Petanque, also known as boules, closely resembles horseshoe pitching and the Italian game bocce. The game more closely resembles horseshoes than bocce, as petanque players toss the boules--hollow metal balls--rather than bowling them. You can play petanque individually or with teams of two, three or four players.
The Pitch
The size of the petanque pitch can vary. You can play on a long narrow strip or on any large flat area. The surface of the pitch can be gravel, sand, grass or dirt. According to Petanque America, petanque pitches typically measure about 12 feet wide and 29 feet long.
Equipment
Petanque requires hollow metal boules that are 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 inches in diameter. The number of boules each player must toss depends on the number of players in the game. For example, in singles petanque, each player has four boules. In doubles petanque, each player has three boules. In triples petanque, each player has two, and with teams of four, each player has only one. Petanque also requires a smaller wooden ball known as the jack or the cochonnet. The cochonnet typically measures about 1 1/2 inch in diameter.
Starting Play
Petanque matches consist of individual games known as “legs.” Flip a coin to determine which team will get to toss first. The team tossing first selects one player to begin. That player tosses the cochonnet, which should land about 20 to 30 feet away from the player’s position. The player who tossed the cochonnet must draw a circle around her original position. All other players must toss their boules from within this circle.
Play
The player who tossed the cochonnet tosses her boules first. Each player must toss boules until he has no more boules to toss or until he tosses a “best boule,” or a boule that lies closer to the cochonnet than any other boule tossed so far. Thus, the first player to toss a boule will always toss only one boule.
Play then alternates between players on each team, with each person tossing boules until she runs out of boules or throws a best boule. Continue alternating play in the same order until all players have tossed all boules.
Players can try to toss their boules as close as possible to the cochonnet, or they can try to knock their opponents’ boules out of scoring position.
Scoring
The team that has thrown the best boule at the end of the leg wins that leg. The team earns one point for each boule its players tossed that landed closer to the cochonnet than the opposing team’s best boule. Continue the match until one team reaches a previously decided-upon number of points. Petanque players typically play until one team reaches 11 or 13 points.
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