In the Standard Competition court of 15m X 4m .
Can an opponent draw the circle at the 6m mark to kick start a game?
that means we will have a less than 10m playing
area.

Yes, if the opponents wish to throw a 6m jack, they have every right to do so.

If you have the jack and wish to move the circle to allow a longer jack, this too is allowed – see Article 17 in the rules.

HTH

thanks for ur reply....
What i meant was,
can the opponent throw the jack from 6m.
ie, we will have only a 9m playing area.
what is the minimum required playing area ?

Your opponent need only to be able to throw the jack six meters (for juniors and seniors). However that gives you a "playing area" of at least seven meters to throw your boules since the dead boule line can be no nearer than one meter from the marked terrain. One more thing, if he should be unsuccessful, in three tries, throwing to a valid six meter distance, you have the option of throwing the jack in a different direction up to the full ten meters allowed. If there is no direction which allows this, you may move the circle until it becomes possible to throw the full distance.

The direct answer to your question is NO. The minimum required playing area from the circle to the jack is 6m and the minimum distance from the jack to the dead-boule line is 1m.

However, in many petanque terrains, the line that is the boundary of the playing area is also used as the dead-boule line _ thus only one line at each boundary.
In that case, you should also respect the distance from that line to the jack. But many don't and _play strictly_ the playing area. When thrown, if the jack rest against the rope/string, it is good. If a jack or a boule goes outside the playing area area, it is null.

By the way, effective on 01/01/2007, if jack/boule goes past a piste to the left or right of the one you are playing on, it is null. When the pistes are back to back, the line separating the two pistes is a dead-boule line.

Guy

Hi Lou,

The answer to your question really depends on whether you are referring to games played to the official rules or just social/friendly games.

For “official” games, you really need a minimum 12m long playing area, to allow you to throw a 10m jack, plus 1m from the boundary and 1m for the circle. 4m wide is the recommended distance, although some clubs/competitions relax this to 3m, even less, if space is limited.

Of course, larger areas give you more scope for varying the terrain and making for a better game. My own club terrains at Brighton, UK, are 40 x 15m, allowing much more scope for playing “open” terrain.

If a team wishes to play a short jack, they are not obliged to position the circle such that a 10m could be thrown. Should they throw an invalid jack 3 times, the opponents now have the right to move the circle to allow a longer jack, if they wish.

If you’re just playing a friendly game, you can use whatever space is available. If you only had, say, an 8 x 2m area, you could still play but you would have a very restricted game.

Guy, Lou's original question was, "Can an opponent draw the circle at the 6m mark to kick start a game?".

Your reply was, "The direct answer to your question is NO." Yet you then go on to explain that the minimum distance from the circle to the jack is 6m (not including the 1m between the marked terrain and the dead boule line). I believe that would imply that the direct answer to Lou's question is YES, his opponent can draw the circle anywhere he likes within the marked terrain as long as a valid throw of the jack can be made to at least a distance of 6m. Do you agree?

By the way, what is the source of your ststement regarding null jacks? Are you refering only to the original toss of the jack, or have the rules been changed regarding a jack already in play?

Ray, I guess you did not notice either that Lou wrote _to kick start a game!

Guy

Gary wrote: Lou's original question was, "Can an opponent draw the circle at the 6m mark to kick start a game?".

I was halfway writing my response to that when I noticed, for the first time, _to kick start a game_.
Now my answer is YES. Article 7 states that for the jack to be valid the distance from it to the nearest edge of the circle must be between 6m min. and 10m max. for Juniors and Seniors.
I got mixed up with what happens at the following ends…But I am glad that this question and the follow up came up as it gave me an opportunity to re-read Art. 7

Gary also wrote: By the way, what is the source of your statement regarding null jacks? Are you referring only to the original toss of the jack, or have the rules been changed regarding a jack already in play?

The rules been changed regarding a jack already in play. The maximum distance for the jack to remain in play after it has been displaced will not be 20m anymore but as I wrote it.

For those that can read French,

Guy

Outre diverses modifications mineures, notamment dans le classement des articles, le Congrès annuel de la F.I.P.J.P. a adopté les dispositions suivantes (applicables en 2007):
Article 2 : Possibilité d’utiliser, pour les jeunes de 11 ans et moins, dans leurs compétitions spécifiques, des boules de 600 grammes et de 65 mm de diamètre, à condition qu’elles soient fabriquées dans un des labels homologués
Article 5 : Lorsque les terrains de jeu sont placés bout à bout, les lignes de fond de jeu sont considérées comme ligne de perte.
Article 6 : Admission des cercles matérialisés en écrivant : « L’utilisation des cercles matérialisés est autorisée mais ils doivent avoir un diamètre intérieur impérativement égal à 50 centimètres. » . Modification pour les joueurs en fauteuil roulant : « Les joueurs en fauteuil roulant, devront avoir la roue du bras porteur dans le cercle de lancer. »
Article 9 : En cas de jeux cadrés, le but ne sera plus valable que dans un terrain de chaque côté du terrain utilisé.
Article 19 : La boule est nulle quand en terrain tracé, celle-ci traverse entièrement plus d’un des jeux latéralement contigus au terrain utilisé.
Article 32 : Même dans les concours par poules, les équipes arrivant avec plus d’une heure de retard seront éliminées de la compétition.
Le Règlement de Jeu complet, avec mention des modifications, est disponible sur le site Internet fédéral www.petanque.fr

Fait le 02 octobre 2006 par la Fédération Française de Pétanque et Jeu Provençal.

Thanks for all the answers.
Am i RIGHT to say that
an opponent can throw the jack from
any distance as long as it is beyond the
6m mininium required distance to start a game
in a competition game.
eg.
He can even draw the circle at the 7m mark
and throw the jack to a distance of
7m as long as the jack is 1m away from the
dead boule line?

sorry for the clarification as i'm new to
the game of petanque and have just notice
the above situation in a recent local
competition and lots of argument on this
by the 2 opponents.

Thank you

"Can an opponent draw the circle at the 6m mark to kick start a game?".

I wrote: "I was halfway writing my response to that when I noticed, for the first time, _to kick start a game_."

I don't know where my brain was the last two days!

With a terrain 15m long, it makes no difference at what end you are. At the 6m mark the circle is always within the limits allowed by Article 7 of the rules.

I guess I got confused with the maximum distance you could throw the jack. Effects of radiation from the testing you know where!

Guy

Article 9 has only been changed for competitions with marked terrains. The jack can still move to 20m on open terrain (or if the competition terrain is large enough).

The change is a very common sense one to avoid silly situations where the jack could cross several terrains and still be "live".

It is there prerogative to throw the jack however they like as long as it is between 6m and 10m.

When it is your turn to throw the jack you MAY (you don’t have to) move the circle back so you can throw the jack up to a maximum of 10m.

If you move the circle back you don’t have to play long.

Another thing is there is no obligation to play back and forth if you played a short end and were near the middle of the peist it is ok to play the next end in the same direction (assuming you can throw a legal distance) if you prefer one end of the peist to another.

Yes, you are right!

If you have the jack, you can choose where to play not where the opponents want you to play.

Of course, if and when they get the jack, they are equally free to choose.

Regards,

Ray