February 26, 2006

Boule diameters & weights

Petanque players often talk about boule diameters and weights.
How big are the differences really?
Let's visualize the officially permitted ranges (click on the image).

Diameters: I drew them to scale but of course the result will depend on your screen and resolution. I used 1024 x 768 pixels on a 19" screen.
Not that much, right? Although an extra millimeter can make or break a carreau.

Weights: is a simple graph, that shows the proportion. The 150 grams range represents 23 % of the minimum, or 18.75 % of the maximum. Again a rather small window.

Canadian players in Florida for instance love to play with very heavy boules, 800's if possible. But I think this has to do with the fact that they often play on very soft terrain. A heavy boule will then really sink in, hard to be displaced.
In France, 80 % of players use average diameters (72 to 74) and weights (700 to 730).

Comments anyone?

2 comments:

Baby Nubbins said...

Interesting visual depictions. We have (as YOU WELL KNOW!) some players with 71 mm. boules - which, when played alongside 80 mm. really do show a significant difference. We joke with our 71mm boulers that "if you only had 74 mm. you'd have made that point!

Anonymous said...

I like my 71's to hide behind your 74's!!! ;-)