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Pétanque - a French Boules Sport

Pétanque was invented in France in the early 20th century. The sport is also sometimes called boules, though boules is a general term for a range of similar sports including pétanque. The objective of Pétanque is to throw hollow metal balls towards a small wooden target ball, called the jack, and get it as close as possible to the target.



The sport is played in a rectangular field that is 15m long and at least 4m wide. The surface is typically loose gravel. Players throw the boules from a circular ring that is 50cm in diameter.

Pétanque can be played in singles, doubles, or triples format. Singles and doubles matches are played with three boules per player and the triples format is played with two boules per player.

who is closest? who is closest?

The game play involves first throwing the target ball, followed by both teams throwing all their boules. When both teams are done throwing all their boules, it signifies the end of a round. The team that has a ball closest to the jack wins the round, and scores one point for each boule that is closer to the target than the opponent's closest boule. Matches are played in rounds, and a single match is played till one team reaches 13 points first, which might last for several rounds.



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