Picking up the circle too soon

[revised 2021-12-21]
What should we do when a player accidentally picks up the throwing circle before all boules have been thrown?

On March 30, 2011 Jean-Claude Dubois, then president of the CNA (the National Umpires Committee of the French Petanque Federation), wrote the following memo. Our archive of the memo is HERE.

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WHEN A PLAYER, AFTER PLAYING HIS LAST BOULE, INADVERTENTLY PICKS UP THE THROWING CIRCLE BEFORE THE MENE IS COMPLETE.
[That is, when there is still one unplayed boule.]

This can happen in two different situations.

The circle was marked

• The circle is put back in its place, and the player (partner or opponent) who still has the unplayed boule plays it to finish the mene.

The circle was not marked
Here again, this can happen in two different situations.

• The unplayed boule belongs to one of the player’s partners. In this case, the unplayed boule is dead.
   
• The unplayed boule belongs to one of the opponents. In this case, the opponent should put the throwing circle back in its place, even if this can be done only approximately, and the opponent plays his ball to finish the mene.

In all cases, the offending player receives a warning.
The same rules apply if there are still several balls left to play.

Jean-Claude Dubois
Président de la CNA

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In 2016, Article 6 of the FIPJP rules was revised to include some, but not all of the ideas in Dubois’ memo.

In all cases the circles should be marked before the throw of the jack. … If a player picks up the circle when there remain boules to be played, the circle is put back in place but only the opponents [i.e. the offended team] are allowed to play their boules.

Note that unlike Dubois’ memo, the FIPJP rules say that the offending team is forbidden to throw its remaining boules regardless of whether or not the circle was marked.

Note that if the circle was not marked, the umpire will almost certainly give a warning (yellow card) to the player who placed the circle but failed to mark it.

If the circle was not marked, who should put the throwing circle back in its place? The FIPJP rules don’t say. A good rule can be found in the rules interpretation guidelines of Petanque New Zealand.

If a pre-fabricated circle is moved accidentally by a player and the circle was unmarked, it is to be replaced by agreement between the two teams as close as possible to where it was originally. If no agreement can be reached, the umpire will place the circle in the most logical place.

Should the umpire give a warning (yellow card) to the player who prematurely picked up the circle? Dubois’ memo said YES. The FIPJP rules leave the matter up to the discretion of the umpire.

What is “a boule thrown contrary to the rules”?

[updated 2021-12-25]
Players use the expression “boule thrown contrary to the rules” all the time and in a variety of contexts. But what does it really mean? And what should you do if you see one?

Problems with Article 24

The title of Article 24 is “Boules thrown contrary to the rules”.

Except for cases in which these rules provide specific and graduated penalties as outlined in article 35, any boule thrown contrary to the rules is dead and if marked, anything that it has displaced in its travel is put back in place. However, the opponent has the right to apply the advantage rule and declare it to be valid. In this case, the boule pointed or shot, is valid and anything it has displaced remains in its place.

There are two serious problems with the way that Article 24 is written. First, it should never have used the phrase “boule thrown contrary to the rules”. If a player steps on the circle while playing, those words direct our attention toward the boule when we should be thinking about the player’s foot and the circle.

Second, it should not begin by saying categorically that the boule is dead… and then a dozen words later say “Oh, it’s not really dead. The opponent can decide whether or not it is dead.” The article should have been written this way.

Article 24 – When a player breaks a rule while throwing a boule
When a player breaks a rule while throwing a boule, if the rule specifies application of the penalties in Article 35 for that kind of infraction, the umpire will apply a penalty. Otherwise, the opposing team may apply the advantage rule and choose either (a) to declare the boule to be valid and leave everything that it displaced where it is, or (b) to declare the boule to be dead and put everything that it displaced back in its original location, if the original location was marked.
 

There are two categories of “boules thrown contrary to the rules”

Note that Article 24 says that there are two types of infractions (violations of the rules) that a player can commit while throwing a boule. Let’s call them Category A and Category B infractions.

• Category A infractions are handled by the umpire imposing penalties listed in Article 35.
   
• Category B infractions are handled by the offended team applying an advantage rule.

What Article 24 says, basically, is that if a player breaks a rule while throwing a boule, anything that isn’t a Category A infraction is a Category B infraction.


Category A infractions

Category A infractions are listed in Articles 6 and 16.

The players’ feet must be entirely on the inside of the circle and not encroach on its perimeter and they must not leave it or be lifted completely off the ground until the thrown boule has touched the ground. No part of the body may touch the ground outside the circle.Any player not respecting this rule shall incur the penalties as provided in article 35. [Article 6]

Before throwing his/her boule, the player must remove from it any trace of mud or whatever deposit, under threat of penalties outlined in article 35. [Article 16]

For a first infraction, an umpire will typically show a yellow card and give the offending player a warning. For a second infraction, an umpire will typically show an orange card and disqualify one of the offending player’s boules.


Category B infractions

Category B is a residual category— a grab bag of unspecified ways that a player can break a rule while throwing a boule. We don’t know what kinds of things the FIPJP umpires imagined would fall into Category B when they wrote Article 24. The FIPJP rules have only ever included one example of a Category B infraction— a boule thrown from a circle other than the one from which the jack was thrown. That example was added to the rules in 2008 and then removed in 2010. Nobody knows why.

If we search the rules we can find a number of infractions that probably fall into Category B.

1. Throwing from the wrong circle, that is: throwing from a circle that was drawn on the ground during an earlier mene and never erased.
    
2. Throwing more boules than you’re allowed. (After playing in a doubles game, you begin playing in a triples game. You’re still holding three boules. Forgetting that you’re now allowed to play only two boules, you throw a third.)
    
3. Throwing your last boule while holding an extra boule in your “off” hand to help with your balance. (See Article 16.)
    
4. Throwing two or more boules simultaneously.
    
5. Throwing a boule out of turn.
   This is the most important Category B infraction… if it is indeed a Category B infraction. There is significant debate about whether “a boule thrown out-of-turn” really should be considered “thrown contrary to the rules”. (See our post on boules thrown out of turn.)

Note that mistakenly throwing a boule that doesn’t belong to you (i.e. throwing one of your team-mates’ boules or one of the opposing team’s boules or even a dead boule) is not a case of “a boule thrown contrary to the rules.” There is a special rule (Article 23) for handling a mistakenly-thrown boule . (See our post on playing somebody else’s boule.)

If a team commits a Category B infraction, the offended team gets to apply an advantage rule. (That is, the offended team gets to make a choice about what to do next.) The offended team has two choices.

1. Declare the offending boule to be dead. And then put anything else that was moved and whose original location was marked, back in its original location.
    
2. Leave everything where it is and carry on with the game.

POP QUIZ

This photo shows a number of infractions as a player throws a boule. Which of them are Category A infractions? Which are Category B infractions? Which are neither?
Answers are HERE.

Clearing the circle

Perhaps the least understood of all the rules is this “mystery clause” from Article 6.

The interior of the circle can be completely cleared at any time during the mene, but its state must be restored at its end [i.e. at the end of the mene].

Now, all experienced petanque players are familiar with the taboo on grooming the terrain during a game, and specifically the taboo against removing anything – a leaf or a pebble – from the terrain during a game. As Article 10 says —

It is strictly forbidden for players to press down, displace or crush any obstacle whatever on the playing area.

Being familiar with this taboo, the best interpretation that players can put on the mystery clause is that it creates an exception to the taboo. That is, it allows you to remove a leaf or pebble from the terrain but only if —

1. The leaf or pebble is inside the circle.
2. You put the leaf or pebble back in its original position at the end of the mene.

Presumably this exception is to permit a player to temporarily groom the inside of the circle in order to insure a solid footing while throwing.

Still… interpreted this way, the rule is odd. Would a leaf or a few pebbles really impair a thrower’s footing? If a player needs to clear only a leaf or a pebble, why would the rule say that the circle can be “completely” cleared? What exactly does does the word “completely” mean here? And of course the requirement to put the leaf or pebble back in its exact original place seems silly.

Players know that the rule is odd. I’ve seen a few occasions when a player really did remove a twig from the circle. Nobody objects. But the player gets a lot of jokes about, say, marking the position of the twig so he can put it exactly back in its original position after he throws. And of course, he never bothers to do it. That would be absurd.

So— players clearly know that the rule is odd, but they give it the most sensible interpretation that they can.

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As it happens, this interpretation of the mystery clause — while completely understandable — is wrong.

During a discussion on his “Ask the Umpire” Facebook group, English international umpire Mike Pegg revealed the true meaning of the rule. (Note that Mike, as an international umpire, is a member of the FIPJP Umpires Commission, the group that writes the rules.)

As for the evolution or development of the rules… each time we get a problem that is not covered by the rules we look to either adapt a current rule or if that is not possible we write a new one.

But the basics of the rules have been designed with the World Championships as first priority. For example:

At the 1996 World Champs (Essen) the terrain was very deep and it was impossible to draw a circle (this was before resin circles). The players were permitted to remove the stones to make a flat circular area. They used their feet to push the stones into a circular shape revealing a hard flatter surface underneath.

At the next rule review, the rules about the circle were modified to allow the removal of the stones.

This worked, but of course it left huge circular craters in the terrain. As Mike says —

Of course no one thought about restoring the area after the mene so we had a few issues to deal with during play.

At the next rule review (2002), the rules about the circle were modified to allow the removal of the stones. But the rules also state that the area must be reinstated after the mene.

So the bottom line is that when Article 6 says

The interior of the circle can be completely cleared at any time during the mene, but its state must be restored at its end [i.e. at the end of the mene].

it means that, if necessary, players are permitted to form a throwing circle by excavating loose surface material to create a circular depression. If they do, the excavated circle must be filled in again at the end of the mene.

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Now that the use of plastic circles has become universal in championship competitions, it might seem that the mystery clause is obsolete. But it is not. Even with the use of plastic circles, players may still want to clear the circle.

The 2013 final of the Masters de Petanque, for example, was played on a very rough terrain, very rocky. In the YouTube video during the first mene, at 3:17 you can see a Madagascar player clearing the circle in order to get a sound footing, and at 8:46-8:49 you can (not so clearly) see Philippe Suchaud, who threw the last boule of the mene, smoothing things out after he has picked up the circle.

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Cooking the boules

Article 2 of the rules – “Characteristics of approved boules” – discusses the requirements for approved boules (boules agréées). But it doesn’t provide all of the requirements for competition boules.

The FIPJP’s full requirements for certified boules (boules homologuées) are laid out in a separate document called Conditions Requises Pour L’homologation De Boules De Petanque De Competition (“Requirements for the Certification of Competition Petanque Boules”).

This document (in French) can be downloaded from the FIPJP website. (Look for “Règlement pour l’agrément de boules” toward the bottom of the page.) Or you can download our English translation from the “Rules of Petanque” website.

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That second document — “Requirements for the Certification of Competition Petanque Boules” — gives the FIPJP’s technical requirements for competition petanque boules (size, weight, etc.). And it lays out the procedures that manufacturers must use to get official FIPJP certification for a product line of competition boules.

According to the Preamble, one of the goals of the document is

To insure the safety of players and spectators by providing binding standards for materials and manufacturing processes, with the goal of avoiding any risk – in particular, any risk of being hit by a piece of metal.

The document seems to take safety quite seriously. Section II, article 7 even specifies that the light coat of paint that manufacturers use to protect carbon steel balls from rust must be tested.

These coatings will be impact-resistant, and the manufacturer must conduct tests to prove that the products used generate no splinters that could be dangerous for users.

In keeping with the goal of safety, Section II, article 3 specifies a minimum and maximum permissable hardness for boules – 35 HRC for a soft boule, and 55 HRC for a hard boule. HRC is the measure of a boule’s hardness on the Rockwell C hardness index.

When a manufacturer submits an application for certification for a new model of boule, he must submit several pieces of information about it, including the material of which it is made and “the hardness and its method of production, and its means of verification” (I, 5).

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Steel’s hardness is determined by the way it is heat-treated. When steel is being worked, it is first heated to a very high temperature and then cooled very quickly. This rapid cooling is called “quenching” and it leaves the steel in a very hard, brittle condition.

The steel is then reheated to a lower temperature and allowed to cool slowly. This is called “tempering” (or “annealing”) and it reduces the steel’s hardness and brittleness, making it softer, tougher, and more ductile. To achieve a particular level of softness, the steel is heated to a particular temperature, maintained at that temperature for a particular amount of time, and then allowed to cool slowly in still air.

The bottom line for petanque players and umpires is this –
If you know what you’re doing, you can make a steel boule softer by “cooking” it.

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You need to know that the FIPJP has set a limit to the softness of certified boules, and a little bit about the chemistry of hardness, in order fully to understand Article 2’s specification that…

It is specifically forbidden to heat treat boules in order to modify the hardness given by the manufacturer.

Now that we have that information, we can understand what’s going on.

• For reasons of safety and consistency, the FIPJP requires manufacturers to produce boules with a hardness between 35 and 55 HRC.
• According to folk wisdom and petanque tradition, shooters want soft boules, to minimize rebound and increase their chances of making carreaux.
• A trained engineer might be able to re-temper a certified boule, after it left the factory, to make it softer.
• So on the theory that “if soft is good, softer is better”, a shooter might come up with the idea of re-tempering the softest boule that he could buy, to make it even softer than the 35 HRC permitted by the “Regulations for Certification”.

Article 2 specifically forbids that practice.

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So, how can an umpire at a tournament detect a set of cooked boules?

Well there is this device, le balancier. I read about it on the educnaute-infos blog.

You take two boules and put them in the cradles. One boule simply hangs in its cradle. The other is pulled back to a specific distance and the device is cocked. Then the boule is released via a trigger.

The swinging boule hits the hanging boule and knocks it away, like the balls in a Newton’s cradle. A pointer indicates how far it was knocked. The distance it was knocked indicates the hardness of the boules.

Educnaute-infos says that it’s not used very much.

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Barriers and wooden surrounds

See other posts about boundaries and boundary lines.

The word “barriers” occurs only once in the official FIPJP rules, in Article 5.

When the terrains of play are enclosed by barriers, these must be a minimum distance of 1 meter from the exterior line of the playing area.

“Barriers” here means fences or crowd-control barriers, either temporary or permanent, whose purpose is to keep spectators off of the playing area. Such fences are often portable steel barriers installed temporarily at tournaments. But they may also be permanent barriers that are parts of the architecture of a boulodrome.

Note that the word “barriers” does NOT refer to low wooden surrounds (ball stops, backboards) designed to keep boules from being knocked out of the playing area. Traditionally, such wooden surrounds were simply wooden boards, held in place by big nails driven into the ground. Such wooden surrounds are often made out of recycled railroad ties (“sleepers” in British English).

Here are some photos that show barriers at petanque matches.

This is a shot from La Folie Pétanque, a film about petanque by Bruno Evenou. The gentleman in the foreground is a team coach — that’s why he is allowed to sit between the steel barriers (left) and the wooden surround.

Note the string marking the out-of-bounds line — it is about 30cm inside the wooden surround. The area where the coach is sitting is quite narrow — perhaps 70cm. Just enough to allow 1 meter between the out-of-bounds string and the barriers.

Here is a photo from a 2009 championship match in Düsseldorf.
The barriers appear to be permanent fixtures in an indoor boulodrome.

A petanque tournament at Metz. The players at the left are forming the couloir along the chalk out-of-bounds line. Immediately behind their heels is the wooden surround.

Beyond the surround and the blue walkway is the barrier, which seems to be composed of large placards. Behind the barriers sit the spectators and an orange control table.

For many years before 2008, in English versions of the rules, the French word barrières was translated not as “barriers” but as “solid barriers”.

If the terrain is surrounded by solid barriers these must be a minimum of 30 cm outside the dead ball line.

To many players the expression “solid barriers” didn’t suggest portable steel fences — it brought to mind the solid wooden surrounds that they saw when playing at their local petanque courts. So this mistranslation caused a lot of confusion in the English-speaking petanque community.

Before 2008, the rules specified that the exterior dead-ball line should be up to 4 meters outside of the exterior lanes, and any barriers should be at least 30cm beyond the dead-ball line.

In 2008 the rules were dramatically revised and simplified. The revision pulled the exterior dead-ball line inward and drew it tight around the playing area — the exterior dead-ball line now followed the exterior lines of the exterior lanes of the playing area. Barriers were now at least a meter outside of the exterior dead-ball line. And the word “solid” was removed from the English translation of Article 5.

This caused more confusion. A good illustration of the situation is the request, sent in 2010 by the Australian Petanque Federation to the FIPJP, asking for clarification of Article 5. The FIPJP Umpires Commission wrote back, saying —

The “solid barriers” referred to in Article 5 are those which are (usually temporarily) put up to prevent spectators etc from interfering with play.

If the terrain is surrounded by a fence, or a barrier as such to prevent spectators from entering the area, this should be 1 metre from the dead boule line.

If the terrain is surrounded by a timber plank or such like to stop the boules, it is recommended that this be at least 30cm from the dead boule line. There is nothing written in the rules that such a solid boundary (timber plank etc) must be 30cm from the dead boule line, it is only to ensure that the boules can fully cross the dead boule line.

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The purpose of keeping the barriers at least a meter from the playing area is to allow players enough room to throw with a normal backswing, without any fear of hitting a barrier. In personal correspondence, International Umpire Mike Pegg wrote this about the 2008 revision of the rules.

In 2008 we tried to simplify the rules. Now the outer line of the lanes is also the dead ball line, and the barriers for spectators must be at least one meter outside of the dead ball line.

And why is there a distance of one meter from the dead ball line to the barriers?

The 2008 rules simplifications also did away with the rule that the circle must be 1 meter from the dead ball line. Now players can place the circle next to (but not over) the outer line of their lane. So the 1 meter distance between the dead ball line and the barriers allows the players enough room for their back swing.

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Officially, the rules say absolutely nothing about wooden surrounds. Unofficially, the FIPJP still remembers the old rule that the barriers must be 30cm outside of the dead-ball line, and recommends that wooden surrounds be located at least 30cm outside of the exterior dead-ball line.

This makes sense. A 30cm space between the strings of the dead-ball line and the wooden surround makes it easy to recognize when a ball has gone out-of-bounds. It insures that a boule can fully cross the exterior dead-ball line before hitting the surround. And it helps to prevent boules that go out-of-bounds from bouncing back onto the terrain.

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Solid barriers no longer exist in the English-language version of the rules, but the word “solid” may have become permanently embedded in English petanque terminology. Here’s a diagram of a petanque playing area from the Petanque New Zealand 2014 Protocols For Hosting National Championship Tournaments.

1. If the terrain has a permanent solid boundary, such as the low wooden edges of former bowling greens, the dead ball line should be at least 30cm from them (to allow the boule to completely cross the dead ball line).

2. If the terrain is surrounded by temporary solid barriers (such as those used for crowd control), these must be at least 1 metre from the dead ball line.

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Tournament software for PCs

See our post Tournament Software for PCs at All About Petanque.