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On track to become a Kiwi Sport
The
NZPA Committee is pleased to
report that Petanque is well on
the way to being accepted as a
Kiwi Sport. I am sure all
petanque players realise what
this means for the future of the
game in our country. While we
have proceeded well along the
track of being accepted, we
still have a few conditions to
meet. We require a specific Kiwi
Petanque Logo to be placed in a
Kiwi Petanque Manual.
Any
graphic artists who wish their
work to be seen by thousands
across the country please
contact Cam Calder for details
of the 'brief'. Work is
proceeding on another
requirement, the Kiwi Petanque
Manual. We are also refining the
teachers’ in-service course
which instructs teachers in the
basics of the game.
Hillary Commission
As
a national governing body of
petanque, the NZPA enjoyed
$3,000 of funding for the 98/99
financial year. Your association
has pursued initiatives in the
following areas:
-
Junior Development - holding
regional junior tournaments
and coaching development
clinics.
-
Review of national structure
to encourage club members to
become affiliated with the
national body (NZPA).
-
Coaching and volunteer
development. Foundation
level coaching courses have
been held and a pleasing
number of members have
achieved CNZ Level 1
qualification.
-
Strategic plan. A meeting of
some 20 members from all
over the North Island
attended a day long meeting
under the guidance of
strategic plan facilitator,
Kerry Hill, of Sport North
Harbour. Informal feed back
was sought and received from
South Island members.
Strategic Plan
A
draft strategic plan has been
prepared. The committee directed
that this be circulated prior to
Christmas 1998. However
unforeseen developments occurred
and it is now hoped to be
included in this mail out. The
draft contains some areas
regarding dates which will be
corrected. Your comments are
sought and suggestions for
improvements on anything in the
plan. At this stage the
strategic plan is in a draft or
proposal form and is not written
in stone.
Notice of Annual General
Meeting, New Zealand Petanque
Association
6.30pm, Friday April 2nd 1999,
Park Avenue Petanque Club,
Naenae, Lower Hutt
Agenda
-
President’s Report
-
Secretary’s Report
-
Balance Sheet and Statement
of Accounts
-
Fixing of Annual
Subscriptions
-
Strategic Plan
-
Election of Officers
-
General Business
Resignations received
With regret the NZPA Committee
received the resignations of
Brian Smith, Noel Hunt and Lynn
Hunt. The resignations were
received approximately 6 weeks
from the Annual General Meeting
and the remaining committee
members will continue to run the
affairs of the NZPA until the
new committee is elected at the
AGM at Easter.
The
reasons behind the resignations
were not totally clear, with the
only written reason given as
personal conflict with one of
the remaining committee members.
However the committee admit that
in the last year there had been
tensions, some personality
clashes and comments made
regarding regional bias. No
clear problem had been
identified and no solutions had
been offered by those
complaining.
We
hope that a fresh start can be
made by the new committee after
the AGM in April. We also hope
the members and the committee
continue to develop the
Strategic Plan. A clear
strategic plan that the majority
of members feel some ‘ownership’
of will give future committee’s
a clearer direction, or goal to
work towards.
Co-opted members
Under Article 8 of the NZPA
constitution the remaining
committee agreed that the
following members would be asked
if they would be co-opted onto
the committee for the time
remaining until the AGM. Louis
Mesnage, Michael Emerson, Dianne
Findlay, Mick Sharp and Terry
Holt. Michael Emerson was asked
to be Acting Secretary.
National Championships
The
national triples championships
were confirmed to be held in
Wellington over Easter on
Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th of
April. It will be hosted by the
Park Avenue Club at the Park
Avenue Terrain, Naenae in Lower
Hutt. The NZPA are to organise
the tournament with support from
the Lower Hutt members. On the
Sunday evening will be a dinner
and presentation of trophies.
The dinner will be a set catered
meal at a cost of $21.00.
Discussion was held as to
whether the dinner should be
made compulsory to all those
attending the tournament. The
main reason for this is that a
feature of the tournament should
be the presentation of trophies
to the winners. This would
ensure a full turnout for the
presentations, as well as giving
everyone a social chance to
unwind at the end of a long
weekend.
Points made against the dinner
being compulsory were that for
some families it could make the
weekend expensive and that we
should check on children's
discounts.
It
was agreed to make it
compulsory, however if any
members felt this would be a
financial burden, they could
approach the Treasurer to be
excluded from the dinner.
It
was also confirmed by the
committee that all competitors
in the national tournament must
be 1999/2000 year financial.
Fundraising Raffle
The
Treasurer is well advanced in
preparations for the next
fundraising raffle starting from
mid March 1999. Tickets this
year will be $2.00 instead of
the $5.00 of last year.
Excellent prizes have been
arranged including overseas
travel and jewellery. The funds
raised by the raffle will be
split between:
-
A contribution to the travel
costs for the national team
to the World Championships
-
A contribution to the travel
costs for 2nd & 3rd
placegetters at the
nationals to an
international tournament in
Singapore. This will be the
first time New Zealand is
represented at what is an
important national
tournament.
-
Funding of specific coaching
and training events at
regional centres.
The
Treasurer will be mailing raffle
books to the clubs in March.
Tele Conferencing
Until now the NZPA committee
have held all their meetings in
person at a physical location.
However we have received a
package on audio-conferencing
from Telecom. The committee
agrees it seems a great idea as
it is a way that committee
members from around the country
can all contribute to meetings
without being physically
present. The committee agreed to
suggest to the incoming
committee for 1999 that they use
this service as best possible.
National Team
The
winning team from the national
triples championships in
Wellington at Easter will be
invited to represent NZ at the
35th World Championships to be
held in Saint-Denis Reunion
Islands from 29th September to
3rd October 1999.
As
was the case last year, those
selected will need to make a
commitment with an initial
deposit of $500 payable the NZPA
by 14th May 1999. The remaining
balance of airfares will need to
be paid by 30th June 1999.
Reunion is situated in the
Indian Ocean and is not served
by long time sponsors Air New
Zealand. A rough guide of the
air travel cost is approximately
$2,400 return.
The
NZPA committee will also select
a delegate to travel with the
team and attend the
international body Annual
General Meeting. This delegate
will also be the fourth player
or reserve for the national
team.
National Singles
The
committee has also confirmed
that the National Singles
Championships 1999 will be
hosted by the Christchurch
Petanque Club on 24th and 25th
October. It will be held at
their home (20 piste) terrain in
North Hagley Park. Entry forms
in the June issue Boules
Gazette.
Regional Roundup
-
Dunedin
Anne Sinclair from the
Caversham Petanque Club
reports that the game is
alive and well in the South.
Numbers are increasing
weekly, probably partly due
to the wonderful summer we
are having. Terry Holt and
Jane Hyde are acting as
advisers and several new
clubs are under
consideration at Brighton,
Waikouiti, St Kilda Bowling
Club and Wakari Hospital.
Terry has also been
investigating the interest
in a southern regional
petanque association.
On the 25th February 10
members attended the Masters
Games in Gore. On 27th and
28th February we held our
Festival Tournament with
entries from around the
Southern Region
(unfortunately no results as
held too close to printing -
Ed).
At Queens Birthday Weekend
the club will host the
annual winter challenge
involving the Milton, Oamaru
and Christchurch Clubs. Our
club championships will be
starting in March. We also
have received positive
interest from local schools
wishing to play petanque on
our piste and facilities.
Our new clubrooms are almost
completed following many
hours of volunteer labour.
We are all delighted with
the results.
-
Napier
Geoff Greer reports that
petanque got off to a good
start on New Years Day at
the Hastings races. A ‘not
so serious’ tournament was
organised by Noel Hunt and
sponsored through Farmers
Department Stores. Murray
and Joanne Porter from the
Bay View Club won the day.
The largest event in the
Hawkes Bay calendar is the
Hawkes Bay Harvest
Competition. This was again
very well co-ordinated by
Noel. On the first day were
11 different pools, each at
a different winery. It was a
very pleasant day and great
to see so many teams from
the lower North Island. Neil
and Gordon Dykes won the
competition, we are still
wondering what young Mr
Dykes is going to do with
wine and vouchers for the
boutique hotel weekend!
Special mention again to
Noel for organizing 50 teams
across 11 wineries as well
as a plate and finals -
quite a feat.
We now have four clubs in
Hawkes Bay region - Bay
View, Napier, Havelock North
and McDonalds winery.
Numbers are slowly
increasing. The Bay View
club has extended to 11
terrains and is upgrading
it’s facilities with the
hope of contributing more to
hosting competitions.
-
Taranaki Petanque Club
Les Hill from the Taranaki
Petanque Club reports they
also have been active,
starting with a visit from
Brian Smith. They hope he
enjoyed playing the games on
the Taranaki piste as much
as they did.
The interest shown in
Petanque at the Taranaki
Masters Games astounded the
organisers. For some reason
they thought it was only a
minor sport! However
original entries were only
topped by Golf and Lawn
Bowls.
However a major
disappointment for all
organisers was the weather,
with torrential downpours
leading to the postponement
of competition until the
following week. This ruled
out many of the people
planning to travel to the
tournament. However in their
absence the following
weekend the weather was
gloriously fine with a
reduced number of
competitors from the New
Plymouth and Wanganui
Castlecliff Cosmopolitan
Petanque Club (is this the
longest name for a petanque
club in NZ? - Ed).
We have also had our own
club championships, having
completed the singles,
doubles and triples.
The last 6 months have seen
progress towards re-locating
our terrains to the New
Plymouth Bowling Club
grounds. Hopefully by the
end of March we will have
access to the Bowling Club
facilities including meeting
rooms, bar, toilets etc and
an 8 piste terrain. We look
forward to some interclub
competitions with Wanganui
and Palmerston North Clubs.
Oceania 1998
Allan Fletcher was a member of
the New Zealand team that
competed in the first Oceania
Petanque Championship held in
October 1998 at the Rockdale
Bowling Club in Sydney,
Australia. Two New Zealand teams
took part, one comprising six
men and one comprising six
women. Here is Allan ‘s
experience in his first
international tournament.
Each team of six players played
in three separate tournaments:
singles, doubles and triples, in
that order. All players entered
all tournaments. These three
tournaments were completed in
two days in very hot and dry
conditions.
The
terrain had stones scattered
everywhere and was challenging.
The level of play was generally
very high. At the end of the two
days Tahiti were the overall
winners with the highest
accumulated points over the
three tournaments. New Caledonia
second and Vanuatu third. New
Zealand was fourth and Australia
fifth. The highest result from a
New Zealand team was by Pam
Jenkins and Imelda Mailei,
placing 3rd in the womens
doubles.
One
thing that stood out for me was
a huge effort made by the
Australian Petanque Committee
members and supporters in
co-ordinating the championships.
These people worked their butts
off all weekend and not once did
I hear any of them complain.
They displayed a true definition
of team work and the results
followed. I was especially
impressed as we were driven from
airport to hotels, hotels to
terrain, then back to hotels
daily. Fed breakfast, lunch and
dinner daily and always made to
feel like welcome guests.
Tahiti is expected to host the
next Oceania championships in
year 2000 and New Zealand
petanque will be required to do
this in the near future. This is
definitely something to look
forward to and plan for.
It
needs to be mentioned that the
level of play between New
Zealand and the countries that
placed first, second and third
is surprisingly close. The main
difference being consistency and
experience at that high level of
play. One of the great
advantages about playing in the
Oceania tournament is that New
Zealand players got exposed to a
very high grade of petanque and
plenty of it (at least ten games
each).
During the games you were there
to compete, to represent your
country, your club and yourself.
While the tournament was being
played, the attitude was you
were there to win, not to
exchange smiles or phone
numbers.
However once the championship
was completed, a much bigger
picture began to unfold. The
prize giving dinner was a
highlight I will not forget. The
pressure was now off the players
and organisers and it showed.
Everyone behaving like one big
family of passionate petanquers,
smiling, laughing, yelling and
teasing each other. We warmed to
the sound of the Tahitian
ukeleles joined by jungle style
foot stomping dance steps by the
New Caledonians. Our own Tiki
Ruta rose to the occasion
performing the haka to shouts of
encouragement.
New
Zealand petanque must ensure
that it continues to take part
in the Oceania championships as
our top players will not slowly,
but rapidly, climb the
international ladder. Our best
players need and are ready for
this high level of playing
experience. The more get, the
quicker we will improve.
The
great news, is of course, that
Oceania is only a couple of
hours flight across the Pacific
Ocean.
In
closing, I would like to
acknowledge the New Zealand
delegate, Christian Fouquet’s
efforts. The first night he was
working with other countries
delegates and organisers until
4.00am. Christian is also
secretary of the executive
committee, Oceania
confederation, a position which
demands much energy.
Thanks also to the NZPA and the
many NZPA members who sold
raffle tickets, the funds from
last year’s raffle making an
important contribution to the
teams’ costs and making it
possible for so many players to
taste international competition.
Allan Fletcher
Our Champions 1998 / 1999
Singles : Niau Ruta
Doubles : Brian Smith and Peter
Evison
Triples : Chris Priestley, Louis
Mesnage, Jorg Schulze
Oceania : Tahiti
International: France
The
Boules Gazette
Editor: Michael Emerson
Assistants: Mick Sharp, Cam
Calder |
