Are you looking for a friendly game to brighten up your afternoons with family or friends ?
or are you a fierce competitor and want to compete against the best ?
Pétanque is the dream activity for that !
The rules of pétanque are very easy: which makes this game accessible to everyone (young and old).
Can be played on multiple surfaces, pétanque allows you to have a good time with family or friends, in your favorite places or on specially designed pitches (private or official).
PETANQUE SPOT “PITCH & LANDSCAPING department” can shape your play area and arrange your conviviality space.
To play Pétanque, you need:
- A pitch, preferably flat (around 13 to 15 m long – for official pitches, the dimension is 4 m wide x 15 m long)
- Competition or leisure boules + a jack, and optional accessories (throwing circle, cleaning cloth, ball picker, etc.): materials that you can find at PETANQUE SPOT www.petanque-spot.com.au
- Form two teams to play:
- “singles”, literraly “head-to-head” = one against one (3 balls each)
- or “doubles” = two against two (3 balls each)
- or even in “triples” = three against three (2 balls each).
- Draw a circle on the ground (starting point of the game).
Starting a Pétanque game:
After drawing lots (in any way you wish): to start a Pétanque game, one of players draws or places a circle on the ground and places themselves inside.
From there, he throws the jack, which must be visible and be between 6 and 10 meters from the circle.
The player, who threw the jack, throws the first boule: so as to be as close as possible to the “goal”.
Then the opposing player in turn tries to get as close as possible to the jack by shooting or pointing to the previous player’s boule.
- Shooting means: moving the opposing boule by shocking it strongly to move it away from the jack, or skillfully replacing it with your own boule, and taking the point.
- Pointing means: trying to place your boule closer to the “goal” than your opponent’s boule.
The team, whose boule is closest to the jack, leads the game. It is the other team which must then play their boules until it can regain the advantage.
When one team no longer has boules in hand, the other team must play all of their own.
Once all the boules have been thrown, the points must be counted. The winning team scores a point for each boule better placed (close to the jack) than the best boule of the opposing team.
The team that scores one or more points takes the jack and throws it again to play a new round.
A Pétanque game is generally played to 13 winning points.
How to win at Pétanque game:
Be the first team to score 13 points.
Be careful not to “be Fanny”!
When a team is “Fanny”: it did not score any points and therefore lost the game 13 to 0.
Originally, the humiliation for a team scoring no points was “kissing Fanny”.
That is to say kissing the buttocks of a fake “Fanny” (represented by a painting, a sculpture, etc.).
Nowadays a “Fanny” team must pay for their tour of drinks, for example.
That’s more seemly and more user-friendly.
With a genuine “Pastis” on the rocks with fresh water (an anise-flavoured spirit and aperitif from South of France) – to drink with moderation -and a good “saucisson” (a pork sausage slow-aged and air-dried that’s a staple of French food culture), to share between players and friends:
you really will be in the mood !
