Overview
Enjoy those long summer days and evenings playing with all the family and friends playing some great outdoors games. From the younger member of the family to the older family member, everyone can have fun playing this all time favourite Boules with this garden boules game set.
Simple and fun to play boules is just part of our large range of Garden Games which includes Rounders Sets, Skittles and many more which you can find here.
If you are looking for something on a bigger scale then why not take a look at some of Giant Garden Games where you can find fun things like Giant Chess, Giant Draughts, Giant Tower Games and even a giant version of the very popular game Connect 4.
When looking through our fantastic range of Garden Games you will see that we have a great selection at real value for money prices that will give all the family and friends some great fun filled times.
What's Included and Dimms
Garden Boules set includes:
* 8 Polished Alloy Boules
* Heavy Duty Metal Carrying Case
* Wooden Jack
* Measure
Garden Boules Dimms:
* Metal Carrying Case: 34 x 9.2 x 19.5 cms
* Weight (inc Boules): 6 kgs
Delivery
Orders placed on a weekend or Bank Holiday will be processed on the Next Working Business day.
Standard Delivery of this product which is included in our price is to Mainland England, Wales and most of Scotland (see below) and is on a 3 - 5 working day service. Additional carriage charges apply to delivery areas outside of these areas and can be found below along with the expected delivery service. Delivery to these other areas is normally between 3 - 5 working days but please allow up to 5 working days.
All Deliveries are made between Monday - Friday - 08:00 - 18:00
3 - 5 day (Standard) service up to 30 kgs: Included in Price
Mainland England and Wales: All Postcodes
Scotland: AB, DD, DG, EH, FK, G, KA (except KA27 and KA28), KY, ML, PA1 - PA19, PH1 - PH4, TD.
3 - 5 day (Standard) service up to 30 kgs: £9.99
Northern Ireland: All BT Postcodes
Southern Ireland: Rep of Eire
Isle of Wight: PO30 - PO41 (IOW Only)
Scilly Isles: TR21 - TR25
3 - 5 day (Standard) service up to 30 kgs: £22.99
Scottish Highlands & Islands: G83 - G84, HS, IV, KA27 - KA28, KW, PA20 - PA78, PH17 - PH50, ZE.
Channel Islands: JE, GY
Isle of Man: IM
If you are in a hurry to receive your goods, the option of a Next Working Business day service to certain areas, and which is available as a chargeable option as shown below, MUST BE ORDERED BEFORE 11.30am on a working business day.
Please Note:
Next Working Business Day service is NOT available for Scottish Highlands, Scottish Islands, Southern Ireland, Channel Islands or the Isle of Man.
Next Working Business Day service up to 30 kgs: £9.99
Mainland England and Wales: All Postcodes
Scotland: AB, DD, DG, EH, FK, G (except G83 and G84), KA (except KA27 - KA28), KY, ML, PA1 - PA19, PH1 - PH4, TD.
Next Working Business Day service up to 30 kgs: £18.99
Northern Ireland: All BT Postcodes
Isle of Wight: PO30 - PO41 (IOW Only)
Scilly Isles: TR21 - TR25
History
The game of boules, otherwise known as pétanque , is perhaps the sport that is closest to French hearts. Similar to British lawn bowling or Italian bocce , the French version is traditionally played with metallic balls on a dirt surface beneath trees, with a glass of pastis at hand. The local boulodrome is a social focal point in southern France.
The object of the game is to throw your balls - usually with 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.
The Ancient Greeks are recorded to have played a game of tossing coins, then flat stones, and later stone balls, called spheristics, trying to have them go as far as possible, as early as the 6th century B.C. The Ancient Romans modified the game by adding a target that had to be approached as closely as possible. This Roman variation was brought to Provence by Roman soldiers and sailors. A Roman sepulchre in Florence shows people playing this game, stooping down to measure the points.
Pétanque is a form of boules where the goal is, while standing with the feet together in a small circle, to throw hollow metal balls as close as possible to a small ball called a cochonnet (jack). The game is normally played on hard dirt or gravel, but can also be played on grass or other surfaces. Soft sandy beaches are not suitable.
After the Romans, the stone balls were replaced by wooden balls, with nails to give them greater weight. In the Middle Ages Erasmus referred to the game as globurum, but it became commonly known as 'boules,' or balls, and it was played throughout Europe. King Henry III of England banned the playing of the game by his archers, and in the 14th Century, King Charles IV of France and Charles V of France also forbade the sport to commoners. Only in the 17th century was the ban lifted.
By the 19th century, in England the sport had become "bowls" or "lawn bowling"; in France, it was known as boules, and was played throughout the country. The French artist Meissonnier made two paintings showing people playing the game, and Honoré de Balzac described a match in La Comédie Humaine. In the South of France it had evolved into jeu provençal, similar to today's pétanque, except that the field was larger and players ran three steps before throwing the ball. The game was played in villages all over Provence, usually on squares of land in the shade of plane trees. Matches of jeu provençale at the turn of the century are memorably described in the memoirs of novelist Marcel Pagnol.
Pétanque in its present form was invented in 1907 in the town of La Ciotat near Marseilles in southern France by a French boule lyonnaise player named Jules Lenoir, whom rheumatism prevented from running before he threw the ball. The length of the pitch or field was reduced by roughly half, and the moving delivery was replaced with a stationary one.
The English and French name pétanque comes from la petanca in the Provençal dialect of the Occitan language, deriving from the expression pès tancats, meaning "feet together" or more exactly "feet anchored".
The first pétanque tournament with the new rules was organized in 1910 by the brothers Ernest & Joseph Pitiot, proprietors of a café at La Ciotat. After that the sport grew with great speed, and soon became the most popular form of boules. The international Pétanque federation Fédération Internationale de Pétanque et Jeu Provençal was founded in 1958 in Marseille and has about 600,000 members in 52 countries (2002).
The first World Championships were organized in 1959.
The casual form of the game of Pétanque is played by about 17 million people in France, mostly during their summer vacations. There are about 375,000 players licensed with the Fédération Française de Pétanque et Jeu Provençal (FFPJP) and some 3000 in England.
Rules
DOWNLOAD OR PRINT OFF RULES FOR BOULES HERE
(opens as a PDF in a separate window which can then be saved as a file or printed off)
Simple Rules for playing Boules (Pétanque):
Size of teams:
You can play the game with two teams of one, two or three players on each side.
Number of boules per player:
With teams of 1 or 2 players, each player has 3 boules
With teams of 3 players, each has 2 boules.
Choosing the throwing place:
Toss a coin to see which team plays first.
Any player in the team that wins the toss chooses where to draw a circle on the ground in which every player will stand to throw their boules.
The circle should be about 0.5m in diameter and at least 1m from any obstacle (wall, tree, edge of playing area, etc).
The team that wins the toss is also the team that throws first.
Throwing the (Jack) cochonnet:
A Player of the winning toss team then throws the "cochonnet" between 4m and 8m, or 6 to 10 paces from the circle in any direction. It also must not be closer than 1m from any obstacle.
Playing the first boule:
Any player from the first team then throws the first boule, trying to get it as close as possible to the "cochonnet" without touching it.
Both feet must stay together on the ground and within the circle while throwing and until the boule has landed.
The other team:
A player from the other team then steps into the circle and tries to place a boule closer to the cochonnet than their opponent, or to knock the opponent's boule away.
You must throw within 1 minute of your turn starting.
The boule nearest to the cochonnet is said to be "holding the point".
Who's turn to play:
The players in the team that is not "holding" continue throwing until they place a boule closest to the cochonnet, and so on.
Players on the same team do not have to take alternate throws, but players must always play their own boules.
When one team has no more boules left:
When a team has no more boules left to play, the players of the other team throw theirs and try to place them as close as possible to the cochonnet.
Counting the points:
When both teams have no more boules left, you stop and count up the points.
The winning team scores one point for each boule nearer the cochonnet than the opponents closest.
Only one team can score points in each round.
Starting the next round:
A player from the team that has won throws the cochonnet from a new circle drawn round the cochonnet's last position.
The winners are the first team to reach 13 points (or whatever total you decide).
