What do you do when one team forgets that it has an unplayed boule?
What should you do?
The FIPJP rules say that a team should play the next boule when the opposing team has the point or is out of boules. Regardless of why Team B refused to play its last unplayed boule, it broke this rule. Allowing Team B to throw its forgotten boule would actually reward Team B for breaking the rules— it would take the boule advantage away from Team A and give it to Team B. Team B therefore may NOT play their forgotten boule. In short, the fogotten boule is dead.
Note that the situation would be different if Team A hadn’t asked if Team B had any unplayed boules. In such a situation, it is the responsibility of the team about to throw to perform due diligence to verify that they have the point or that the opposing team is out of boules. If Team A hadn’t done its due diligence, then Team A’s boule truly would have been thrown out of turn.
Players who have a different opinion about how to handle “forgotten boules” often fail to distinguish between cases in which Team A has and has not done its due diligence. If they were careful to do that, we believe that they would agree that Team B is at fault and the forgotten boule should be declared dead.
