Play Pétanque at Morley Field, Balboa Park, San Diego, California

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Play Pétanque at Morley Field. Hours when staffed: Monday - Friday: 3:00pm to 9:00pm Saturday - Sunday: 9:00am to 5:00pm Pétanque is a form of boules where the goal is to throw hollow metal balls as close as possible to a small wooden ball called acochonnet (literally "piglet") or jack, while standing inside a starting circle with both feet on the ground. The game is normally played on hard dirt or gravel, but can also be played on grass, sand or other surfaces. Similar games are bocce, bowls and curling. Find a place in many of the cities in France. All is needed is a set of balls, except perhaps a bottle of wine. The current form of the game originated in 1907 in La Ciotat, in Provence, in southern France. The English and French name pétanque comes from petanca in the Provençal dialect of the Occitan language, deriving from the expressionpès tancats, meaning "feet together" or more exactly "feet anchored". Pétanque is played by two teams, where each team consists of one, two, or three players. In the singles and doubles games each player has three boules; in triples each player has only two. A coin is tossed to decide which side goes first. The starting team draws a circle on the ground which is 35-50 centimeters in diameter: all players must throw their boules from within this circle, with both feet remaining on the ground. The first player throws the jack 6–10 meters away. A player from the team that threw the jack then throws their first boule. A player from the opposing team then makes a throw. Play continues with the team that is not closest to the jack having to continue throwing until they either land a boule closer to the jack than their opponents or run out of boules. If the closest boules from each team are an equal distance from the jack, then the team that played last plays again. If the boules are still equidistant then the teams play alternately until the position changes. If the boules are still equidistant at the end of the game then no points are scored by either team. The game continues with a player from the team that won the previous end drawing a new circle around where the jack finished and throwing the jack for a new end. Play ends, and points may be scored when both teams have no more boules, or when the jack is knocked out of play. The winning team receives one point for each boule that it has closer to the jack than the best-placed boule of the opposition. If the jack is knocked out of play, no team scores unless only one team has boules left to play. In this case the team with boules receives one point for each that they have to play. The first team to reach 13 points wins. Other rules: A boule hitting a boundary is dead and is removed from that end. On a court or piste marked with strings, a boule is dead if it completely crosses the string. The circle can be moved back in the line of the previous end if there is not room to play a 10 meter end. The boule can be thrown at any height or even rolled depending on the terrain. Boules are thrown underarm, usually with the palm of the hand downwards which allows backspin to be put on the boule giving greater control. Each team should have suitable measuring equipment. In most cases a tape measure is adequate but calipers or other measuring devices may be needed.

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