In our October newsletter, we reported the great results of the Australian team at the Oceania Championships held at Wallis and Futuna.
The team is pictured above, (L-R Back) - Graham Smith, Shane Howarth and Bronson Romani with (L-R Front) - Delys Brady, Meredith Clark, Yili Han, Eric Carbonell and Lynne Arjava.
In this issue we are pleased to share some of the experiences and recollections of the Australian team members recorded by team Coach and member, Graham Smith of the Capital Petanque Club in Canberra.
The Journey
A 1am coach to Sydney, a 7am Flight to New Caledonia, Hire car (guess who was the driver who could drive a mini bus, a manual and on the wrong side).
Overnight stay, an 8am flight to Wallis, which landed in a torrential cloud burst (they wouldn’t let us disembark it was that heavy). All to be repeated on the journey back.
The Team
8 players, no support staff, most nations had delegations of 25-30 people, 3 of us had never pulled on an Australia Shirt, 6 had never played above Trans Tasman competition level.
We had 1 French speaker and 1 French can survive on holiday speaker, but we survived and we excelled.
The Accommodation
We didn’t have high hopes going in after reports from Timothy Stevenson who played in Wallis in 2013.
We got shared rooms in a local school, no hot water, no air con, no fly screens, no fans, 2 or 3 to a room, resident geckos, 2km from the pistes, with zero transport options.
The Food
No coffee other than instant, no tea, water was available when the canteen was open, breakfast alternated daily (a cold toastie and pain au chocolate with fruit) or (omelette with baguette).
Lunch was usually meat in a sauce with a local vegetable (think we had taro, there was a potato substitute, we believe the meat was beef or chicken or pork… but no guarantees).
Dinner was usually similar with a cheap cut of meat with a sauce and something possibly vegetable... Fussy eaters need not apply! Thank god we made it to the supermarket and got some snacks and fruit to enjoy between meals.
The Pistes
The pistes were brilliant, 3 pistes, 12 lanes 3.5m x 13.5m, road base with a smooth gravel top surface, which then had a second top surface of rock added. Designed to stop the rolling pointers, those
who could lob accurately and land softly excelled on it.
All the Australians taking the other nations by surprise by our ability to adapt. Some days it was dry, others…. Not so much. And then as it dried it changed again.
A real fun challenge add in floodlights for games into the night and a banging stereo system and it was a fantastic facility which will provide future Wallis competitions a superb location.
To view Graham's entire report please click on the link below.
