The spring season has arrived in Australia and the warmer weather means there is nothing better than kicking back and relaxing with friends and family, preferably with some food and drink in hand.
Sunday doesn’t have to mean the weekend is over. Have a barbecue, a picnic, and bring some zesty food, a bit of drink, some beats and bocce to a favourite place – your friend’s backyard, a local park or the beach. Let your competitive streak shine with a game of fun bocce.
While bocce is traditionally played on a bocce court, this fun version knows no such boundaries. Play with two or four players in a team and see who can get their bocce ball closest to the white ‘pallino’, (or ‘jack’), the small usually white target ball.
The idea is to just meander around the backyard, park or beach, chucking the pallino and then bowl or lob the coloured bocce balls as close as possible at the pallino. The closest to the pallino holds the point, and after all bowls have been played by both teams, for every ball  before the opponent’s ball closest to the pallino scores a point.
The team that won the previous game starts the next game, throwing the pallino and the first bowl, then followed by the opponent. This continues until the first team to reach the agreed game points (usually 13 points) and all bowls played, wins the game. How easy but lots of fun!
While at it, why not take a fun photograph and send it into the Bocce Australia photo contest. Your photo may win a bocce set just in time for Christmas. Be imaginative and fun when taking the photo, like the ‘Lego’ figurine photo and the referee measuring the distance or the image of someone picking up the bowls.
