I was playing a comp on the weekend, and during one of our games my partner was practicing, the umpire came over and took his 2 balls over meaning he wasn't allowed to be in the following end, which left our team 2 balls short that end. Is the umpire allowed to do that? OR does the player need a warning 1st? because in the rule book it says the umpire can do want he or she wants as the penlty.
cheers.

Note:I have removed extra wording of articles 10 below.

Articles 18 – Throwing of the Boules and Boules going outside the terrain

No one is allowed a practice throw during a game. Players who do not observe this rule could incur the penalties as defined in Article 10

Article 10 – Penalties

For not observing the rules, the players incur the following penalties:

(i) Warning.
(ii) Disqualification of the boule played or about to be played.
(iii) Exclusion of the guilty player for one end.
(iv) Exclusion of the guilty player for the game.
(v) Disqualification of the guilty team.
(vi) Disqualification of both teams in the case of complicity.

In your case, the umpire chose to apply (ii) rather than (i) as you expected!

Since I am not an umpire, I cannot comment on his choice of sanctions.

Guy

I know that practising shooting is forbidden during a competition and there is a very good reason for that. Once during a competition, someone in the next lane was practising his shooting; one of his boules came into our lane and narrowly missed disturbing the head. I tried to remonstrate with the person whose boule it was but he did not seem to understand why I was upset. I would have been even more upset if his boule HAD disturbed the head. So maybe the said umpire had seen such a scenario before and so was trying to impress on the players that practising during a competition was not a good idea. However, I think that he should have issued a warning first.

I understand the rules but for not observing the rule he got rule(iii) Exclusion of the guilty player for one end, meaning he wasn't allowed to play that end. If anyone is a umpire and they could clear this up for me that would be great. Because as a player i dont think the umpire was right in this case by taking his 2 ball away for 1 end.

Cheers

Whilst having a boule hit is unfortunate, it’s very difficult to imagine that this is the reason to prohibit practising during a game – which, of course, includes pointing as well as shooting!

A boule from another game could just have easily interfered with an adjacent game – and games on adjoining terrains aren’t banned! Of course, the answer is always mark the position of boules in competitions.

I’m sure the reason is much more one of “principle”, i.e. that once a game is underway, then no practise throws are allowed.

Just a final thought, supposing you have a dead end and boule left to play. If you then throw them to the other end, ready to start the next end, does this constitute “practise”?

Regards,

Ray

You are right, (iii) and not (ii).

Maybe Mike Pegg will comment?

Guy

Of course, a validly thrown boule from another game can interfere with one's own game but that is unavoidable. But that is why practising during a game is prohibited - it would only make matters worse!

And of course boules and the coche should be marked - but how often is this done in practice? It's something we should all get in the mind set of doing, however.

And with a dead end and boules left to play, usually what happens is that everyone is keen to get the next end under way rather than throwing boules to the other end. In any case, I wouldn't want to be accused of "practising" during a competition.

Sounds pretty harsh & a tad over zealous, to me.

I presume it must have been an important high-profile event to take such stern action...

It's the sort of thing that, yes, it's against the rules but everybody does it. If an Umpire is going to be ultra-strict and no longer let such things go, I would hope that this would be made clear by the organisers in advance and communicated to all participants.

Regards,

Ray