|
Introduction
The
following is the most common variant of the game,
which was born in France and subsequently spread all
over Europe.
Aim
of the game
The players throw some
iron bowls as near as possible to a smaller bowl
called “jack”.
The
bowling ground
There are precise
international rules as far the size of the field is
concerned. However, amateurs play on any surface.
The field can be a strip of ground 11-12 m long. The
bowling grounds are made of common soil in Italy.
Equipment
Modern
bowls are made of stainless steel. They have a
diameter of 7-8 cm and a weight of 620-750 g. They
are often coloured. The jack is a wooden bowl with a
diameter of 2,5-3 cm. It is normally white coloured.
A tool called “baguette” (a small stick) similar
to a scale ruler is used for measuring the short
distances between the jack and the bowls. It is also
employed to draw a circle in the area of the game.
The
players
Bowls
can be played singularly, by doubles, or by teams of
three people. The players utilize respectively four,
three or two bowls each. Whatever the number of
participants is, the rules do not change.
Preparation
A coin decides who starts
first. The first player (from one end of the ground)
draws a circle with a diameter of 30-45 cm using his
baguette. The players have to throw the bowls with
both their feet within the circle. The first player
throws the jack.
Doubles
Who
throws the jack also throws the first bowl, trying
to put it as close as possible to it. The opponents
throw until one of their bowls is closer to the jack
than the one of the first player. The players can
throw all their bowls. The starting team can play
again only when the opponents have thrown a bowl
which is closer to the jack than theirs. When all
the bowls have been thrown, the game continues and
the teams alternate the jack throw.
Score
Each
bowl, nearing the jack closer than its precedents,
scores one point. The baguette is utilized in order
to measure precisely short distances. The winner of
the first turn begins the next one from the opposite
end of the ground (where the jack was placed). If
three turns are played, the third one will start
from the spot the jack was placed in the second
turn. At the end of each turn, the circle is
cancelled. The maximum score for doubles (in one
turn) is six. The game goes on until a team scores
thirteen points. The winner starts the next game.
Regulation
Games
Championships
are usually played by teams of three players, each
of them with a specific ability:
1.
A player good at nearing the bowl to the
jack;
2. A
player specialised in pushing away the opponents’
bowls and putting his own ones in their place;
3.
A player good for all the roles who deals
with game strategies. This player is usually the
captain of the team.
Its
history
The
first traces of this playful activity (which
probably represent the most ancient evidence of this
game) date back to 7000 B.C. when some stone spheres
(showing clearly the signs of rolling on an uneven
ground) were found in the Neolithic city of Catal
Huyuk (Turkey). Similar objects (but more refined)
were found in a child’s grave in Egypt five
millenniums later. Greeks and Trojans played this
game (obviously different than the one played
nowadays) in their long pauses during the siege of
Troy. One of the first written documents quoting
this game is due to the Greek doctor Hippocrates,
who praised and advised it for being a healthy
activity. The Romans were the first to adopt wooden
spheres. It was Ovidio Nasone Publio’s favourite
game during his exile near the Black Sea; Augustus
the imperator played it with briar-root olive bowls;
also Ponzio Pilato and Claudio Galeno, who advised
it to young and old people. The Roman legions
introduced the game in Gallia, where it enormously
developed. This game became a mania in the Middle
Age. It was played everywhere. Bowls fascinated
everybody: aristocracy and poor people,
ecclesiastics and ladies. The first bowling club
(the Old Bowling Green) was born in Southampton (Eng)
in 1299. However, the exaggerate use of the game
annoyed the potentates. The omitted work, the bets,
and the furious fights provoked the first bans which
will accompany the game for long centuries. Charles
IV the Handsome (1319 act), Edward III from England,
Charles V the Wise (1370), and King Richard II were
among the most inflexible people in striking the
game which “takes the people away from the defence
of the realm”. However, there are some timid
voices in favour of it. The doctors of the
University of Montpellier (Fra) were convinced that
this game was an exceptional panacea for rheumatisms.
The Dutch Humanist Erasmus from Rotterdam looked
favourably on the game of bowls (he called them
“ludus globarum missilium”), as well as the
German theologian Martin Lutero, Calvino (an
assiduous player), and the writer Rabelais (which
tells how Gargantua played bowls in order to digest).
Brugel the Old immortalized the game on his famous
picture “Children games”, which is exposed at
the National Picture-Gallery of Vienna. Sir Francis
Drake was a lover of it: told about the coming of
the “Invincible Armada” (the Spanish fleet), he
continued calmly to play bowls on Plymouth Port
Docks. In fact, before sailing to defend England, he
was occupied with finishing a very uncertain game
against his boatswain. William Shakespeare tells
about bowls in his work Richard II. Nonetheless, the
game kept worrying the authorities. It was forbidden
by Henry VIII in the seventeenth century; Venetian
Doges were terrorized by it and they enacted an
edict in 1576 against “the great peril of balls…”.
However, these were the last anathemas against this
game which spread all over the Western Europe. In
fact, Charles II from England legalized it at the
end of the seventeenth century, and organized a sort
of regulation. A small volume was published in
Bologna in 1753; it was “Gioco delle bocchie [Game
of bowls]” by Raffaele Bisteghi, which made this
widespread game official and regulated (although
with many variants). The first society in Italy was
born on 1st May 1873 in Turin; it adopted
the curious denomination of “Cricca Bocciofila [Bowls
Lovers Gang]”. It was the first step for the
future national organization. A small group of
Piedmontese Bowls Lovers Societies gathered in
Rivoli a quarter of a century later (1897); they
decided to found an organism for coordinating the
activity of the region. The Piedmont Bowls Lovers
Union was born in Turin (at the International
Exposition) on 1st May 1898. Practically,
it was the first federation which started the modern
era for the game of bowls. The progresses were
immediate. The first technical regulation of the
game was created in 1904. The activity was played
only outside, on non-delimited grounds, and with
wooden bowls. The Italian Bowls Lovers Union (UBI)
was born in 1919; it was the heir of the Piedmontese
one; this new organism (in Turin) was led by the
lawyer Massimo Cappa. 1924 was another historical
date. For the first time, bowls were played at the
Olympics. The Olympic games were held in Paris,
where a tournament between Italians, French, and
Monegasques was played. The FIB joined a renewed UBI
in 1926. The CONI recognized the new federation. It
was a great success for the bowls game, which was
equalized to other sports. However, the euphoria was
brief. A state decree expelled the game of bowls
from CONI in 1929, and it put it in the manifold
organization managed by the “Opera Nazionale
Dopolavoro [National Dopolavoro Opera]”. It was
considered a recreational activity. Although
declassed, the bowls game found a substantial
unification in the new context. A capillary
organization was born for the whole national
territory. Moreover, a unique regulation was adopted.
An important development took place in 1929: the
“synthetic” bowl was born. It was a sphere mixed
with sawdust and glue. The OND broke up in 1945 (with
the fall of fascism). Its functions passed to the
“Ente Nazionale Assistenza Lavoratori [Workers
Assistance National Department]” (ENAL). Bowls had
a hard life in the post war period. The FIB was
re-born in Turin and the UBI resurrected in Genoa.
Another FIB (connected with the ENAL) was born in
Milan. All these organizations came to an agreement
in 1948 and created the “Unione Federazioni
Italiane Bocce [Bowls Italian Federations Union]”
(UFIB). It consisted of the two main variants of the
game which were played in Italy: the “raffa”,
which was spread all over Italy and which is
considered also the recreational side of the game;
the “volo” which was played in Piedmont and
Liguria and focused mainly on the agonistic aspect
of the game. The central office of the federation
was located in Genoa. The two variants of the game
were coordinated by two sections: the “Sezione
Regolamento Nazionale [National Regulation Section]”
(SeReNa) for the “raffa” variant which was
located in Milan; the “Sezione Regolamento
Internazionale [International Regulation Section]”
(SeReInt) for the “volo” variant, which was
located in Genoa. The “raffa” international
organization (International Bowls Federation or FIB)
was born in Chiasso. The “International Federation
de Boules” (which gathered the countries playing
the “volo” variant) was born four years ago. The
first metallic bowls appeared in those years. All
the Italian bowls lovers satisfied their will for
being united. In fact, the several Italian
federations gathered under a unique name (UBI),
which obtained the immediate recognition from CONI.
Later on (1986), the International Olympic Committee
gave it its legitimization. The bowls game adopted a
new statute in 1991. It adopted a modern logo (a
moving light-blue bowl with tricolour curls) and
took back the denomination of “Federazione
Italiana Bocce [Italian Bowls Federation]”. The
Italian bowls game passed its first century of
official life in 1997. It is a mighty power which
tenaciously and willingly managed to reach (in its
Centenary of Foundation) a very ambitious goal: the
official participation at the Mediterranean Games in
Bari.
Link
to the Official Website
For
further information and widening visit the
Federazione Italiana Bocce official website:
|
|
