bocce ball
Armida invites you to come to our Healdsburg Tasting Room and play
on our beautiful bocce ball court, a great way to spend the afternoon!
Our professional size bocce ball court is complete with balls and
scoreboard, and is ideally situated against the stunning backdrop
of the beautiful Russian River Valley. Overlooking rosebeds, ponds,
vineyards and the valley below, you'll have a hard time keeping your
eye on the ball... but competition gets pretty fierce as the wine
flows and the good times roll. So come on up, buy a bottle or three,
bring a picnic and play ball!
Generally, we have two sets of rules... we have the Armida way
to play bocce:
- Buy a bottle of wine in the tasting room. Borrow two glasses
from the tasting room.
- Proceed to court. Throw little ball out.
- Take turns throwing red and green balls at little ball until
bottle of wine is finished.
- Whoever has the most balls of his/her color closest to the
little one is the winner.
- Try not to hit anyone with balls, or throw balls into the pond.
- Repeat.
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A beautiful throw!
These guys are professionals!
But the novice can play too! |
Or, there is the right way to play bocce ball:
- Find a flat, level playing surface (packed dirt, gravel or grass
are ideal). A regulation bocce court is 76 feet long and 10 feet
wide.
- Divide players into two teams of one, two or four players each.
Each team gets four balls, divided equally among the players.
- Have a player from the starting team stand behind the foul line
(which is 10 feet from the throwing end of the court) and throw
the small ball, or "pallina," toward the opposite end
of the playing surface.
- Let the player then throw one of the larger balls, or "boccia,"
trying to get it as close to the pallina as possible without touching
it.
- Have players from the opposing team take turns throwing their
balls until one of the balls stops closer to the pallina than
the starting player's ball. If they fail to do so, the starting
team tries to outdo its first attempt.
- Let the starting players take their second turn if the opposing
team gets closer to the pallina than the starting team without
using all of their balls.
- Continue in this fashion until all eight balls have been thrown.
The team with the closest ball gets one point for each of its
balls that are closer to the pallina than the other team's closest
ball.
- Keep in mind that if the two teams' closest balls are an equal
distance from the pallina, no points are awarded.
- End the frame after all eight balls have been thrown and appropriate
points have been awarded. The scoring team begins the next frame.
If no team previously scored, the team that threw the pallina
last begins the next frame.
- Play as many frames as needed until one team has a total score
of 16 points.
Tips: Players may use their balls to knock the other team's balls
away from the pallina, or to knock the pallina closer to their
team's balls.
Want to know more than you really needed to know about bocce?
Visit Absolutely
the Best Bocce Page Ever! No, really, that's what the website
is called. Or just come on up, and we will personally referee your
game and ensure that you are achieving the optimal amount of bocce
fun. (For a small fee, or course. Usually a taste or two of your
wine purchase will do just fine.) Hope to see you at Armida soon!
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