Games - Bowls/Bocce/Petanque

http://www.boccevictoria.com/index.php/2013-05-16-07-00-48/history

Where I grew up, it was a game of choice for Italian men of a certain generation.  There was a brief resurgence during that time that roughly coincided with the "lawn dart" phenomenon (which I think I've mentioned it before), but this variety of game only really reentered my consciousness when I moved to Prague and discovered the joys of petanque.  Granted, some of that joy was related to the low price of high quality pivo available in the parks, but camaraderie and pleasure in play were important as well.  The fact of the matter is that these are simple games with easy to fabricate equipment that can be learned in an afternoon and enjoyed over a lifetime.

Equipment/Field
    Bocce balls (composed of various materials) tend to be larger and heavier than petanque balls (usually metal), which are hollow.  Bowls (lignum vitae, a kind of extremely dense wood) were originally round (and metal) as well, but were later slightly flattened on two sides (to make it more interesting I guess) and massed about the size of a grapefruit.
    The modern bocce court is a clearly defined space with a compacted clay playing surface and often has wooden boards, on end surrounding the court, to delineate the playing field 60'-95' in length.  Conversely, petanque can be played on almost any solid surface (we sometimes played around kids' playground equipment to make things extra interesting), though it should be relatively level.  Bowling greens are supposed to be just that, perfectly level manicured lawns about 90-150 feet long.  


Game Play
    Bocce, petanque, and bowls are all very similar games with subtle variations.  In them, the idea is to get your balls closer to the small wooden one (the jack) than your opponents do. Each player (or team) has two underhand tosses per round.  Throws alternate between sides.  To start each round, they player who last scored goes first.  Scoring is usually to a set number, which may vary, and in friendly games is simply agreed upon prior to the match.
    An additional difference in play is that petanque requires that all players throw from the same standing position.  Bocce and bowls allow some steps to enable the thrower to propel their ball further.  Because of the great length of the court, bocce and bowls players tend to roll the balls with the palm upward, to increase the distance of the roll.  Petanque players often throw (still underhand) with their palm facing downwards to produce backspin and increase the precision of their throw (as well as to avoid uneven terrain).    

History
    All of these games may have evolved from those seemingly ubiquitous Ancient Romans who apparently had lots of spare time to invent things.  Another sources suggests the Ancient Egyptians were playing a similar around 5000BC using polished rocks and taught those credit stealing Romans a couple thousand years later.  Early games were apparently about throwing for distance (like road bowling, see link below).  Emperor Augustus and Galileo were bocce fans.  In Great Britain, Queen Elizabeth I and Sir Francis Drake dug on bowls.  Even George Washington had a court at Mount Vernon (hell, even a university in Ohio was named after the game, or at least a court).  Everybody played.  Bowls was another of those games that were outlawed for wasting everyone's time (all the leisure pursuits I write about seem to have that in common).  In the Middle Ages they played with wooden balls.  For some reason boules began to be covered in (recently inexpensive) nails as a half-step to the modern balls.  Regular people could still play by rolling rocks in the streets.  Long before soccer, it was the universal game.  

http://www.nycgovparks.org/about/history/bowling-boules-bocce

petanque wiki - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A9tanque
bocce history - https://www.bocce.org/history.html
differences - http://www.sportinglife360.com/index.php/the-difference-between-bocce-and-petanque-43683/
Kenny Mayne tries road bowling - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIIMFUzgoEo&hd=1
Games Book (bowls pg 41-60) - http://books.google.com/books?id=ljAPAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA38&lpg=PA38&dq=quoits+history&source=bl&ots=Nff7pjlbrM&sig=3MTsT1pgz4-lyfIfZuTmoaVTg2I&hl=en&sa=X&ei=sCasU4OkO8OeyATchIHIDw&ved=0CGkQ6AEwCTgK#v=onepage&q=quoits%20history&f=false