This weekend was the annual NZ Open Triples Pétanque Tournament. Pictured above left is one of the winners from the New Caledonia team, and in the blue shirts a couple of the French guys who lost this semi-final match.

I was planning to play, but then there was a swim scheduled for the same weekend. But then the swim got canceled and I almost got on a team but then I didn’t. So Lee and I went and watched the final games on Sunday.

I have never seen players at this level in person before… only on YouTube. Wow! That big New Caledonian guy could put the ball anywhere he wanted, and if the opposition got close, his partner would smack their ball out of play. It was a close game … and I wonder if the French guys were a bit overconfident… but the New Caledonians won this game and the final with panache.

The tournament is structured such that the early rounds are random… so someone like me might get the privilege of being thrashed by players like this… but over the two days you sort yourself into divisions so that the finals are genuinely competitive at the different levels.

Next year…