Pétanque is a sport in the boules category that originates from France, in New Zealand it is played in many individual clubs like the one Jill Edgar and I took 14 Rutherford Junior students to on Wednesday, 31 October. Pétanque is usually played in singles, doubles and triples against an opponent, either on gravel, or hard surfaces.

We were joined by various other schools from Central and West Auckland at the Herne Bay Pétanque club, which has gravel terrains (pitches). We formed 5 teams of 3 and 1 of 2, where the one-day tournament consisted of 4 rounds and a final, and was run by local club players.

The Rutherford students arrived early and made quick use of the pre-game training the club members offered them. They listened and took note of the tips and tricks the members offered them.

Through the day, the students who had never played the sport before developed their skills and techniques to come through with some pleasing results. We had teams finish in 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th places, out of 23 teams. It was pleasing to see the students develop these skills and a very effective team attitude. As the day progressed we had a lot of communication and the teams worked together to come out with some really good scores.

I would say they had a really enjoyable day all round and were happy with their success, they looked great and set a really good example of how we do things at Rutherford College.