The Origins of Petanque
There have been games played rolling or throwing balls going back to antiquity, the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans all played games where balls were thrown at a smaller target ball, these early games used balls carved out of stone. Later the Gauls who were less skilled stonemasons continued similar games but changed the material of the balls to boxwood, they also gave the games the name bocco with the balls being called boule, this latter name has remained through time and is still used today though the name of the game itself has evolved firstly into Italian as Bocce where it is still known by that name.
The Gauls played various forms of boule games through to the 19th century, the English played another variant which has evolved into today’s Lawn Bowls, whilst the Italians continue to this day with Bocce though in an updated form. It was in France though where Petanque has been created through a series of changes over the centuries on the game of Boule.
The first formalised game with a complete set of standardised rules was formed by Boules Lyonaise in 1850 with the creation of the first official club “Le Clos Jouve”, over time the Federation went through a series of developments until 1942 when the French Boules Federation was formed.
Petanque was invented in in 1910 in the small port town of La Ciotat in Provence,it developed from the popular boules game ‘le due provencal’ also known as ‘le trois pas’ because players took a three step run prior to throwing the boule, and as ‘le longue’ due to the playing area being up to 20 metres long. Playing arenas at the time were known as boulodromes and one of these was named the Boule Etoilee at a cafe run by the Pitiot brothers - this really is the birthplace of Petanque.
The games at Boule Etoilee were played principally by professionals with the Pitiot brothers taking bets on the players and who would win. One such player was Jules Le Noir who crippled with rheumatism in his old age continued to follow the game as a spectator at Boule Etoilee and was a great friend of Ernest Pitiot, one day Jules as a joke challenged Ernest to a game saying even crippled he could beat his old friend though it would have to be competed with both players throwing from a stationary position within a small circle. The challenge was accepted and the game of Petanque was born, though it was known originally as ‘pieds tanques’ or as literally translated ‘feet planted’.
Up to this time the boules had still been made of wood though over the years they had evolved to have a covering of metal nails, after the First World War boxwood was becoming scarce and new technology had developed during the war when circular hollow metal balls were produced for bombs. This new technology produced between 1923/25 the first hollow all metal petanque ball, made in Lyon by Paul Courtieu it was known as ‘la Boule Integrale’ and was produced from a bronze-aluminium alloy he developed to avoid rust. Not long after and a little before 1930 the first boules made from steel were introduced and the modern game of petanque was off and running.
By 1935 there were an estimated 135000 players of this new sport in France and it was growing rapidly into surrounding counties. In 1946 the Federation Francaise Bouliste du Jeu Provencal et Petanque ran it’s first Petanque Championships and shortly after with Petanque popularity racing ahead of the game of Jeu Provencal was all but finished and Petanque was clearly the principal boule game in France.
In 1957 the Belgium Petanque Federation organised the first international tournament with players from six countries, during this tournament the players met and decide to create an international federation resulting in 1958 in the establishment of the Federation Internationale de Petanque et June Provencal (the FIPJP).
Today with Hundreds of Thousands players around the world, Petanque has become one of the most popular international sports, it is a game played by both professionals and by a huge number of amateur players both as a competitive sport and as a great enjoyed social pastime.