Of all the things I have learnt about in over six years of living in Birgu, the most baffling to me is the Maltese traditional sport: boċċi.
BIrgu has its own boċċi club, and I regularly walk past similar clubs in Isla and Kalkara. And yet I have never once seen anybody playing the game. At times I’ve even considered that the idea of boċċi is a conspiracy to trick foreigners: it’s well documented online and that way tourists who are interested in discovering all things traditional in Malta are encouraged to go on a wild goose chase. I wonder if it’s a long-term post-colonial response to having been ruled by foreigners for over a millennium.
So, unusually, this post is in no way based on my personal experience of boċċi, and I have no photographs to support the text. Rather, it is derived from what I have discovered from trawling through the online documentation of the game. And my obvious starting point was Wikipedia.
Here my idea of boċċi as a Maltese conspiracy is only reinforced. The game is described as having been developed in Italy from a game originating in the Roman Empire, and then spreading from there. A long list of destinations is given: the Balkan countries, north and south America, even Australia. It is linked to the British game bowls and to French pétanque. But at no point is Malta named as a place where it is played.
That said, on other sites boċċi is claimed to have been introduced to the Maltese islands by the Knights of St. John, with the first games being documented in Floriana. Now there are more than thirty clubs, and while the government owns the majority of the properties, they are managed by local volunteers. The majority of players are men. During the 20th century it was believed that throwing metal balls down the pitch would require too much strength for women to join in, and they were encouraged instead to run the attached cafés and bars. This attitude is reportedly gradually changing.
Anyway, to the rules. Boċċi is described as belonging to the boules family of games. In these, the game starts when one player throws a small ball , the jack, to the other end of the pitch. Players then take it in turn to throw their own balls at the jack, using only underarm throws. In each round, points are awarded to the team that has the ball closest to the jack. This team gains a point for every ball that is closer to the jack than the nearest of their opponents.
Variations of the rules are found in different parts of the world. In Malta the pitches are described as being up to 27m long and around 3m wide, although the ones I have seen in the Cottonera seem smaller and squarer. The playing surface is coarse sand, giving the pitch an element of unpredictability. The balls are smaller than British bowls, small enough to fit into the palm of the hand and painted with a unique colour or design to identify the team. The jack is much smaller, more like a dark marble. In each round the jack is rolled down the pitch before the other balls are thrown towards it. Each player has three balls and all are used in each round. Several rounds are played and the first team to reach 21 points is the winner.
Tactics are key to the game. Players are divided into setters and knockers. The former are the ones who are trying to get their balls as close to the jack as possible. The knockers on the other hand throw their balls to attempt to move the jack to a more advantageous position, or to knock opponents’ balls out of the way.
One of my online sources describes setters using spherical balls, but knockers using cylinders, which can be used to protect the balls of the setters or to create a barrier near the jack. The two types of ball can be played in any order so tactics and strategy are important. Play all your spherical balls early and they can easily be knocked by the opposition; but play all the cylinders too soon and you will be left with no defensive options at the end of the round. Either way, all balls, spherical and cylindrical, contribute to the points total.
So, I have answered what I think are the frequently asked questions of boċċi. Only one remains: is it ever possible to watch a match?