Bocce ball is a variation of lawn bowling. In lawn bowling one needs to have a grass surface on which to play and if there is a lawn enclosure the lawn bowling ball cannot be bounced of the enclosing boards. Bocce ball started in Italy and it is said that roman soldiers were the ones who invented it. Between battles they would throw stones at a stationery stone and knock it over to score points. Soon it became a team sport. Today bocce ball is popular in Italy and France and Italian and French immigrants brought it to USA. Bocce ball can be played on any surface it can be a lawn a driveway a side street or even a graveled surface. So the backyard can be used to play bocce ball. Two four or eight players can play it and bocce balls are a set of nine balls. One is called the Pallino or the target ball.
The teams usually toss to decide which team will start and then a member from the winning team will toss the target ball on any side as he or she wishes and then the two teams compete in trying to hit it with the bocce balls. Once the set of balls are used up the game points are awarded and the next innings starts. This goes on till a team has scored 12 points which are the number of points that need to be scored to win the game. The Pallino or target ball is about the size of a golf ball and the playing Bocce balls are bigger. Bocce balls have a diameter of 4 1/5” and weigh 2 oz and are made of hard synthetic material. Once the Pallino has been tossed a ‘foul line’ is established and players must not cross this line when tossing the bocce ball. There are three variations that players can use to toss the ball. One is to roll it gently towards the target ball. The other is to aim for the target ball and try and smash it with a fast throw and the other is to throw it with the hand overhead. As the purpose is to hit the target ball or to knock opponents balls if they are crowding the target ball any variation of tossing the ball can be used. A bocce ball court is 60 to 80 feet long and has to be 12 feet wide. The side boards have to be 4 ½ “high. Like in billiards the side boards that surround the bocce court can be used to deflect a ball.
Bocce ball history dates back to the roman era and during the middle ages it became a very popular sport in Italy and France and at one point in history it was banned and only the nobility could play it. There are some famous stories regarding lawn bowling and bocce ball. One is that Sir Frances Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh were playing a game of lawn bowling when the got the news of the invasion by the Spanish armada and Sir Frances Drake suggested that they finish the game before setting sail. Another reason could be that the tide was out and he could not sail his fleet out of the harbor.
Bocce ball is quite popular in the USA and there are supposed to be more then a million registered members of this sport. One can easily learn how to build a bocce ball court and one can make their own backyard bocce ball rules. Now one can even get glow in the dark bocce balls set so that the game can be played in the night without using any special outdoor lighting. Bocce balls can be stored in a bocce ball metal case and one can take bocce ball lessons from any bocce ball player or join a bocce ball club.
| |||||
