The humble jack is far more than that in Petanque

The scoring area. The jack.

The jack tends to be the focus of play in petanque. It is the target, sometimes! The main thing most players are aiming at. Let us take another view at this little piece of wood 30mm diameter give or take a mm. Sometimes it is brightly painted, sometimes it is plain wood for the purists and sometimes it is a mixture of both due to the wear and tear of the piste.

The purpose of the jack is to give the petanque player  a target and something to aim at and we have looked at where best to place the boule in relation to the jack. In front, blocking the right hand pointer line, blocking the left hand pointers line, just behind, just to the side or balancing on top. OK I made that last one up but you get the idea. The opening gambits of an end of petanque can be varied but let us take a step away from the head. Lets look at the jack another way. The jack is actually marking the centre of the scoring circle. In fact the jack is not the target at all! We are trying to position our boule to compromise the area inside the scoring area. This area can grow and shrink as different boule are played into it. The scoring area should be studied at all times to make sure you are A. Making it as small as possible for the opposition B. Defending the area to make sure it stays as large as possible for your team and C. when it comes to playing your final boule or boule into it every single boule counts.