Club milestones:
Opened July 2021.
Added a sixth lane May 2023
Affiliated to Pétanque England August 2023
First Open Tournament October 2023
This piste is large enough for six UK or three International sized lanes.
Members can book one of the six lanes using the online booking system. Time slots of 1, 2 or 3 hours are available to book free for BCSC members.
The game of pétanque starts very simply… just get your boules closer to the jack/cosh/pig (the target ball) than your opponent. Once you've reached 13 points, you've won!
If you don't have your own boules, you can hire these for a small charge at the bar.
Charges for hire of Boules for up to 3 hours.
Beginners set £5.o0 per person
Intermediate set £7.50 per person
HOW TO PLAY PÉTANQUE
Preparing for a game
Up for a quick game of pétanque? 1 against 1 or in teams of 2 or 3 players, but there must not be more than 12 boules on the pitch at the same time:
SINGLES 1 AGAINST 1 WITH 3 BOULES EACH
DOUBLES 2 AGAINST 2 WITH 3 BOULES EACH
TRIPLES 3 AGAINST 3 WITH 2 BOULES EACH
The playing area
THE UK CLUB PÉTANQUE PITCH SIZE IS 3M WIDE X 12M LONG AND A CONTINENTAL REGULATION SIZE IS 4M WIDE X 15M LONG.
THE SONNING PÉTANQUE PISTE IS CONFIGURED FOR 6 UK CLUB LANES OR 3 CONTINENTAL REGULATION SIZE AND HAS A LIMESTONE BASE MATERIAL DRESSED WITH GRANO DUST (CRUSHED GRANITE) AND CHIPPED LIMESTONE.
Time to play!
To start the first round, known as a "mène" or "end"
Clear the way!
Throw the jack a distance of between 6 and 10 m inclusive, making sure it lands 1 m from any obstacle
(wall, tree, etc.).
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Now concentrate and throw your first boule, aiming to land it as close as possible to the jack.
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When you're done, your opponent enters the circle. Will they choose to skillfully point their boule to place it even closer to the jack or will they try to shoot your boule and knock it out of the way?
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After each throw, go and check the distances from the jack, there might only be millimetres in it!
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The best placed boule is said to "have the point" and is in the lead. It is the player or team that "does not have the point" that throw next. This team then throws its boules until it gains the point.
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And if the player and their team run out of boules? The opposing team throw all the boules they have left. They are free to try and score as many points as possible… When all the boules have been thrown, the end is over.
During this end, one of the players may also have knocked the jack "dead", i.e. out of play. And when the jack is pushed too far, the end is void or scoreless. And that's when things get interesting! Whether each team still has boules to throw or, on the contrary, they have none left to play: the jack belongs to the last team to score or which won the coin toss. And if ever only one of the teams still has some boules, it scores as many points as it still has boules in hand!
Scoring the end.
When an end is finished, we count up the points! The team with the boule closest to the jack wins the end and can tot up points.
It scores one point for each boule better placed (i.e. closer to the jack) than the other team's. What if only one of your boules is closer to the jack than the closest of the opponents' boules? You win the end with 1 point! If 2 of your boules are closer: 2 points, and so on.
Next end: one of the players from the winning team puts the throwing circle over the jack and throws it from there to start the next end. The game continues. You keep playing more ends and adding up the points.
When one team reaches 13 points, they've won - and the game is over!