Christchurch

Power has just returned. No water yet. We are ok for water. House is good. We have not slept during night. Unbelievable aftershocks every twenty minutes.

Extremely frightening on my work 6th floor. Was thrown about. Hurt my knee - getting better now. When I got up from the floor all I could see through our windows was rapidly rising large and dense dust clouds in all directions - so many building have completely collapsed. The most frightening part apart from the violent shaking was the loud angry noises the building made - truly powerful and frightening very loud noises. I think I've been very lucky.

Lorraine at work - only doing critical patients.

Major tournament failed to attract the numbers

Subject: Rotorua Doubles tournament 5/6 March 2011
"I regret to inform you that this year’s tournament which you have entered has failed to attract the number of entries needed to make the tournament successful.

It is appreciated that there is still a week before the close off date but to avoid people making arrangements we felt it was necessary to cancel the tournament now.

To date we have received 8 entries after two teams pulled out. We guess it is a sign of the times but hope that Club teams will come to Rotorua for the National Club Championships in April.

Please advise your playing partner.

A full refund will be posted out in the next few days.

Thank you for your support

Trevor
Secretary
Petanque Rotorua"

Great day in Christchurch

Nice time at the Christchurch club played a triples round-robin within 45 minutes plus one end. The one end after 45 minutes reduces the possibility of teams deliberately using delaying tactics towards the end of the 45 minutes when they are ahead - I like it! Lorraine and I had the good fortune to be teamed up with Theo Westerbeek a visiting Dutch player with 30 years international competitive play under his belt. What struck me most about Theo is that not only was he a hell of a nice guy, he was also a master petanque tactician. Tactical understanding and cunning displayed by Theo can only be acquired through many year of competition experience. The value of playing at a high tactical level is often underestimated I feel. Lorraine and I learned a lot from today. And yes, we also took some wine as winnings home.

Mystery Petanque Blog Discovered

I was surprised to see this line on the WPA website: "A new Pétanque blog, Petanquestuff has come to our attention. The owner has invited comment on the first posting regarding the Dwindling Entries at tournaments." The owner? Who is the owner of this Blog? Does the WPA webmaster know who the person behind this Blog is? How was this mystery Blog discovered on the WWW? The Blog was born with a first post on the 8th of February and mentioned by the WPA on the 9th of February. Why does this unknown and anonymous Blog deserve a mention on the WPA website?

Did the WPA web-master assume this was a NZ based Blog? Call me old-fashioned, but I believe that if you are running a publication (print or digital) you should provide contact details, name and in the case of the Web, a location (country).

Comments on the Petanquestuff Blog are moderated by the unknown owner/editor (I found this out when I submitted a comment asking who the editor of the Blog is).

Christchurch Petanque Club fun morning

Had a great time at our Christchurch Petanque Club this morning. Doubles in two groups of six teams. We played a five game round-robin. Each game is concluded after four ends have been completed (great for my short attention span - I blame computers and the internet for this infliction). We started at 9.30 and all was done and dusted just after 12.00 - I like it.

If you are a dedicated follower of our Twitter page you would know about the dates and place for the 2011 Transe Tasman series - go well New Zealand.