PETANQUE or boules is played outdoors on any reasonably firm surface.

Both teams select their boules and toss a coin to see which side goes first. The team that wins the coin toss chooses the starting location and then selects one of their players to throw out the jack.

A circle indicates the starting location 14 to 20 inches in diameter and at least three feet from any obstacles. Once the circle is drawn, the player then stands with both feet inside the circle and throws the jack. The jack can be thrown in any direction but must land within 20 to 30 feet of the starting circle and three feet from any obstacle.

All boules must be thrown from within the starting circle and with both feet on the ground. The player attempts to throw the boule so that it lands, as close to the jack as possible it is okay to hit the jack. The player must remain inside the circle until the boule has landed. A player from the opposing team then steps into the circle and attempts to land his boule closer to the jack even if it means knocking his opponents out of the way.

The boule closest to the jack leads or is said to be ‘holding the point.’ The other team must continue throwing boules until they take the lead or run out of boules. There is no order that team members must follow when throwing their boules however, they must only throw their own boules, and they must go one at a time from within the starting circle. If they take the lead, the other team then tries to recover by landing a lead boule.

Once a team has used all its boules, the other side is allowed to throw the rest of its boules. When all boules are thrown, the points are counted. The team that has the boule closest to the jack wins the round. In addition, they also receive a point for each boule that is closer to the jack than their opponent’s closest boule. Only one team scores points during a round.

Once the points are counted, the next round begins with previous round’s winners drawing a new starting circle. This starting circle is drawn around the final position of the jack in the previous round.

The winning team then selects a player to toss out the jack from this new starting circle and then throw out the first boule.

The first team to earn a total of 13 points wins the game. There are not a required number of rounds that must be played.