Having a Boule!

It's been played in France, Spain and Italy for centuries - and in the South African winelands for the past decade or so. Boule, bocce or petanque is a simple game which anyone can play, anywhere, any time. Fiona Mcdonald attempts to chronicle its growth in the winelands.Its origins here are shrouded in mystery but those in the know swear graham beck (robertson) winemaker pieter ferreira was one of the main instigators.

 

"I can't actually remember exactly where or how it started locally," the modest Pieter said.

"I know we used to play at parties or at braais about a decade ago."

The fascination with boule first began for Pieter while working a harvest in Champagne in 1987.

"These old men were playing everywhere - in parks, on river banks - and I'd just stand and watch, fascinated.

"Well, the bug bit and I got drawn into a few games - even with my very broken French."

Needless to say a set of boules came back to South Africa with him.

"My father-in-law, Arthur McWilliam-Smith, thought it would be a good idea to play for a trophy."

So Mr McWilliam-Smith, Mayor of Franschhoek at the time, organised sponsorship of the trophy for which teams compete as part of the village's annual Bastille Day celebrations in July.

Initially the boule days were purely social and competition wasn't all that serious.

"Also early on there weren't many sets around, so there was lots of borrowing and sharing," Pieter said. However, in 1997 a Winelands league was formally launched.

Nowadays a set of six boules is available locally and will set you back R296 while a set of eight costs R384.

"Everyone used to play under their farm names but things have changed now," Pieter said nostalgically.

Teams vie for the League points trophy, determined after four rounds of play. A second trophy goes to the winner of a sudden death playoff on finals day.

The league comprises four rounds of play with each team playing four games a day. There is a single fixture per month with optional socials organised in between.

1999 saw the "commercialisation" of the league with private and social teams being formed. Enter such teams as the Boule Flys, Cellar Sours, Tuscan Boules, Skatte-boula, Team Clivia and more.

Last year the league comprised 16 teams and each day required at least 8 courts.

Anyone can play - young or old - and ball skills are not a prerequisite. Another advantage is that any surface is suitable - grass, gravel or sand.

"Beach sand can be difficult," Pieter warned, "you tend to have to dig to find your ball!"

Distell's Wine Development Manager and a league organiser, Clive Torr, swears by a dirt track "with a bit of gravel or a few stones to make things interesting!"

Boule is a simple game involving the tossing of metal balls at a cochonette (piglet). Known in Italy as bocce, it is traditionally played between two people, each with three balls.

The boule itself is a hardened steel ball, covered with nickel chromium plating. Varying in size from 73 to 76mm in diameter, the balls weigh between 560 and 740g.

Basically the cochonette - or jack, as in bowls - is thrown some distance away. The object of the game is to get as close to the cochonette as possible.

That's how you score - by being closest to the cochonette. The first to score 13 points is the winner.

It can be played one-on-one (tête a tête) or in two (a doublette) or three man teams (a triplette).

The two most important things to remember when playing are that the boule must always be thrown underarm with the hand palm downwards, and that the players' feet must always remain in the circle on either end of the "court".

"It's a matter of balance," Team Domaine de Clivet player Mark Norrish says, "you must have your boule balanced by a glass of wine or bubbly in the other hand!"

This tip is very unselfishly volunteered by the man who holds three South African trophies for his expertise in the game.

Mark Norrish, a consultant to Picardi Rebel, only began playing boule in 1995.

"Clive Torr, one of the driving forces behind boule in the winelands, introduced me to the game - and it was here in South Africa, not while we were harvesting at his wine farm in Burgundy, Domaine de Clivet.

"It's great because you can play whether you're eight or 80! It really is a game the whole family can play!"

One of the earliest contests in the winelands was held at Boschendal during Hilko Hegewisch's tenure as winemaker. The highlight of the day was apparently when Dave Hughes was bitten by a dog!

There is some uncertainty as to whether this led to Dave Hughes and Andrew Baker of Cellarmaster referring to the contents of the glasses in their respective non-throwing hands as "aiming juice" - to target either the cochonette or stray dogs.

"In the early days it was quite exclusive with all the top wine farms competing," Clive said.

Team Thelema with Gyles Webb at the helm, used to be fierce competitors and were champions a few years in a row before Pieter Ferreira's Madeba outfit wrenched the laurels from them.

"It's quite incestuous really, because the organisers always win!" said Clive, leader of the Domaine de Clivet team.

Last year Domaine de Clivet took both trophies… and Clive admitted that secret training sessions during the annual vendange in Ladoix, Burgundy, probably gave his team the competitive edge.

"Last year I watched the SA Champs at the Calitzdorp Port Festival," Norrish said.

"It was like war! There was a team of Italian South Africans playing a team of French expatriates ….and the bombardier from the Italian team was awesome! If he wanted to knock the other teams boule away, he did. He never missed!"

There are formal competitions during Franschhoek's Bastille celebrations as well as during the South African championships held at the annual Calitzdorp Port Festival during the last weekend in May.

It's even become a more popular fixture than golf during the annual Cape Winemakers Guild sports day.

"It's just really good fun," said Pieter, "but it can get vicious - especially if you don't have a glass in hand while playing!"

The sad thing is that it looks as though the competitive aspect is outstripping the fun side of things.

This is in spite of each team captain having to sign a pledge to ensure that his team will be present for a league fixture, will not take themselves and their efforts too seriously and will attempt to "give it horns!"