The Rules of Petanque

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Petanque is also known as Boule and Bocce or Boules, it is similar to British lawn bowling, but being a traditional pub game without any national or international governing body, variations of equipment and rules can vary widely and so the locally played rules should always apply.

The object of the game is to throw your balls with a somewhat of an arched back-spin so that they land closer to the small object ball (cochonnet ) than those of your opponent, or strike and drive the object ball toward your other balls and away from your opponent's.

How to play


The surface of a petanque pitch can be of any material but usually thin gravel or sand is most appropriate. 
The shape can be either a thin strip 25 to 30 m long and 3 m wide or it can just be a large flat area, in the case of a thin strip the lines often define the playing areas.
This can be a line 2m from either end beyond which a boule is out of play and at 5m from either end behind which a player must remain while playing each boule.

The only really essential equipment is a set of three steel boules, a set may cost next to nothing from an older player upto around £80-100 for professional sets.
To be legitimate for competition play, a boule must conform to the following specifications:

Each boule is made of metal and is between 70.5 to 80.0 mm in diameter, weighing from 650 to 800 grams
In singles, each player has four boules, in doubles, each player has three boules and for triples, each player has just two boules. 
The jack or cochonnet is a small wooden ball around 1 1/2 inches in diameter. 

A proper cochonnet is turned from beech wood and is between 2.5 cm and 3.5 cm (1" to 1-3/8") in diameter.
It may help to have a brightly coloured cochonnet, especially in conditions of low light, but the rules specify that a cochonnet may be stained but not painted.
A cochonnet is not regarded as essential, since in any gathering of pétanqueurs many people can be counted on to provide one.

A steel tape measure, preferably in centimeters to measure the distance of the boules from the cochonnet

Other useful items can be:-
Peaked cap for playing against the sun
Powerful magnet on the end of a string: for those who have trouble bending down to pick up boules
Special cloth for wiping grit off boules, eg old T-shirt or beer cloth
Sufficient warm clothes for playing at the early and later ends of the season

A player who wants to specialize in pointing or placing should normally favour a small and  heavy boule, this is because a heavy boule is slightly more difficult to displace and a boule of the minimum allowable diameter presents a smaller target to the opposition's shooters. Women and young boys who usually have smaller hands and less arm strength will often compromise by selecting a boule that is both light and small.

A shooter should choose a lighter boule for the best chance of success, the decreased momentum of a light boule gives it the best chance of remaining in place after knocking an opponent's boule out of the game aka the perfect and much admired shot known as a carreau. A shooter should not use a small boule as a shot that just barely misses with a small boule might have been effective if only that extra 5 mm had been on the radius!

In choosing a boule, however, perhaps the overriding consideration is "play with what feels comfortable to you."


Boules is most commonly played in teams of three.  A good team of three will often consist of a "pointeur" who is best at getting the boules nearest to the cochonnet, a "tireur" who specialises in knocking opposing balls out of contention and a "milieu", the captain who is an all rounder. 

The player who starts the leg must first draw a circle around her feet with a diameter of between 35 and 50 cm, all players must keep both feet on the ground and within this circle when throwing.   The player then throws the cochonnet which must land between 6 and 10 metres away and be at least half a metre away from any obstacle such as the edge of the pitch or a tree.

The nearest boule to the cochonnet is always called the "best boule", each player throws their boules until that player runs out of boules or throws a boule that is best boule.  Once a player achieves best boule, the next player on the opponents team plays in the same way.  When a player runs out of boules, the next player in the same team takes over.  The first player therefore always throws just one boule before retiring from the throwing circle because the first boule is automatically best boule.  When all the players in a team run out of boules, the opposing team finishes the leg by playing all their remaining boules in an effort to increase their score.

The winner of the leg scores one point for each boule that is closer to the target than the opponent's best boule.  The team that reaches 13 points first, wins.