Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Petanque terrain roughed-up?

Masterton."....Anybody can roll a boule on a smooth, flat terrain but it’s not so easy when the terrain has slopes and dips, stony areas, etc. The beginner invariable complains about a “bad bounce” whereas the expert will study the terrain, chose the best shot – rolling, half-lob or high-lob – and the correct landing spot, so as to minimise the risk of a “bad bounce”.

"....Beginners usually think that pointing is easy, shooting is difficult. Experienced players often say the opposite. Why? Because the shooter usually only needs to learn and play one shot, au fer, a direct boule to boule hit. Shooters are untroubled by an irregularities of the terrain."

We (Masterton Petanque Club) would like to receive some feedback from you. We are considering adding stones initially to 1/4 or 1/2 of our terrain. The question on which we want your opinion is this: If you entered a tournament in Masterton how would you feel about not knowing whether you played games on the super smooth part, or the stony part of our MPC terrain? Before you provide your feedback, make sure you read the full article by following the link below. Thanks for taking the time to let us know what you think.

- Tom.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

News from Grenoble

Grenoble.If you have come for news from Grenoble, you will find it on the PNZ website

It appears that a group of people in NZ are receiving SMS progress reports from Grenoble. The two webmasters (Pete from the Hawkes Bay, and yours truly from Masterton) who last year made a real effort in bringing you news items (and photos) as they came to hand, are evidently not part of this SMS group. If we don't get it, we can't bring it. -Tom.

PS. I am sure that most of us understand that it would make no sense for webmasters to individually hunt for New Zealand material from Grenoble - we have lives too.

Update 25/09: Please note that the comments to this post are now out of sequence. For an explenation see "Note from the editor".

- Tom.