in creating a very
informative, well presented and
much appreciated magazine that
we have all looked forward to
four times a year. Also the
standard of the booklets
produced and the website have
been of very high quality.
Brenda has
dedicated many, many hours and a
great deal of energy to the task
and on behalf of all petanque
players in New Zealand I thank
you very much Brenda for a
wonderful job and we wish you
all the best for a well deserved
break. Your work will be missed
very much.
I would also like
to take the opportunity to
congratulate the new National
Doubles Champions Allan Fletcher
and Ken Stentiford. Allan and
Ken won the national title in
Rotorua over Labour Weekend and
they did it in the first
national tournament they have
played together. Well done to
you both.
I would like to
take this opportunity to wish
you all a very Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year. We have a
very exciting year ahead of us
celebrating the 10th Anniversary
of PNZ as well as our normal
tournaments plus a Trans Tasman
series to be held in
New Zealand
and the coaching / selection
initiatives we have put in
place.
I look forward to
seeing many of you in 2004. Best
Wishes,
Graeme Morris -
President
Peugeot 2003 Doubles
Championship – Rotorua
Under the meagre
glow of distant street lamps,
the New Zealand doubles title
was decided in Rotorua recently.
After a marathon
day, close to 13 hours of play,
on the Government Garden’s
terrain, Aucklander Allan
Fletcher and his Ngaruawahia
partner Ken Stentiford beat
Napier’s Murray Porter and
Auckland’s Ron Sandiland 13 - 8
for the championship silverware.
It was the first national
doubles title for the pair and a
step up for Fletcher, who was a
beaten finalist a year ago.
And it started as
a serene setting with jazz music
drifting across from Rotorua’s
world famous Blue Baths as the
final got under way just after
7pm with a good crowd in
attendance around the Rotorua
Petanque Club’s terrain.
However, within
an hour the temperature had
dropped along with the light,
sending many spectators home or
under the cover of blankets and
searching for extra clothing.
The players themselves layered
up with beanies and extra
jerseys and vests piled on to
brace against the chill!
The extra layers
and poor visibility did little
to remove the quality of the
play with Stentiford and Porter
playing some spectacular point
shots while Fletcher and
Sandiland often shot the boules
for points.
But it was dark,
so dark a cigarette lighter
became the players’ best friend
when they required a measure to
determine just who held shots.
And so dark that
many spectators weren’t quite
sure what was happening until
the scoreboard attendant, who
was forced to yell out the
scores for everyone’s benefit,
kept them up with the play.
The players were
offered to move the game into a
corner of the terrain, directly
under two street lamps, but
Fletcher declined - choosing to
stay on the familiar ground the
final had started on - until he
scored the winning point at
9.20pm.
Last year’s
winners, Christian Fouquet and
Niau Ruta were eliminated in
pool play while favourites
Georgio Vakatua and Seti Mailei
were bowled over by the eventual
champions 13 - 9 in the quarter
finals.
Rotorua’s Jane
and Andy Gilbert successfully
defended the Whanau Cup,
presented to the family who
progressed the furthest, they
won last year in Christchurch.
Craig Tiriana -
Rotorua
2003 Peugeot National Championships Results
Petanque New Zealand News
A brief note from
the PNZ Committee to keep you up
to date with information of
interest to Clubs and their
members.
Fundraiser Diary
Ian Baker and
Bernadette Lawton are planning
an annual Petanque Diary. This
will include dates for all
petanque tournaments, photos of
interesting terrains around the
country both Club and private,
suggested wine/food matches
appropriate to our game, with
recipes.
The first edition
will be for 2005, on sale in
October 2004, and we are hoping
to make this an ongoing
fund-raiser. We will be asking
Clubs to get behind this by
committing to purchase copies
for on selling to members,
friends, family, workmates etc.
PNZ Affiliation
Fees
Advance notice
that 2004 affiliation fees will
be due by 31st March. Clubs will
receive invoice in early
January, along with a form for
updating Club database
information. We will also be
asking you to supply a list of
members’ names and addresses (as
at 31st December). The
Incorporated Societies Act
requires us to have this
information.
While you’re
compiling this, a good idea that
has been brought to our
attention is to ask for a small
‘pen profile’ of your members.
Apparently it’s quite amazing
the depth and breadth of talent
and skills that exist amongst
our members, and the contacts
that people have that could be
very valuable to your Club and
the wider petanque fraternity.
Promoting
Petanque
Following on from
this last idea, we are looking
for a Publicity Officer to help
raise our public profile. Is
there someone in your Club who
may have been involved in
marketing/promotion at some
stage and would like to help
out?
Petanque and the
Public
One of the goals
in our Strategic Plan is to take
petanque to the wider community.
The two aims are
-
to have at
least one event a year in
each region with public
participation eg open days,
as part of a local fair; and
-
to encourage
every Club to hold one event
a year in a community
location instead of their
normal club facilities (e.g.
shopping centres, public
parks)
So that we can
have idea how we are
progressing, can you please send
a brief note to the Secretary
outlining any such events you
have organised or participated
in during 2003, and any that are
planned for 2004.
Timing of
National Championships
A idea was
floated at our last Committee
meeting that we could look at
having all 3 national
championships during one week,
in summer, instead of three
separate events at different
times of the year. This arose
principally from thinking about
how we could minimise exposure
to the vagaries of weather
encountered during the last few
years with the Singles in
August.
Initial thinking
would be to run Singles and
Doubles back to back, with a
‘rest day’ before the Triples.
‘Pros’ we thought
of include more certainty about
the weather; more flexibility
with timing of finishing;
reduced travel costs; freeing up
long weekends.
‘Cons’ were
difficulties of taking a larger
block of time off work;
childcare for those
participating as couples;
stamina required to play so many
days in a row.
Other related
issues include
-
would a
week-long event be held all
at one venue, or spread
around a region;
-
would it be
better to have it outside
school holidays, or base it
around Easter?
There’s bound to
be heaps of others, and we’d be
interested to hear your views,
either individually or as Clubs.
Send them to the Secretary.
This is just an
idea at this stage, and if
opinion was favourable to
trialling it, it would not be
before 2005, and probably 2006.
National
Tournament Entries
With the growing
numbers of entries into national
tournaments, it has become
increasingly difficult to
accommodate the second day’s
play on the terrains available,
and to be certain of getting
through the second day’s play
within a reasonable time frame.
However, the
Committee is reluctant to limit
the initial number of entries.
Not least because of the
difficulty of devising a fair
way of doing this, but also
because at this stage
participation is still an
important part of these
competitions.
So as a
compromise, for future
tournaments, for the second day
the maximum number of teams that
will be taken through will be
48. 32 in the Trophy and Plate,
and 16 in the Bowl.
Intending players
should be aware that the higher
the number of entries above 48,
the greater the number of teams
that will not get games on the
second day.
New selection
process for representative teams
-
The PNZ
Committee is pleased to
announce that the selection
panel for 2004 is:
Graeme
Morris, Michael Emerson,
Bernadette Lawson
These people
bring a blend of experience
and skills (all are
experienced petanque
players, and Graeme is an
experienced basketball coach
and has attended 3 petanque
World Championships, Michael
is a former professional
swimming coach, and
Bernadette attended the
petanque Coaching Course in
Melbourne and is involved in
implementing PNZ’s coaching
strategy).
They will be
responsible for selecting
and preparing teams for
international competition in
2004, including organising
and running training camps
for players selected for the
final squad and trials.
-
A reminder to
Clubs and Associations
please send the results of
your Regional/Open
tournaments to the
Secretary, so that players
in the selection process can
have their points awarded.
-
Also, those
who were invited to be in
the selection process but
haven’t yet replied, and
Clubs who want to nominate
players, can you please do
so as soon as possible now,
so that we ‘have a clear
idea of the size of the pool
we are dealing with.
Commemorative
Tossing Coins
We are producing
specially designed tossing coins
to coincide with our 10th
Anniversary celebrations next
year. The ‘ordinary’ ones are
nickel plated, and will sell at
$5 each.
In addition there
is a limited, Special 10th
Anniversary Edition of two Gold
plated coins in a presentation
box. 50 sets are being produced,
each individually numbered.
These will sell at $24.95 plus
$5 post and packing.
Order forms will
be out with the December
magazine. However, the number
One set will be auctioned via
the internet. Look for details
on our website early in the New
Year.
New
organisational structure/2004
AGM
The 2004 AGM will
be held on 27th March, and will
be under the new system of
regional representatives. These
people need to be elected before
the end of February. Current PNZ
Committee members will be
arranging for Regional Committee
meetings of club representatives
to be held.
So, time to think
about whether you would like to
stand in this capacity, or who
you would like to represent your
region at national level.
Merry Christmas
and happy ‘bouling’.
Barbara
Whittington – Secretary |
