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By day Sharon Cannon works as a Practice Manager
at Napiers’ First Chiropractic Centre. After
work and on weekends however, she continues to
hone her skills as NZ’s most consistent
international petanque player of the past
decade.
Petanque is the French game of boules (bowls)
that many NZers have played as a past time. A
few however take it to the next level of playing
the game as a sport. The Hawke’s Bay enjoys
having 3 Napier based clubs who have all had
current or former NZ rep players, both at an
Open and a Seniors (60+ years) level.
The Napier based player has fashioned an
enviable record having represented NZ seven
times since 2003 at the Australia/New Zealand
Trans Tasman Tournament, three World Women’s
Championships , one Pan Pacific Games, one
Oceania, and one Asian Games.
Last weekend the Bay View and Hawke’s Bay Lawn
Tennis Petanque Club player represented NZ once
again, but this time as Vice Captain of the
Trans Tasman NZ team at the Auckland venue of
Herne Bay, the “home” of NZ Petanque.
Together with team mate, Aucklander, Pam
Jenkins, the two women played 5 doublette
(doubles) games on the Saturday, and 4 triplette
(triples) games on the Sunday to finish the
tournament unbeaten in what is an individual
Trans Tasman record for the Open. Prior to this
the feat had been achieved only at the senior
level by Masterton’s Joan Miller and Rotorua’s
Trevor Nielsen.
“The Trans Tasman Team consists of 6 women and 6
men” says Auckland based Team Captain Christian
Fouquet. “Everyone in our team contributed with
all of the NZ players winning somewhere between
5 and 7 of their (nine) games . However, for
Sharon and Pam to have won all of their games is
unheard of in the Open. Every game is hard, you
are playing against international players from a
country with significantly more depth that what
we have here in New Zealand, and most of their
players have more international experience than
us”.
The brains trust of the Open Team, Captain
Fouquet, Vice Captain Cannon and Coach John
Targett of Christchurch were thrilled with the
Open Teams result. At the end of day 1, NZ held
a commanding lead that they continued to
consolidate into day 2 winning the tournament
with 2 triplettes rounds to spare – another
record achieved of the “fastest” result in a
Transtasman Tournament.
Meanwhile the NZ Seniors Team managed a similar
result. NZ Selector and Seniors Coach, Hawke’s
Bay’s Mr Petanque, Murray Porter was all smiles
as the Seniors Team finished Day 1 on the same
points differential as the Open Team and
consolidated into the 2nd day by winning the
tournament with 2 rounds to spare also. “We
couldn’t let the Open Team have all the glory”
said Porter.
The win on the weekend by both the Open Team and
the Seniors Team was a "3-Peat" result for
both. Each team remains unbeaten since 2007
when they both lost in Melbourne to the
Australians. Since that time NZ has embarked on
a rigorous selection policy that has seen a
marked improvement in performance by the NZers
and the Australian’s are currently learning the
hard way that size and depth cannot be taken for
granted.
In the meantime Cannon is looking to putting her
feet up over the coming winter months and rest,
recuperate and come out firing once again for
the new season that starts in September. “It’s
been a long and enjoyable eight months of
petanque” says Cannon who managed to fit in a
World’s Women’s Championship in October of last
year. “It’s now time to take a break, look
after myself and keep well over Winter”. No
doubt this formidable player will be blazing
away again come the Spring as her skills are
called on once again by NZ Petanque.
Maurice Belz
(This article
appeared in "Hawkes Bay Today",
15.5.10) |
