When you're staying at Vidhave, feel free to borrow a boule set from us! You can pick them up at our guest office, or just send us a text if we're not around. Once you're done, simply return them to the office, or leave them outside the door if we're not there.
Rules and Game Ideas
Forming Teams
Split yourselves into two teams. You can play singles with one player on each side, doubles with two players per side, or triples with three players per team. If you're having trouble picking teams, a fun way to do it is for everyone to throw their own boule. The two who land closest to the jack will then form their own teams and take turns choosing teammates.
Choose Your Boules and Start
Each team picks the pattern for their boules. When playing singles or doubles, each player uses three boules, while in triples, each player uses two boules (for doubles and triples, you'll need two boule sets, making a total of 12 boules). It's perfectly fine to adjust the number of boules per person based on how many you have available too.
Feel free to flip a coin to decide which team goes first.
Throwing the Jack
The team that wins the coin toss chooses the starting spot, and then one player gets to throw the jack. The starting spot is marked by a circle that's 35 to 50 centimeters in diameter and at least one meter away from the nearest obstacle. You can draw the circle on the ground or mark it however you like. Once the circle is ready, the player stands with both feet inside it and throws the jack. The jack can be thrown in any direction but should land between 6 and 10 meters from the starting circle and at least one meter from the nearest obstacle.
Throwing the Boules
All boules must be thrown from the starting circle with both feet on the ground. The player tries to throw their boule as close to the jack as possible – it's totally fine to hit the jack! Then, a player from the opposing team steps into the circle and tries to place their boule closer to the jack, even if it means moving the opponent's boule.
The boule closest to the jack is "leading" or "holding the point." The other team has to keep throwing their boules until they take the lead or have thrown all of theirs. There's no specific order for team members to follow when throwing, but they can only throw their own boules, always one at a time from the starting circle. If they take the lead, the other team tries to get it back by placing a leading boule.
Winning a Round
Once one team has thrown all their boules, the other team gets to throw their remaining ones. After all the boules are thrown, it's time to count the points. The team with the boule closest to the jack wins the round. They also get one point for each boule that's closer to the jack than the opposing team's closest boule. Only one team can score points in a round. Don't forget to note down the score!
Starting the Next Round
Once the points are counted, the next round begins. The winners from the previous round draw a new starting circle around where the jack ended up last time. Then, the winning team picks a player to throw the jack from this new starting circle and also throws the first boule.
Winning the Game
The first team to reach a total of 13 points wins the game! This can sometimes take up to 25 rounds, so if you'd like a quicker game, just choose a lower score to play to. However, make sure the target score is higher than the total number of boules a team has, so you can't win in just one round.
Full Rules
For those who really want to make sure everything is done correctly, you can find the international competition rules here!