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Basic Rules

of

Pétanque

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 1 The game is played by two teams of one, two or  three players. In singles or doubles, each player uses 3 boules. In triples, each player uses 2 boules. There must be no more than 12 boules on the ground.
2. Players use steel boules of diameter between 70.5mm and 80mm. The weight must be in the range of between 650g and 800g. The cochonnet or "jack" is made of wood and must be between   25mm and 35mm in diameter.

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 3 The team to play first is chosen by the toss of a coin. Any player in this team chooses a starting place and draws a circle on the ground in which to stand. This should be between 35cm and 50cm in diameter and and at least 1m from any obstacle
4.   The player then throws the "jack" between 6m and 10m from the circle in any direction. It also must not be closer than 1m from any obstacle (wall, tree, boundary of playing area, etc).

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 5. He/she then  throws the first boule, trying to get it as close as possible to the "jack". NB both     feet must remain on the ground and within the circle until the boule has landed.
6. A player from the opposing team then steps into the circle and tries to place a boule closer to the "jack" than his or her opponent, or knock the opponents boule away. The boule nearest to the "jack" leads or is said to be "holding the point"

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 7. It is then up to the players in the team that is not "holding" to continue       until they achieve a leading boule, and so on.
8. When a team has no more boules to be played, the players of the other team throw theirs and try to place them as close as possible to the "jack".
9. When the two  teams have no more boules, the points are counted. The winning team scores one point for each boule nearer the "jack" than the opponents closest.

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10. A player from the team that has won the previous end throws the "jack" from the place where it was at the conclusion of the end. The  winners  are the  first  team  to reach  13 points.