Finnish Petanque Magazine 1/2002
Petanque in New Zealand
Directly at the other side of the earth from Finland is the see
between New Zealand and Antarctica. Therefor the farthermost
place from Finland except small part of the Antarctica
is New Zealand. When I in June-July 2001 visited New Zealand
then of course
I had to check how Petanque is working in that part of the earth.
New Zealand is one of the 52 countries which belong to
the International Federation. In the year 2000 there was 495 licensed players
when in Finland it was 708.
Based on information I got at there
they have now played Petanque for about 10 years and the number
of registered players is about 1500.
New Zealand joined the International Federation at 1995
while Finland joined already 1983. At specially in north
island you can play Petanque through the whole year.
In south island it is cooler
and they ski at higher places on winter. Based on
Internet information there are
tens of clubs and in Auckland about twelve.
What can you then do in New Zealand? For example play Petanque
in Auckland, the biggest city by population. With the
help of Internet
it was arranged the possibility to become acquainted
with the places
and actions of two Petanque clubs.
Herne Bay Petanque is located at the place of ex-bowling club.
They have a club house and a field with several terrains.
The terrains were normal sand fields. At Friday
Midsummer Eve four hours was spent and seven games in triple teams
mainly as pointer or middle player with different drawn teams.
Because there is winter season of New Zealand at June ,
the evening temperature in Auckland can sink below +10
Celsius degrees. Therefor one player had a cap and
caps you could see also otherwise quit a lot in the city -
it was winter season and the daily
temperature only about +15 degrees
(cold winter, Finnish people? Or ?)
During the evening there war about a dozen of players.
They were mainly
male and real juniors war none except one maybe around
10 year old who was playing along. The status was
quit reasonable and
a lot of quit good throws could be see, but maybe quit real
big champion level players could not be noticed from the group.
The basic throws were mainly that normal low.
Actually only one was always throwing with high
curve and the ball
stood where it touched the ground.
Always when the place was right the
result was a good throw.
For us poor players with low throws the result depends
on many things.
While the evening became darker we had to play with
the light of one lamp and settle suitable for the light.
And it also became a little cool but of course not unusually
cold playing temperature for Finnish people.
Oh yes. Concerning the discussion in Finland of
alcohol and Petanque
you could find that nobody drank beer. Coffee was the only drink
by the people present during the whole evening.
Mt Albert Petanque is located beside and
together with bowling club.
The fields are like park lanes.
The grounds is still not quit normal sand but there is also some
shell coral chipping or something like that.
Together with the Petanque terrains
there is a club house, where you can find bar, television
and a couple of billiard pools. Midsummer Sunday was a rainy day.
Five games in double teams
as a shooter was anyhow played during the afternoon
between the worst
rains partly with some small rain. During the whole time
there were totally only five players present.
In addition to myself there were
the contact person Grant and his wife, Patrick,
who can see only limited with the other eye
(therefor the place of the
Cochonnet had to be shown)
and yet a fifth player for part of the time.
The two first games with Patrick were lost, but the
last three games in
male-female-double team worked a lot better,
two wins and one 12-13 lost. At the beginning shooting did not work
well in that part of the earth. The earth in there is
moving a little bit
to the wrong dimension (explanation - explanation).
After the games there was beer at the program
(one quick beer) at the bar
(so after all beer, but only after the games) and the day with
games was over.
So they play also there. And it is quite similar.
By drawing the
circle on the ground they are often a little bit lazy
and many times
only a line is drawn.
The basic comment after a bad throw was often "unlucky".
If the player was from own team the tone was declaratory.
If the player was from the opposite team you could find in "unlucky" a
little bit of glee tone.
So thank you Grant & others for the possibility to play Petanque
at the most faraway place from Finland.
Probably they don't play Petanque in Antarctica near by New Zealand.
Esko Riste
