Play Petanque
Pétanque (pron. "pay-tonk") is the French equivalent of the sport of Bocce, except the balls are made of metal, and about the size of an orange; the playing surface is like a baseball infield (dirt, gravel, hard-packed sand) and may or may not have a boundary. The object is to stand in a circle drawn in the ground, and roll; lob; throw your ball as close as possible to a target ball. Only one team gets points per round, and the teams play as many rounds as it takes to arrive at 13 points. The first team to arrive at 13 points wins.
Contents
Steps
- Divide the players into two teams. You can play 1 vs. 1 (3 balls per player); 2 vs. 2 (3 balls per player); or 3 vs. 3 (2 balls per player).
- Have the teams flip a coin to see who starts.
- The starting team draws a circle in the ground - then throws the target ball or cochonnet out to a distance of {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}}.
- The starting team then throws their first boule, trying to get as close as possible to the cochon.Then the 2nd team's player stands in the circle, and tries to get their boule closer to the cochon than the opposing team. They can try to do this by rolling their boule; lobbing it; or even throwing it at the opposing team's boule moving it away.
- Learn that if that team does get a boule closer than any of its opponents, it's called "having the point" - and then the opposing team has to attempt to throw a boule closer.
- Understand that the team which does not have the closest boule (to the cochon) keeps throwing boules until either they get closest, or they run out of boules to throw.
- When all boules are thrown, only the boules of the one team that are closest to the cochonnet are added to the running score. That is, if team-A "has the point" and has 2 of it's 3 boules closest to the cochon before then opposing team's boule (in this example, the 3rd closest boule), then team-A gets 2 points added to their score.
- Know that the teams continue to play until a team reaches 13 points (the team which had the point, starts the new round, drawing a circle around the position of the cochon and uses that as the new throwing circle).
Tips
- Players have different throwing styles. After some practice, a player is usually designated as: Pointer (one who can roll; throw; lob a boule close to the cochonet); Shooter (one who is good at throwing; rolling a boule to hit their own or an opponent's boule); or a Milieu (both a Pointer and a Shooter).
- Balls are called boules; the aim ball is called a "cochonet" ('piglet' in french).
- Boules are usually thrown with the palm down. This allows for use of some backspin (which helps to stop the boule from rolling too much on a smooth surface.
- It is permitted, after the initial throwing of the cochonet, that a boule can (while being played) move the cochonet to another position.
- There can be lots of strategy used when playing Pétanque. Defensive "walls" of boules in front of the cochonet (for example) block an opponent from rolling in and "getting the point"
Warnings
- Each player must stand in the same circle and not raise their feet off the ground until their boule is thrown.
- If using a bounded court (usually stringed lines on the ground) and the cochon is moved outside the boundary of the playing field (roughly 4 meters by 15 meters) - then it is deemed: "dead"
- When the cochonet is deemed dead, and both teams have boules still to play - then no points are awarded, and the team which threw out the cochonet that round, starts off the new round. BUT, if only one team has boules left to play - then that team wins as many points as they have "boules left to play."
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