ON THE ORIGIN AND RULES

Many works have been published on the origin of bocce and its importance for the Croatian sport, among which Zlatna knjiga hrvatskoga boćanja (The Golden Book of Croatian Bocce) stands out. It presents the history of bocce, bocce clubs and the sport of bocce in Croatia. From it, we quote a concise description of the game: “The players try to roll or throw the balls as closely as possible to the main, smaller, ball, the so-called bulin. The opponents, if they want to be successful, try to get their balls even closer to the bulin, and they can do so by pushing, to a specifically set distance, their opponents’ balls away from the target or by knocking the opponents’ balls out of the way, which can be accomplished by either throwing their balls through the air or tossing them closer to ‘the ground’. (…) Rolling the bocce ball on the ground is called bližanje or koštanje, and throwing it through the air is called izbijanje.” You will probably not be surprised when, watching a game at a local bocce court, you hear a player or spectator yell in the heat of the battle, “Dobro si koštal!”, meaning ‘A good roll!’ The interaction between players and audience is an indispensable part of the game.

Although sports historians have not determined the origin of bocce with certainty, we know that, based on finds in Turkey, Egypt, Greece and Ancient Rome, its origins are undoubtedly Mediterranean. The Venetian Republic was central to introducing bocce in our region, which can be inferred from the fact that the areas where bocce is extremely widespread (Istria, Dalmacija, Kvarner) are those that used to be under the Venetian rule and were influenced by its culture, customs and games.

The correlation between traditional bocce and bocce as a sport discipline with all the rules that accompany it is fully explained in the following lines: “Since ancient times, playing bocce, at first with stone balls, and then by wooden ones, has been a favourite with Croatian people, primarily as a form of entertainment, rather than competition. (…) Over the centuries, the bocce playing sport changed; the customs, methods and viewpoints changed as well. Everything changed, but for the people, who remained loyal to this beautiful game of both the mind and strength. They cultivated it and passed it on to next generations; bocce struck deep roots. It then started to develop in the direction of an organised sport, and new forms were accepted. From a careless, free game, bocce became a sport; legislated, competitive, full of necessary rules and conventions. The game became somewhat restricted by legislative regulations, but these were necessary for the further prosperity of bocce as a sporting competition that was shaped in the post-World War II era.”

Some of our interviewees have pointed out that the introduction of rules has “killed” the charm of bocce. Many players, who do not belong to clubs, do not accept the rules and continue to play “in the old-fashioned way”. For instance, a member of Brod Moravice Bocce Club has said, “bocce players meet on Sunday afternoon in Moravička Sela, in front of the church, for a glass of gemišt [spritzer]; the terrain is grassy, uneven; they play in two teams of 10 players, without strict rules, and the balls are made of wood. And then they call us professionals.” The note accompanying a photograph taken in Jelenje by Viktor Hreljanović, a well-known photographer from Rijeka, says: “Apart from the division of players into two teams, and the rule that each player plays with one ball – there are no other rules. Of course, the match is won by the team whose balls are closest to the ‘balin’ (or ‘bulin’). The players take their own bocce balls because this is also part of the pleasure that playing this game brings.”

An extremely detailed account of bocce in the Grobnik area is presented by Josip Čargonja. It is clear from it that this game has specific rules and conditions, which differ from town to town only several kilometres apart, in spite of – or precisely because of – the absence of written rules.

The sport of bocce, however, has different rules. The game can be played individually (against a single opponent) with each player playing three or four balls; in pairs (two teams of two players) with each player playing three balls; or in fours (two teams of four players) with each player playing two balls. In each pair, and each four, one player is the team captain; he determines the rotation of players, plans the game strategy, and controls the measurements. Today, with the aim of popularising and increasing the attractiveness of the game, a number of new disciplines have been introduced into the sport of bocce, which, due to their vigorousness, make the game more interesting to younger generations. Therefore, many interviewees say that bocce can be played from age 7 to 87, and the discipline can be adapted to the age of the players. If you find yourself in the audience, you will surely feel that more energetic disciplines bring greater excitement.

A number of games related to bocce are known, often using stone balls and flat stones. Written sources mention bocce balls made of rope that sailors played with on their ships’ decks.

According to some sources, the forerunner of bocce is the game of tossing flat stones, which was played to pass the time while pasturing livestock. It was played well into the 1950s. “A flat surface and several flat stones were all that was needed for this game, and two players could then compete by trying to throw their flat stones closest to the ‘bulin’. The game was scored as bocce.”