I would like to begin by thanking a number of people who have contributed a great deal over the last twelve months.
Congratulations to the players and clubs who have won the various championships and tournaments.
Neil Dykes (Windy Hills)
Brian Smith, Dirk Winnie (Khandallah)
Gordon Dykes (Windy Hills), Tony Chin, Ants Yee (Khandallah)
Terry Dawson, Rex Hayes (Kapiti)
Andrew Joe (Hataitai), Sebastien Merval (Khandallah), Dean Norman (Windy Hills)
Clive Williams (Park Avenue)
Gerald Bryan, Peter Dennett (Hataitai)
Barbara Johnston, Joan Miller, Claire Wilson (Masterton)
Masterton
Khandallah
After an unbeaten year in possession of the trophy Khandallah has now established its own club record of fifteen consecutive wins. This is still a long way short of Masterton's record of twenty-eight consecutive wins. It remains to be seen how long it will take for someone to finally beat Masterton's record.
My personal opinion is that we have lost more than we have gained from the format change to the Inter-club competition. The decision to run double-headers each round has effectively penalised those clubs who do not have a large playing area. Having every inter-club round at either Kapiti or Park Avenue negates the intimacy of the smaller terrains, and provides a barrier to socialising with the opposing team members.
As one of the many players in the region who cut their competitive teeth in Obut Cup, aka Winter League, now the Winter Competition, I am saddened at the prospect of having the event curtailed. Over the last eight years, a number of different formats have been tried, including 3 years of Singles, a Triples event in 2002, and the inter-club competition alongside the Doubles in 2003.
In the year just gone, 72 players, not including reserves, took part. The proposal to prevent the WPA from running a winter competition in 2006 is, quite frankly, shortsighted and I hope will be finally defeated tonight.
Park Avenue hosted a very successful National Triples back in April. It was pleasing to see the level of support from other clubs to help with the running of the event.
Congratulations to:
Based on their performance in the Winter competition Kath Alison (Kapiti), Kaye Alison (Kapiti), Peter Dennett (Hataitai), Don Pettett (Hataitai), Enoka Smiler (Park Avenue) and Peter van Heusden (Khandallah) were selected to compete in the annual Clash competition against Canterbury. The match played at the Papanui club in Christchurch ended in a draw (18-18).
The match against Hawke's Bay at Palmerston North also ended in a draw (27-27). The Wellington team comprised Terry Dawson (Kapiti), Oskar de Jong (Kapiti), Peter Dennett (Hataitai), Barbara Johnston (Masterton), Graeme Morris (Masterton), Claire Wilson (Masterton), Dirk Winnie (Khandallah) and Roy Zeier (Khandallah). Dean and Susan Norman (Windy Hills) were originally selected but had to withdraw due to illness.
After three years, it is perhaps a good time for the Regional Selector to retire before Wellington loses an inter-region match!
In a busy representative calendar a record number of Wellington players were selected for national honours.
Tony Chin (Khandallah), Margret Fleck (Hataitai), Andrew Joe (Hataitai), Barbara Johnston (Masterton) and Dirk Winnie (Khandallah) all helped New Zealand to win the Oceania Championship in Rotorua. Margret and Barbara along with Fiona Browne (Hawke's Bay) won the silver medal in the Women's Triples.
Dirk Winnie (Khandallah) was selected for the Men's team in the Second Pan Pacific Championship in Vietnam.
Tony Chin, Michael Rocks and Dirk Winnie (Khandallah) were selected for the Trans-Tasman test in Sydney. The Australians prevailed 55-53 in a closely fought match. At the same time the inaugural Trans-Tasman Seniors match took place with Claire Bradburn (Silverstream) and Bernadette Lawton (Kapiti) as participants. The Australians also took out this match.
Finally, Michael Rocks and Dirk Winnie (Khandallah) were members of the Triples team at the Singapore International in September.
It took a little longer than anticipated to receive the affiliation application from the Wanganui East club. However, I am sure that they will quickly make their presence felt. I trust that you will vote unanimously to accept their application later in this meeting.
In this report two years ago, I stated:
We have received some Coaching material from the PNZ. However, rather than waiting for a coaching structure to be provided, we could begin by creating a structure for ourselves. If need be, we can modify it later to fit any national framework.
Unfortunately, the national framework is still simply an idea and it is unlikely to be completed in the near future. In June, Regional Coaching Coordinators Liz and Michael Rocks went to Auckland to observe National Team Coach Michael Emerson run a training course for the World Championship team.
A similar session was subsequently run at Khandallah for representatives to take back to their clubs. Feedback on this session has been limited.
An avenue to pursue may be the various Regional Sports Trusts who run a number of Coaching Development programmes. This may prove to be a useful grounding for those members who would like to develop their coaching skills. From this foundation, we can then look at how we may provide specific pétanque coaching.
Over the last few years the emphasis at the WPA has been on what can be called sport-pétanque. We now have a wide-ranging, some would say too wide-ranging, tournament calendar that provides plenty of choice for players who wish to play pétanque as a sport.
The interests of the club delegates have essentially driven this focus. In the main, the delegates want to play pétanque on a regular basis.
Potentially, the recent Hui might have looked at the other WPA objective of fostering the game in the Wellington region. However, the discussions went in other directions.
Perhaps it is time, with the change in the Association's officers, to look at what we do and how we go about doing it. I leave this thought with the new Management team to run with it as they see fit.
I would like to thank Elizabeth for her support over the last three years. It would not have been possible for me to contemplate, let alone achieve, anything in pétanque without her interest in the game. I wish her well in her new role as Convenor of National Selectors.
Finally, I would like to thank the members of the WPA for their support during my tenure as WPA President, and I would like to wish the new team well.
Michael Rocks