Adonis Diaries

Have you played Bachi, Petanque, Boule, Horse shoe throwing? This is my story

In the past 3 months I joined a club for playing petanque. I had a lot of fun and laughter, and encountered many wonderful young people.

Petanque is a game of throwing two iron balls close to a tiny ball called cochonet that is your target. The closer to come compared to your adversary team, the more likely an expert in hitting your ball away from the cochonet become necessary. The iron balls weight between 650 to 730 g.

The space is between 6 to 10 m long and 3 m wide. Many players get used to throw the cochonet as far as possible, and get fretful when closer to 6 m.

Usually, in competitions, the teams are of 3 members. Otherwise you can form teams of 4 or even two. If teams of 2, then you may used 3 balls.

Very simple game, yet you need plenty of consistent practice to discover your right movement, rhythms and capability to control your throw.

In my hometown, we have 3 summer clubs, one of them is formally registered with ministry of sport and erect a plastic tent for the colder and rainy weather.

We knew how to throw parties after the games. Everyone brought the menu of the day, frying or charcoaling hamburger, onions, potatoes, cheese… with plenty of whiskey and arak.

Many times singing and dancing was all the rage. Practically, everything that Daesh frowned at “publicly”

Once, a player came and was in the mood of playing and found us eating. He got upset and went back murmuring: “They are better off opening a restaurant“.

Slowly but surely, a few players poisoned the game. Some people would Not play with another one, or would Not play unless a certain player is in his team.

Most of the time, players would appoint themselves leader of a team, though they are Not that good.

I made sure to come to every game. Those who appointed themselves leaders of teams were the occasional players. They have no shame.

There are rules and regulations, mainly meant for competitions.

A member of the club considered himself the most expert and laid downs rules and regulations of his own (3ashwa2eyyan), without concerting with anyone.

The worst part, he considered himself above his own rules and interfered in the game. Nobody dared to confront this tiny and wiry person, or even whisper their opinions because the parcel of land belonged to him or his family.

I swallowed a lot of crap in these months for the sake of meeting these young happy people and getting some laughter and spending quality time.

I recall a shocking event during one of outside town competitions.  Two teams of our club were selected to play against one another, and the organizers didn’t care to appoint any impartial arbiter. So the leader of the other teams made a deal with two of my teammate to lose the game at a score of zero, so that they might be advantageously be selected in the quarter final.

I didn’t agree. The more my teammates threw the balls nonchalantly, the more I played better and made winning the game for the other team much harder. All the members of the other team had no choice but to hit my ball: They could afford this strategy since my teammates were Not to play well or approach the cochonet.

Once, they couldn’t hit my ball and instead of scoring for my team, they appointed one of them to handle the scoreboard: They added the point to their score so that we remained Zero.

The irony of this stupid deal is that both teams had already lost the first round and they were no match to the other contending teams.

Apparently, the sense of loyalty has many shades. For me, the only valid loyalty in any team game is for each member to play the best he can. Otherwise, there is no point playing any game.