THE GAME OF BOCCE

In any case, while there may be some official "rules" of the game, practice is quite variable from place to place in Italy. For example, competition may be played on a formal bocce field, but most persons simply play on any expanse of available land which can be lawn or hard-packed clay. In more formal play, the field is long and narrow and surrounded with a slightly raised curb which keeps the balls in play.

In other words, bocce is usually played casually. The object of the game is to get as may heavies as close as possible to the pallino without allowing the balls of opponents to interpose themselves. Usually, the heavies are marked in some way, four for one team, four for the other. Thus, from two to eight players can play, one to four on each team.

A toss of a coin determines the team that throws out the pallino to start the game. The player who throws the pallino must throw the first heavy. A player from the other team then tries to get his heavy closer to the pallino than the first ball. If successful, other members of the opposing team throw their heavies until one of them interposes their ball. When this occurs, the opposite team begins to throw (and so forth and so on).

After all the balls (heavies) have been thrown, the team with one or more balls closer to the pallino than the other team's closest heavy scores one point for each ball. Thus concludes a "frame" and other frames are played, usually until a team reaches 21 points.

While I have used the term "throw", it is quite usual to simply roll the heavies into position (age may be a factor here). And while the object of the game is to position your heavy closest to the pallino, there is no rule against trying to knock away an opponent's ball, leaving the throwing team in scoring position, or to strike the pallino, thus moving it closer to the attacking team's heavies. In fact, much of the fun of this game is associated with just these sorts of play.

Any sort of measuring device can be employed to determine scoring position and disputes over this effort also make the game peculiarly Italian! If it is determined that two heavies, one from each team, are equidistant from the pallino, no score results from that frame.

The team that scores in a frame has the honor of throwing the pallino out in the next frame.

Generally, a line is drawn on the ground beyond which a player may not step in throwing (or lobbing) his heavy; but this, too, is a local ground rule which varies from place to place and team to team.

Lobbing to any height is acceptable as long as the heavy remains in play. Backward spin can be given to the heavy to make it stick when it lands. Almost anything is allowed so long as it doesn't result in profanity or tempers too hot to permit enjoyment.

I remember very well my uncles playing bocce on Sunday afternoons out in the backyard while my mother and aunts were inside cleaning up after a monumental meal. Even now, one of my favorite pastimes is playing bocce with my elderly father who continues to surpass his son in technique and luck!

I should add that, while I have never before thought of it, I have seen only men play this game. Women seem never to play it with, perhaps, the sole exception of little girls who pick the game up after the men are finished.

Bocce ball sets are available in sports shops; I bought mine in an Italian hardware store in a Little Italy where I grew up.

NB The above was extracted from a newsgroup and already in the public domain when I got it, however, if the author is known to anyone, perhaps they would ask him to get in touch if he has any objection to my reproduction of it for the benefit of bowlers, and would-be bowlers everywhere..