Why not come and try your hand at our new Boules pitch here at Rockingham Forest Park.

Boules or La Pétanque as it is sometimes called is enjoyed by around 20 million people in France, and they like nothing better than to give visitors a game.

How do I play?

The game of Boules is played between two teams of 1-3 players, each player uses 3 boules.  The game begins by tossing a coin to decide who should have the right to place the small ball, the ‘but’, ‘jack’ or cochonnet.  Teams duke it out to be the winning team nearest the ‘jack’. The aim is to place your boules nearer the jack than your opponents, this can be achieved by either knocking your opponents’ boules away or ‘nudging the jack’. The game continues until one team has reached 13 points.

How do I score points?

At the end of every round, points are tabulated by looking at the boule that is closest to the jack.  You score one point for each of your boules that are closer than the closest boule that belongs to the rival team.

Throwing the Boule

The most widely used method of throwing is underarm with the palm facing down.  There is no rule to say you must throw this way, but it is better for control and imparts backspin.  Since the main objective of the sport is to get your team’s boules as close to the ‘but’ or ‘jack’ as possible it is best to throw in the intended way.

Rumours

The rumour is that the Romans first invented the game around 2600 years ago!  They would have used stone balls, Gallic tribes used wooden boules and in the 1800s France made them of a very hard wood, boxwood root.  Boules these days are made from two major types of steel, Carbon, and Stainless steel.   There is archaeological evidence that a form of Petanque was played over seventy centuries ago in Greece.

The game became popularised throughout Europe during the Middle Ages. 

The first all-metal boule, la Boule Integrale, was introduced in the mid-1920s by Paul Courtieu.

 *(Fun fact, King Henry III banned his archers from playing it as it became addictive and a distraction).*

Boule, from French, meaning ‘’ball’’, is a traditional shape of French bread resembling a squashed ball.  A boule can be made using any type of flour and can be leavened with commercial yeast, chemical leavening, or even wild yeast sourdough.

Written by Faye McGregor

*Contact Maintenance from your Lodge phone or call the Out Of Hours number to request the key to the Boules locker, Mon-Sun between the hours of 8am-5pm.  Once you have finished simply replace the Boules and return the key*.