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.
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.
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.
Solid barriers no longer exist in the English-language version of the rules, but “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.
The Rules of Petanque 