World youth games
Samples from this book:
Jeu de Boules (or Pétanque)
The impulse to throw a pebble or roll a round stone along the
ground has been with man since earliest civilisation. Ancient
Egyptian vases show young men propelling balls along the ground
in some sort of competition - and that was 4,000 years ago! In
the UK, the bowling green at Southampton has been in continuous
use since 1299. But that is Lawn bowls, or in the north of England,
Crown green bowls, played on an uneven rink. Neither game is regarded
as a game which children play. However, the French game of Boules,
also known as Pétanque is gradually becoming a popular
beach and back-garden game.
A set of boules or bocce (the Italian version of the same game)
are essentially similar. They are metal balls of about three and
a half inches diameter and weigh about one and a half pounds.
In the two-player game, each player uses three or four boules;
with teams of two, each player uses three boules. Players usually
mark their own boules or bocce with distinguishing marks. For
each game a small, wooden jack called the cochonnet is
thrown up the rink and must land between the bowling line and
boundary line.
In the UK, sets of weighted plastic boules are cheaply available
from many toy and sports shops. They are not as much fun to play
with, but are perhaps best for youth groups who might be tempted
to use the metal boule as an offensive weapon!
To play:
The Rink: Unlike Lawn bowls, boules can be played on
just about any surface, but it is most usually played in France
on a strip of hard gravel or sand about 80 or 90 feet long and
10 feet wide. Alan visited the Languedoc region of France recently,
and there in Lavaur saw about thirty men and children playing
boules on the site of one of the most vicious massacres of the
Albigensian Crusade, where over 400 men and women were burned
for heresy and the first Lady of the town was bricked up alive
in the well, exactly underneath the present boules court!
The rink is marked up with a boundary and bowling line at each
end.
Play begins: The cochonnet is thrown up to the other
end of the rink, then one player called the bouliste,
can either throw the boule (portée) through the
air or roll it (boule pointée) towards the cochonnet.
Players must not cross the bowling line until after the boule
has landed.
The first player only throws one boule, then the next player
throws their boules until they get the closest boule to the cochonnet,
referred to as best boule. This marks the end of their
turn. Play continues in this way until all of the boules have
been thrown.
Scoring: Each boule closer to the cochonnet than the
opponent’s best boule scores one point. A measuring rod,
twenty inches long, called a baguette is used to measure
the distance between boules and the cochonnet. After adding up
the score, players change ends and the player/team which won the
last end throws up the cochonnet for the new game, and throws
the first boule. A game usually lasts for either 13 or 15 points.
Dreidles
The spelling of these four-sided spinning tops, which originated
in medieval Germany, is a matter of some dispute! Our friend,
Jenny Nemko, who works for the Beeb, insists that they are spelled
as above, but the Encyclopaedia Judaica spells them ‘Dreidls’
and in America they are called ‘Dreiduls.’ Their name
is pronounced ‘drey-dull.’ Despite their German origins,
they are best known as a Jewish game. It has an unusual history.
At many times during their history the Jewish people have been
persecuted, and they were forbidden to practise Judaism. To disguise
their religious meetings, they sometimes had children on hand
playing with the small dreidles. If intruders interrupted a meeting,
the elders immediately became engrossed in the children’s
games. Traditionally, Jewish children were only allowed to play
games during the festivals of Chanukah and Purim by the rabbis.
Nowadays the dreidle is still played with, and is especially
associated with the Hanukkah (sometimes spelled Chanukah); the
Festival of Lights. The dreidle has the hebrew letters N,G,H and
S inscribed on its four sides, which stand for the words:
Nes Gadol Hayah Sham
meaning ‘A great miracle happened here.’ The miracle
happened in 165 B.C.E. (Before the common era) when a Jewish group
called the Maccabees were besieged by the Syrians in the Temple
of Jerusalem. They had an oil lamp with only enough oil left for
one day. Somehow the lamp continued to burn for eight days until
reinforcements arrived. The playing of dreidles and the lighting
of the Chanakiah - an eight stemmed candelabra, celebrate that
victory during the Festival of Lights.
Children usually play with a dreidle while the candles are burning,
using counters, nuts or sweets for stakes, but the original German
game was used for gambling. In the last two centuries dice were
regarded as sinful in many cultures, including in Britain, because
they were used in gaming, and various forms of spinners were used
in a variety of games as an alternative. (Put and Take is described
earlier in this chapter.)
A dreidle made of plastic or metal, often brass, can be bought,
but it is also easy to make one from wood. You need a cube about
one centimetre square. Paint or letraset the hebrew letters on
the four outer sides, then carefully drill a hole in the centre
where a dowel can be inserted. This should fit tightly and be
sharpened to a point about one centimetre below the cube. Hardwood
is best for the cube, so that it doesn’t split.
The letters on the top are:N, G, H, S.
The rules of the game are simple. Players sit in a circle and
all put in two coins or counters in to a pool to start. The first
player spins and if:
- it stops with an N facing up, they do nothing;
- it stops with a G facing up, they take all the pot, and everyone
puts in two more coins to start a new sequence;
- it stops with an H facing up, they take half the pot, and
everyone puts in one coin to the pool;
- it stops with an S facing up, they all put one coin in to
the pool.
It is a very easy game to learn and since the playing piece is
small, it fits easily into the pocket. We have found that spinner
games are very popular with most children.
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