Playing surface Petanque, also known as Boules, is played outdoors on any reasonably firm surface: your backyard, the park, a field, a gravel parking lot, a shell driveway, etc. Hard surfaces like concrete or asphalt or very soft surfaces like a fine beach sand or long grass are not recommended. Most International competitions are held in indoor stadiums where the surface of play has been built accordingly. Ideal surfaces are clay based with either shell or fine quarry stone topped. Any place that is open and fairly flat is a potential site. A few bumps and hollows are fine and they can even add more challenge to the game. In fact more and more competition surfaces are far from smooth and level.
Teams These can made up of one, two or three players, known respectively as Singles (one player on each side), Doubles (two players on each side), or Triples (three players on each side). In a Singles competition each player plays with three balls. Same in a doubles competition. However in a Triples competition, each player plays with two balls.
The Boules Competition balls are different from leisure balls in that they are serialised, have their weight and their make engraved are the only types authorised by the "Federation Internationale de Petanque and du Jeu Provencal" (FIPJP) at competition events.
Starting a game Deciding who goes first is normally done with a toss of a coin. The team that wins the coin toss chooses the starting location and then selects one of their players to throw out the coche. The starting location is indicated by a circle that is 30 to 45 cm in diameter and should be at least a metre away from any dead ball line. The circle should be drawn with a stick, or with anything that is hard ( a finger will do) so that it can be quickly and easily localised. The player who leads off, stands with both feet inside the circle and throws the coche. The coche can be thrown in any direction but must come to rest within 6 to 10 metres of the starting circle and one metre away from any obstacle or dead ball line.
Throwing Your Boules Boules must be thrown from within the starting circle and with both feet on the ground. The aim is to throw the boule so that it comes to rest as close to the coche as possible. The boule while play, is allowed to touch or to move the coche (jack). The player should stay in the circle until their boule has landed. Next a player from the other team will have their throw. They will step into the circle and attempt at getting a boule closer to the coche - it is fully allowable to knock (shoot) your opponent's boule out of the way as part of the process. In fact as one become more experienced, this strategy becomes an important and integral part of the whole game strategy. The boule closest to the coche is said to be "holding the point." The other team must then continue throwing their boules until they are holding the point or they run out of boules. Team members are not required to play in any particular order when throwing their boules however, they must only throw their own boules and they must throw their boules one at a time from within the starting circle. They cannot borrow boules from a team mate. If they take the lead (hold the point), the other team then tries to reverse the situation by landing a leading boule.
Winning the End Once a team has thrown all its boules, the other side is allowed to throw their remaining boules. Once all boules are thrown, the points are counted. The team that has their boule closest to the coche wins that end. Additionally, they also get an extra point for each boule that is closer to the coche than their opponents closest boule. Only one team scores points per end. You cannot score negative points.
Beginning a New End Once the points are tallied, the next end begins with the previous end's winners drawing a new starting circle. The team that won the previous end then selects a team player to toss out the coche to start the process all over again.
Winning the Game The first team to reach 13 points wins the game. There is no minimum or maximum number of ends that must be played. Depending on the organisers some games may be played to 11 points.
