A few days ago, I happened to be in the vicinity of the Albert Park Bocce Ball courts in San Rafael and out of curiosity I dropped in to see what was going on.
Let me say right away that the place is inviting, well groomed and family-friendly.
I have always been under the impression that bocce was a form of exercise catering to the geriatric set, but to my surprise I discovered that most of the people in attendance were youngsters under the age of forty.
By comparison, most of our members look like yesteryear models with quite a few miles on the odometer… but let me haste to add that old jalopies are sometimes more reliable than more recent models.
Bocce and pétanque have many similarities, but they also differ in many ways. At first sight it seems that bocce is a more civil game than pétanque, but it also looks that pétanque is more challenging.
To start with, bocce requires carefully groomed lanes whereas pétanque doesn’t. The game can be played just about anywhere (pétanque sauvage) and for purists, the more challenging the environment the better it is.
It also seems that in bocce, you don’t need a great variety of shots to bring your ball close to the jack (boccino or pallino).
In pétanque, you have to pay close attention to the ground and gauge your shots to fit the existing topography. If you see some gravels or debris in the ball’s path, you might have to use a lob shot or a “curved shot” to avoid them. I have never seen such tricks in bocce.
If the field shows some incline you might also need to apply some backspin to your ball to slow it down.
Then in bocce I have never witnessed “au fer” shots. I didn’t even think that it was done. In petanque, such shots are common.
I had to go to the Internet to check that such shots existed in in bocce. And they do.
Damn!
One of our 78-year-old member is known for saying “I don’t like to play with old people”… and that’s why maybe he doesn’t play with too many people.
I think that in casual games most people would rather team up with younger players rather than old geezers, but tournaments are a different story.
If you are competitive, experience definitely trumps looks.
The question is, would you rather play with a pretty young thing and lose, or team up with with an arthritic old geezer and triumph?
It is up to you to decide.
Alain
PS: To see a full scale shot of a photograph, click on it.
Thanks to Jacques Gautier for showing me the following video. To get the full effect, watch it in “full screen” mode.
