Petanque buffs to pit throwing skills against NZ’S best at Mount
You might play petanque at the beach, bach or local park, but the who’s who of petanque players are heading to Mount Maunganui for the national champs.
“Petanque’s been in New Zealand for the best part of 30 years now,” Lorraine Brock, president of Petanque NZ said.
“It’s a French game and if you go overseas lots of people play it everywhere.
“We have about 1500 members that are affiliated to Petanque New Zealand.”
Many of those members will be heading to the competition, held over Anzac weekend and a highlight of the petanque calendar.
“Clubs throughout New Zealand form a team of six, two of which must be women. They’ve got people coming from as far south as Dunedin and as far north as Auckland,” Brock said.
People that turn up to the tournament will be from all age groups.
“We’re trying to encourage people to come back that are in their 30s. There’s a lot of older people and this is why I think it’s deemed an old person’s game, which is rather unfortunate.
“We do have, particularly down south, a lot of juniors that are playing,” she said.
One adult player who’s won just about everything there is to win in the sport is Rotorua-based Andre Noel. He says despite first impressions, pe´tanque can be dangerously addictive.
“The first time I saw it I was like; ‘oh, this is an old person’s game’. A bit like bowls.
“The tricky part with this is once you play it you get hooked. It’s like a legalised drug.
“Off the top of my head I can’t tell you how many championships I’ve won. I haven’t tallied it up. But I’m going to go with something in the range of 15 to 20.”
If you’re not born with the natural gift of being a world-class petanque player, though, Noel says there’s still hope.
“The ones that aren’t born with the gift, it requires a lot of training. In saying that, this game is geared up for any age — doesn’t matter from 10 years old to 60 or 70.
“Like my son, I can’t get him away from pe´tanque. As soon as I say there’s a tournament, he wants to play with Dad.”
For Andre’s son, it’s pe´tanque’s strategic gameplay that keeps him coming back.
“It’s a fun game to play,” 11-year-old Keelan Noel said.
“Probably the strategy because that’s a good part of the game and you need that.
“I like it for the social aspect and you meet a lot of new friends.”
Rain or shine, the Petanque National Championships will go ahead on April 24 and 25 at the Tauranga Petanque Club in Mount Maunganui. Volunteers are also welcome.
“We’re always looking for people to help and we get very little funding, all the big sports take all the funding so it’s hard yakka out there,” Brock said.