Dear fellow petanque folks.

In article 5 of Petanque rules, it´s said "If the terrain is surrounded by solid barriers these must be a minimum of 30 cm outside the dead ball line. The dead ball line will encircle the exterior of the terrain at a maximum distance of 4 metres."
How is it,that I need extra 30 cm on both sides from the deadline til the barriers. Why can´t the barriers be deadlines. And - do I also need extra in lenght.??
Could any one answer these questions, I´d be glad.

Otto Thorgaard

Hi Otto,
Once I was playing on a terrain where there is no dead-boule line (ball for those that prefer that term) the barrier being the limit of the playing areas or pistes. While I shot a boule, the jack was also hit and hit the barrier. The opponent denied this as they had no more boule left to our three boules.

What can an umpire do... especially when there is no umpire!

If you are short of space, you can have the playing areas or pistes limited by ropes or strings that will serve both as the limit of the pistes (playing areas and dead-boule line, and at a minimum distance of 30 cm from the solid barrier or fence.

So you can have pistes 15 m or 12 m long plus 30 cm at both ends from the barrier and also 30 cm from the short sides.

Finally, if this is YOUR boulodrome, you can make it as long or as short as you wish. Your are the boss!

Guy

Hi Otto,
Once I was playing on a terrain where there is no dead-boule line (ball for those that prefer that term) the barrier being the limit of the playing areas or pistes. While I shot a boule, the jack was also hit and hit the barrier. The opponent denied this as they had no more boule left to our three boules.

What can an umpire do... especially when there is no umpire!

If you are short of space, you can have the playing areas or pistes limited by ropes or strings that will serve both as the limit of the pistes (playing areas and dead-boule line, and at a minimum distance of 30 cm from the solid barrier or fence.

So you can have pistes 15 m or 12 m long plus 30 cm at both ends from the barrier and also 30 cm from the short sides.

Finally, if this is YOUR boulodrome, you can make it as long or as short as you wish. Your are the boss!

Guy

Hi Otto,
Once I was playing on a terrain where there is no dead-boule line (ball for those that prefer that term) the barrier being the limit of the playing areas or pistes. While I shot a boule, the jack was also hit and hit the barrier. The opponent denied this as they had no more boule left to our three boules.

What can an umpire do... especially when there is no umpire!

If you are short of space, you can have the playing areas or pistes limited by ropes or strings that will serve both as the limit of the pistes (playing areas and dead-boule line, and at a minimum distance of 30 cm from the solid barrier or fence.

So you can have pistes 15 m or 12 m long plus 30 cm at both ends from the barrier and also 30 cm from the short sides.

Finally, if this is YOUR boulodrome, you can make it as long or as short as you wish. Your are the boss!

Guy

Simple answer.

An un-biased umpire, when asked,walks into your game after your circumstances, must first ask 'was the boule or the bouchon marked?' Failing those basic parameters, no claims can be made...certainly not by the umpire or those by your cheating friends.

The bouchon is live, no matter what they say.

Play on.

Otto and Guy:
I am not an umpire. But it seems that the issue as you describe it would be difficult or impossible for an umpire to rule on unless the umpire saw the balls in motion or unless there were several disinterested witnesses who saw what happened and agreed that either the cochonet hit the barrier or didn't.

If the result relies on whether the cochonet hit the barrier and became dead, having its pre-movement position marked earlier may be of no help at all.

My solution, for what it's worth....
Ask the umpire for advice.
If you can't agree, you have two choices:
1. Continue to play your boules assuming that the cochonet is still alive; or
2. Play the end again.

You didn't indicate whose ball was closest after the cochonet "hit" the wall. But if you still had three boules and decided to play on, you had good chances to win the point.

There are times when honest people disagree over what they saw or think they saw. Not everyone who disagrees about what happened is cheating. In other cases, some people are less than reliable on a regular basis.

I wouldn't let a single instance lead you to believe that a person is a cheater. But if there is a long history.....

If the experience has led you to believe that certain people do not play by the rules, avoid playing with them in the future.

I can't imagine petanque ever having twenty cameras like the NFL, with replays. In the meantime we use good sportsmanship.

Enjoy the game.

Jim,
My writing about the incident about the jack hitting the 4 x 4 barrier was not to blame my opponent! It was about having the barrier acting as the dead-boule line or limiting the playing area.

Had there been a line (chalk, sting or rope) 20 to 30 cm from the barrier, there would not have been the confusion I reported.

You wrote:
- There are times when honest people disagree over what they saw or think they saw. Not everyone who disagrees about what happened is cheating. In other cases, some people are less than reliable on a regular basis.-

Once when I was much, much younger, I attended a hockey game in our arena. I SAW a player from my hometown team shooting the puck which went into the goal! I cheered very loudly, of course...then realized I was the only one in the crowd cheering... the only one that saw the goal scored!

So you see Jim, I did not and will not blame my opponent for that incident!

Guy

Glad you didn't blame your opponent.
Enjoy the game.