Welcome to the first 'Petanque News' for 2010. The 'Hands Up' year.

I hope you had a good Christmas and have moved into the New Year with renewed enthusiasm for life and petanque. Yes! 2010 is the year for everyone to think about putting their hand up to help.

We all know a core of people do the work to keep their Clubs going and a smaller number of people handle the regional work. We would all like to go along to our club or a tournament and just concentrate on playing and having fun and that includes me. Unfortunately life isn’t like that, but the more that help the less there is for each person to do.

Think about what you could do to help spread the load at your club, and what you could do at a regional level. Gwen Hill (Kapiti) could do with some help in contacting umpires to allocate to tournaments; nearly all the tournaments are played from Kapiti north. but the Tournament organisers are from the Hutt Valley and Masterton. How about some hands up to help in this area.

The WPA AGM is on March 4th - Margaret Fleck can’t continue as Secretary this year and I would like to step down as President. We need some hands up for these positions.

Please start the year by thinking about what you could put your hand up for.

Congratulations

To the Wellington Representative team which ended the year on a high by beating Hawkes Bay 25 games to 23. On the same weekend the WPA Open Triples attracted a good field of 18 teams with the trophy going to Barbara Nicholls, Ralph Priddle & Christine Strichen, 13 - 12  in a tight final against Myles Cowper, Michael Rocks and Ron Sandilands.

Competitions

The National Club Championship is being held at Horowhenua on the 24 & 25 April and as we are moving into our regional interclub it might be a good time for Clubs in our region to look at developing their own team to enter into it. Good luck to all those playing at Kapiti this coming weekend.

Matters arising from the WPA Meeting

• Umpiring

  We now have 2 official umpires kits, one from PNZ and one purchased by WPA.

   

• Regional Awards

  The meeting decided to continue with the Awards for this year and then review them in 2011. An event is to be organised at which the Awards will be presented.

   

• Strategic Plan

  Thank you to the three clubs who sent in their demographic information unfortunately the remainder was somewhat thin on data.

   

• Tournament Subcommittee

  The Subcommittee always tries to ensure the format for each competition is clearly set out and understood by competitors prior to play commencing. Where possible this information will be on the entry forms but as the format often depends on the number of entries this is not always possible. 

   

• Coaching

  Regrettably Graeme Morris has resigned as Regional Coach. As this position is a PNZ appointment we will be looking to having discussions with them over his replacement.

   

• Winter Doubles

  A proposal put forward by Michael Rocks, that the WPA no longer run a winter tournament was approved by the members.

Maureen Wood

It is with deep regret that I report the death of Maureen Wood, a long time member of the Hataitai Club. While Maureen’s health had stopped her from competing in as many tournaments as she used too she was still an active member of her Club and was their Secretary for some years. Our thoughts are with her family and friends at this sad time.

Claire Bradburn

WPA President