This post is a short summary. See also our post on Rules governing the jack. Q: Is any synthetic jack allowed in FIPJP-approved competitions? A: NO. The requirements for a synthetic jack to be allowed in competition play In order to be allowed in competition play, a synthetic jack must be both “approved” and “legal”. APPROVED The FIPJP document called Fabricants de Boules: Labels des Boules et Buts agréés en compétition contains a list of the models of synthetic jacks that are approved (agréés) by the FIPJP for use in competition play. In order to be approved for competition play, a syn ..read more

There are a lot of boules on the ground. Team A has the point and one unplayed boule. Team B should play next, if they have any unplayed boules. Team A asks Team B if they have any more boules to play. Team B says “No, we’re out.” So Team A plays its last boule. Then one of the players on Team B says “Ooops! I still have one boule left!” Should Team B be allowed to play its forgotten boule? In this post I present reasons for ruling that Team B should NOT be allowed to play its forgotten boule. In this situation, the bottom line is that Team A gave Team B the opportunity to play next, and Team ..read more

If a ball (a boule or the jack) hits something above the ground, like a ceiling, or a light fixture, or a tree branch, is it (the boule or the jack) dead? The long-standing and traditional answer is NO, it isn’t dead. However, since July 2023, a French umpire will say that it IS dead. Here’s the story. In my opinion, the best way to think about the out-of-bounds strings is this. The out-of-bounds strings function as visible indicators of the locations of invisible walls that extend from the strings upward into the sky. A ball (a boule or jack) that goes through one of those walls is dead. Oth ..read more

There is no proper FIPJP umpire’s guide, in the sense of an official document containing case law for the FIPJP rules of petanque— an official list of precedents and rulings in cases where the written rules are unclear or unusable for some reason. There is however a web site that occasionally contains useful bits of that kind of information. I’m talking about the FFPJP (French national) Guide de l’Arbitrage (umpiring guide). To find it, first go to the FFPJP “portal” page. In the menu at the top of the page, click on the “INFOS ARBITRAGE” heading, and then click on “Guide de l’Arbitrage”. Thi ..read more

A boule played out-of-turn is a boule that was played when a team mistakenly believed that they did not have the point, and that it was their turn to play. For a long time, there has been serious debate about what should be done when this happens. Some have argued that a boule played out-of-turn was played “contrary to the the rules” and that Article 24 therefore gave the opposing team the option to declare it to be dead. Others have argued that a boule played out-of-turn was NOT an infringement of the rules but simply a mistake; boules played out-of-turn should stay where they are and play sh ..read more

I’ve noticed that on his Ask the Umpire Facebook forum Mike Pegg has started using two new terms— or at least terms that I’ve never noticed before— “playing penalty” and “conduct penalty”. I don’t know the origin of these terms, but I think that they are useful. Basically, the new terms highlight an important distinction in faults and penalties, and the terms make it easier to describe and talk about them. The basic idea is that there are two kinds or categories of “faults” (ways to break the rules) and correspondingly there are two kinds of penalties— playing penalties for playing faults, and ..read more

When did people first start distinguishing between leisure boules and competition boules? It seems to me that it must have begun when the requirements for competition boules were first codified. As the requirement for boules were gradually written down and refined, boule manufacturers must have began to distinguish between their models of boules that met those requirements (“competition” boules) and their models of boules that didn’t meet all of those requirements but were less expensive (“leisure” boules). Assuming that this is what happened, our question turns into a slightly different quest ..read more

For frequently-asked questions about the rules of petanque— — See our page of FAQs. — See our posts tagged as FAQs ..read more

Now that the FIPJP rules allow us to throw the jack right up to a side dead-ball line, I’m afraid we’ll never see the end of questions about whether a wooden surround is a pointing obstacle. All we can do is try to develop a clear answer to the question. Here is my latest effort. The FIPJP rules define two types of obstacles— throwing obstacles and pointing obstacles. The FIPJP rules specify that the throwing circle must be placed a certain minimum distance from any throwing obstacle, and the thrown (or placed) jack must be placed a certain minimum distance from any pointing obstacle. Natur ..read more

After reading a recent question on “Ask the Umpire” I’ve been thinking about the notion of challenging the jack. I’ve come to the conclusion that the notion of challenging the jack is completely bogus and we should stop using it. The rule about challenging the jack is brief and cryptic. Article 7 lists the requirements for a thrown jack to be valid, but it doesn’t describe any procedures for determining whether or not the jack meets those requirements. In the next article, Article 8, we find this If after the throwing of the jack, a first boule is played, the opponent still has the right to c ..read more