Locals can claim credit in NZ's petanque win

Masterton Petanque Club can claim a fair share of the credit for New Zealand making a clean sweep of their transtasman petanque clash with Australia at Tempe, New South Wales last week.
Four Masterton players were included in the 24-strong Kiwi contingent with Barb Johnston and Claire Wilson competing in the open division and Graeme Morris and Joan Miller in the senior division, which was for players 60yrs and over.
New Zealand's dominance in both divisions was illustrated by the last of the 10 scheduled rounds not having to be played. Going into the final series of triples matches in the ninth round they needed one win to make the open title safe and three wins to seal victory in the senior section and they managed to achieve their objective.Those results left the open team 65-43 ahead and the senior side leading by 61-47.
Making the New Zealand victory even sweeter was that it came on Australian soil as recent history shows transtasman clashes invariably favouring the home side.
"It was very satisfying to beat them at home, and so comfortably too," Graeme Morris said yesterday
"We were expecting a close battle but, as it happened, we got a break on them and managed to keep it going..
Morris described the playing conditions at Tempe as "quite challenging" with the two surfaces used being completely different, one being stony and the other not.
"It made it interesting but we coped well, it didn't really faze us at all", he said.