Seven deadly sins - sin 3:
The sinner: plays without checking the terrain, complains about stones and “bad bounces” and hits blocking boules.
The winner: walks to the jack, examining the terrain, checking for slopes and dips, hard or stony areas, chooses the correct landing spot, takes note of any blocking boules, then wins the point. Winners get far less “bad bounces” than those who don’t check the terrain.
If there is a slope on the terrain, which can either be up or down and/or across the terrain, you have to:
- Have observed that this is the case and
- Play according to the slope.
“Playing the slope” can involve:
- Rolling or half-lobbing, taking the slope into account – don’t just play straight to the jack and wonder why you’re boule goes 3m off to the side…
- High-lob to land near the jack, thus minimising the distance the boule rolls and is affected by the slope
- Spinning the boule to counteract the slope.
Sometimes a slope can make it very difficult to get a boule near the jack. In which case you need to consider where is the best place to position your boule, which will make it difficult to beat, e.g. supposing the terrain is fairly flat but slopes down about 2m in front of the jack. If you roll down the slope, your boule won’t stop! You need to play 2m in front of the jack, stopping just before the slope, hoping that any boule that “beats” your boule will simply continue rolling…
Remember, petanque is meant to be played on an irregular, uneven surface – see Sin No 6.
Bad Bounce or Bad Shot? The “Holy” Sin.
This is similarly related to the type of terrain and reading the terrain. Hopefully by now you know that choosing the correct landing spot is one of the key skills to pointing well. Practising landing on the chosen spot is an important exercise to develop the skill and achieve consistency.
However, a lot of players often play one or more boules in quick succession and wonder why they get so many “bad bounces”. The reason is often that they land their boules in the hole they’ve just made with their first boule!
Remember, the rules allow you to fill in any hole(s) made by the last boule played. Often it will be to your advantage to do so. This both helps you avoid landing in a hole that’s going to deflect your boule and also to, legally, prepare a landing spot for your next boule.
Finally some petanque-product news have arrived. It is not often new things appear, boules are quite simple items, and the differences are subtle mostly. But this time it is a completely new product
It is 7h30 I have slept only 4 hours and I am one of them. My team number is 207 and we are playing against V.Chavinat game 1581. I go to the games Office, get my playing pack (3 bags, 3 t-shirts , 3 bobs/soft sun hats, 3 chifonettes) and my playing card on which we will have to enter the score at the end of the first round and return it to the same office.
We just got word of a new petanque-game, for all of those of you with a PC. It's called "petank party", and looks quite unique...
We have integrated petanque.org with yet another newcomer to the web, this time it is youtube. So please give us your ideas!
Here are some pics from the 2nd Johannesburg Open played at the Boulesdust piste at the Zoo Lake Sports Club in Johannesburg (see Google Pic). There were 10 doublets who played in 2 round robin leagues. The top 2 teams then played in the semi-finals. The final was won by Paul and Howie who beat Gerald and Bridget in a tense final that finished well after 8pm.
New petanque-product hits the webGérald at Mondial La Marseillaise a Petanque 2008-08-04Crazy petanque game soon availableYoutube joins petanque.orgLyon library - story on Boule lyonnaisePetanque.org integrates with flickrPetanque.org is 10 years old! Illegal Petanque ExposedA Petanque calendar for 2008Hot club petanqe and Le mondial la marseillaise a petanque 2007
technique (10 )Cheating? (2 )2009 the world game competition arena (1 )No boules for playing games (4 )anyone made a surface? (2 )quintais (6 )new terrain? (5 )Pastis? (3 )Tir de precision history (1 )Shame on the cheap Dutchmen! (3 )Feedback (1 )Boule (1 )World Championships (8 )dislodged dead boule line (3 )divebomb technique (5 )
