Petanque
Club days are held on Wednesdays and Sundays throughout the year, and commence at 1:30 pm.
Special times may apply to championships and the like, and these will be announced at the time.
Currently we have annual singles, doubles and triples championships and an intraclub tournament is held between January and March.
Special times may apply to championships and the like, and these will be announced at the time.
Currently we have annual singles, doubles and triples championships and an intraclub tournament is held between January and March.
About Petanque
The French name “pétanque” comes from la pétanca in the Provençal dialect, deriving from the expression pès tancats, which means “feet together”.
Pétanque is a rather simple low physical impact game where the goal is to throw metal balls as close as possible to a smaller ball called a “cochonnet” (which means “little piglet”) while standing with the feet together in a circle. The game is normally played on hard packed stone dust or gravel surface, but can also be played on other solid surfaces. Surfaces with more pebbles can be extremely challenging and surfaces that undulate similar to a putting green in golf can add to the challenge.
This game can be played as a head to head competition which is call “singles”, two against two “doubles” or three against three “triples”. When playing singles or doubles each player has three balls to play, when playing triples only two balls per player are used.
There can be no more than 12 balls on the playing surface at one time. I’m sure you can imagine when the first few balls are played there is plenty of space to place your ball to try to score but when you have nine or ten balls on the playing surface it becomes more difficult to score points....thus one has to formulate a strategy.
Pétanque is a rather simple low physical impact game where the goal is to throw metal balls as close as possible to a smaller ball called a “cochonnet” (which means “little piglet”) while standing with the feet together in a circle. The game is normally played on hard packed stone dust or gravel surface, but can also be played on other solid surfaces. Surfaces with more pebbles can be extremely challenging and surfaces that undulate similar to a putting green in golf can add to the challenge.
This game can be played as a head to head competition which is call “singles”, two against two “doubles” or three against three “triples”. When playing singles or doubles each player has three balls to play, when playing triples only two balls per player are used.
There can be no more than 12 balls on the playing surface at one time. I’m sure you can imagine when the first few balls are played there is plenty of space to place your ball to try to score but when you have nine or ten balls on the playing surface it becomes more difficult to score points....thus one has to formulate a strategy.
There is no right or wrong way to throw a ball although experienced players tend to throw with a certain amount of backspin, releasing the ball with the back of the hand facing upward. The “cochonnet” in pétanque is the target just as the hole on a green is the target in golf. When approaching a green a player will take a lofted iron and will strike the ball imparting backspin so that when that ball lands on the green it will “brake”
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slightly and then release and roll forward. Throwing a boule uses the same concept.
The object of the game is to get as many of your “boules” close to the target ball as you can. If that means hitting your opponent’s “boules” and knocking it out of the way, or hitting the target ball to try and place it closer to your ball, so be it. After all boules are thrown, the team that has the boule closest to the cochonette scores as many points as they have boules closer to the cochonette than their opponent’s closest boule. A game is played to 13 points. The official rules of pétanque can be found at the web site pétanque.org. These rules can be very helpful when beginning to play socially and will be important throughout ones playing career.
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The easiest way to learn this game is by playing and the more you play the more you learn. Pétanque players must show respect for fellow players and opponents alike. Be courteous and quiet when someone is preparing to take a shot. Take the time to learn this friendly family oriented game and whether you play socially or competitively it will give you a lifetime of enjoyment.
Petanque Terminology
Petanque: From "pieds tanqués" which means “feet tied together” Originally Provençal "ped tanco".
The circle: The throwing circle, traced in the ground or prefabricated.
An end: The part of a complete game played from each new throwing circle. A match is made up of as many ends as necessary to first arrive at thirteen points.
Point: Action to roll/lob a boule, in order to stop its movement near to the coch.
A Pointer: A player who specializes in pointing or placing his boules as close as possible to the coch.
An All Rounder: An all-rounder in a team that can point or shoot equally well.
A Shooter: A player who is better at shooting than pointing.
Umpire: The official who adjudicates on all aspects of play
Singles: One player playing against another; a singles game, 3 boules per player.
Doubles: Game composed of 2 players per team, with 3 boules per player.
Triples: Game composed of 3 players per team, with 2 boules per player.
Jack or target ball: (Cochonnet) Made from wood (or FIPJP accepted synthetic), smaller than a boule, it is thrown at the beginning of each end.
Fanny: To win a match with the score of 13-0.
Boule markings: The rings, stripes or design cut into the surface of boules to make them grip the ground better.
Boule Bag: A carrier for a set of boules.
Venue: An indoor or outdoor place specifically designed for playing Petanque.
Piste: The playing area.
Holding: A team is said to be holding for as long as their boule is closest to the coch.
Sledging: Deliberate distracting behaviour during the playing of a game. This is expressly forbidden by Rule 17 of the rules.
Divet: A hole previously made by a boule
Donnee: “Landing spot” the exact ideal place where you intend for your boule to land, before it rolls.
Rolled Boule: A way of pointing, only possible on a smooth surface, in which the boule is rolled nearly all the way from the playing circle to the coch.
Half-Lob: It is to point a boule so that it falls halfway from the circle and the coch. and then rolls towards the coch.
High Lob: It is to point the boule with a high lob so that it falls close to the coch. The forward momentum of the boule is deadened by its fall, immobilizing it at once or almost at once. Used with rougher ground.
Back-Spin: The spin which is imparted to a pointing boule by swinging the wrist forward during the throwing action.
Crouching point: A pointing throw in which the boule is delivered from a semi-crouching position, and guided/rolled nearly all of the way to the coch.
Shoot: To strike an opponent’s boule with the goal of removing it from play/threat.
Direct Hit: The boule is launched in the air, does not touch the ground but comes to land right upon the opponent’s boule.
Carreau: The perfect shot (Direct hit and stay) When shooting, the boule scores a perfect direct hit on the target boule and, in doing so, not only knocks it away, but takes its exact position.
Respite or rolling shot: To hit a target boule by throwing short and rolling onto it.
Shoot the Jack: To shoot at the jack. and by removing it from the defined piste, nullify the end.
A Skimmer: When a shooting boule bounces off the top of the target boule without moving it at all.
The circle: The throwing circle, traced in the ground or prefabricated.
An end: The part of a complete game played from each new throwing circle. A match is made up of as many ends as necessary to first arrive at thirteen points.
Point: Action to roll/lob a boule, in order to stop its movement near to the coch.
A Pointer: A player who specializes in pointing or placing his boules as close as possible to the coch.
An All Rounder: An all-rounder in a team that can point or shoot equally well.
A Shooter: A player who is better at shooting than pointing.
Umpire: The official who adjudicates on all aspects of play
Singles: One player playing against another; a singles game, 3 boules per player.
Doubles: Game composed of 2 players per team, with 3 boules per player.
Triples: Game composed of 3 players per team, with 2 boules per player.
Jack or target ball: (Cochonnet) Made from wood (or FIPJP accepted synthetic), smaller than a boule, it is thrown at the beginning of each end.
Fanny: To win a match with the score of 13-0.
Boule markings: The rings, stripes or design cut into the surface of boules to make them grip the ground better.
Boule Bag: A carrier for a set of boules.
Venue: An indoor or outdoor place specifically designed for playing Petanque.
Piste: The playing area.
Holding: A team is said to be holding for as long as their boule is closest to the coch.
Sledging: Deliberate distracting behaviour during the playing of a game. This is expressly forbidden by Rule 17 of the rules.
Divet: A hole previously made by a boule
Donnee: “Landing spot” the exact ideal place where you intend for your boule to land, before it rolls.
Rolled Boule: A way of pointing, only possible on a smooth surface, in which the boule is rolled nearly all the way from the playing circle to the coch.
Half-Lob: It is to point a boule so that it falls halfway from the circle and the coch. and then rolls towards the coch.
High Lob: It is to point the boule with a high lob so that it falls close to the coch. The forward momentum of the boule is deadened by its fall, immobilizing it at once or almost at once. Used with rougher ground.
Back-Spin: The spin which is imparted to a pointing boule by swinging the wrist forward during the throwing action.
Crouching point: A pointing throw in which the boule is delivered from a semi-crouching position, and guided/rolled nearly all of the way to the coch.
Shoot: To strike an opponent’s boule with the goal of removing it from play/threat.
Direct Hit: The boule is launched in the air, does not touch the ground but comes to land right upon the opponent’s boule.
Carreau: The perfect shot (Direct hit and stay) When shooting, the boule scores a perfect direct hit on the target boule and, in doing so, not only knocks it away, but takes its exact position.
Respite or rolling shot: To hit a target boule by throwing short and rolling onto it.
Shoot the Jack: To shoot at the jack. and by removing it from the defined piste, nullify the end.
A Skimmer: When a shooting boule bounces off the top of the target boule without moving it at all.
History of Petanque
The Ancient Greeks are recorded to have played a game of tossing coins, then flat stones, and later stone balls, called spheristics, trying to have them go as far as possible, as early as the 6th century BC.
The Ancient Romans modified the game by adding a target that had to be approached as closely as possible. This Roman variation was brought to Provence by Roman soldiers and sailors. A Roman sepulchre in Florence shows people playing this game, stooping down to measure the points. After the Romans, the stone balls were replaced by wooden balls, with nails to give them greater weight.
The Ancient Romans modified the game by adding a target that had to be approached as closely as possible. This Roman variation was brought to Provence by Roman soldiers and sailors. A Roman sepulchre in Florence shows people playing this game, stooping down to measure the points. After the Romans, the stone balls were replaced by wooden balls, with nails to give them greater weight.
In the Middle Ages Erasmus referred to the game as globurum, but it became commonly known as ‘boules,’ or balls, and it was played throughout Europe.
King Henry III of England banned the playing of the game by his archers, and in the 14th century, Charles IV and Charles V of France also forbade the sport to commoners. Only in the 17th century was the ban lifted.
By the 19th century, in England the game had become “bowls” or “lawn bowling”; in France, it was known as boules, and was played throughout the country. The French artist Meissonnier made two paintings showing people playing the game, and Honoré de Balzac described a match in La Comédie Humaine.
In the South of France it had evolved into jeu provençal (or boule lyonnaise), similar to today’s pétanque, except that the field was larger and players ran three steps before throwing the ball. The game was played in villages all over Provence, usually on squares of land in the shade of plane trees.
Pétanque in its present form was invented in 1907 in the town of La Ciotat near Marseilles by a French jeu provençal player named Jules Lenoir, whose rheumatism prevented him from running before he threw the ball. The length of the pitch or field was reduced by roughly half, and the moving delivery was replaced with a stationary one.
The first pétanque tournament with the new rules was organized in 1910 by the brothers Ernest and Joseph Pitiot, proprietors of a café at La Ciotat. After that the game grew with great speed, and soon became the most popular form of boules.
The international Pétanque federation (Fédération Internationale de Pétanque et Jeu Provençal) was founded in 1958 in Marseille and has about 600,000 members in 52 countries (2002).
King Henry III of England banned the playing of the game by his archers, and in the 14th century, Charles IV and Charles V of France also forbade the sport to commoners. Only in the 17th century was the ban lifted.
By the 19th century, in England the game had become “bowls” or “lawn bowling”; in France, it was known as boules, and was played throughout the country. The French artist Meissonnier made two paintings showing people playing the game, and Honoré de Balzac described a match in La Comédie Humaine.
In the South of France it had evolved into jeu provençal (or boule lyonnaise), similar to today’s pétanque, except that the field was larger and players ran three steps before throwing the ball. The game was played in villages all over Provence, usually on squares of land in the shade of plane trees.
Pétanque in its present form was invented in 1907 in the town of La Ciotat near Marseilles by a French jeu provençal player named Jules Lenoir, whose rheumatism prevented him from running before he threw the ball. The length of the pitch or field was reduced by roughly half, and the moving delivery was replaced with a stationary one.
The first pétanque tournament with the new rules was organized in 1910 by the brothers Ernest and Joseph Pitiot, proprietors of a café at La Ciotat. After that the game grew with great speed, and soon became the most popular form of boules.
The international Pétanque federation (Fédération Internationale de Pétanque et Jeu Provençal) was founded in 1958 in Marseille and has about 600,000 members in 52 countries (2002).