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August 28, 2006

Oceania Petanque

This is a permanent record of a MPC Blog posting

"Oceania Petanque Championships / Asian Petanque Championships

PNZ will not be sending a team to either the 2006 Oceania Petanque Championships or 2006 Asian Petanque Championships due to an insufficient number of available players for selection. Five men and two women made themselves available for the Oceania Championships (a team of six men and six women are required for the Oceania). Two men and one woman made themselves available for the Asian Championships (a team of four men and four women are required for the Asian Championships)." (Text from PNZ website)

posted by Tom van Bodegraven @ 7:07 PM

7 Comments:

At 7:59 PM, Anonymous said...

Would it be very bold to say that the lack of interest is a direct result of the current selection policy?

After winning last time no team this year.....A pity as it is a good opportunity to play people from the region and a little more of our caliber than the worlds for instance.

At 11:16 PM, Tom van Bodegraven said...

I am not sure what the reasons are behind the lack of interest, but it is not a good look to have the title holders of the Oceania Championships not turning up this year.

At 11:50 AM, Anonymous said...

PNZ will not be sending a team to either the 2006 Oceania Petanque Championships or 2006 Asian Petanque Championships due to an insufficient number of available players...."

Well, what a surprise....NOT

Maurice

At 8:07 PM, Tom van Bodegraven said...

In fairness though, I must say that the indecision around whether the Oceania Championships was going to run at all, and who would host it, would have something to do with it. However, I understand that we have some very keen listed players, and I hope they have been given (and if not will be) the opportunity to defend the New Zealand Oceania title. I believe we should not be so "precious" and gather a team from those petanquers able and willing to go and defend our title. This experience rewards New Zealand Petanque with the gained experience that each individual brings back. Congratulations to PNZ who have recently taken the initiative to review the selection process.

At 10:53 PM, Anonymous said...

I think it is more a case of reaping what you sow. Margret and I have both stated publicly that we are unavailable for international selection until such time as the process is changed.

It looks like others have done the same. The result being a further indication that the current selection process has had it's day - the selectors can thank themselves for ensuring that a team is unavailable for the Oceania (players are pbviously not interested in a Singapore "selection" Pt II) - well done Captain Mannering and the PNZ. Australia is not a big deal to get to, therefore the indecision is not a major issue IMO.

Perhaps we could send a Seniors Team as we are so keen to head back to the future. - Maurice

At 7:53 AM, Tom van Bodegraven said...

Yes, you've made some good points in your comment above Maurice. You are right, the selection process has done untold damage. This has been acknowledged by PNZ and is in the review process. Players can see this is happening. As part of "moving forward", it is still not too late for PNZ to form a team to play in the Oceania competition across the ditch.

At 5:02 PM, Anonymous said...

All PNZ needs to do is get some travel costs and get it out to the clubs and say this is what the cost is, do you have anyone interested? It is no good trying to get a team together and then dumping the costs on them. PNZ used to have a very good travel agent, who spent a lot of time providing costs for them. This travel agent has 25 years experience and is a petanque player to boot. He organised travel to three world champs, 1 Oceania and a trans tasman and then one day it stopped. No explanation, no apology, no thanks, nothing. Oh well!! Too bad aye!!

Graeme (obviously useless travel agent) Burnard.

See also Why I think we should have defended our title