Verify the point before you throw

[revised: 2021-06-12]
Situations involving a boule thrown out-of-turn often raise questions. One interesting question was recently raised on “Ask the umpire”.

Boules A1 and B1 are on the ground. A1 has the point. Team B throws boule B2. B2, as it rolls through the head, bumps the jack closer to B1, giving the point to Team B. A player on Team A sees that B2 has moved the jack, but says nothing.

Team B doesn’t realize that the jack has been moved, so they continue pointing. They point three boules before going to the head to inspect the situation. When they do, they realize that all three of the boules played after B2 were played out-of-turn.

There is no question that three boules were played out-of-turn. Team A invoked the Advantage Rule in Article 24 and declared that all three were dead.

The interesting question is this. When Team A saw that the jack had been moved, weren’t they under some kind of obligation to speak up? It seems unfair that Team A said nothing and let Team B continue to throw boules which they (Team A) knew were being thrown out-of-turn.

Mike’s opinion, and the consensus opinion of the comments, was that a team is always responsible for verifying— before they play a boule— that it is their turn to play.

The opposing team is under no obligation whatsoever to say anything about what they observe, or what they think they may have observed. “In this scenario, Team B should check after playing a boule. Team A is not obliged to advise or inform Team B to check who is holding the point.”

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