Pétanque tournament schedule for 8, 12 and 16 teams

A pétanque tournament stands or falls with the schedule. Everyone learns the game itself in five minutes, but as soon as more than four teams take part, someone has to keep track of who's on which court when and how the points roll through to the final. Without that paper you'll get stuck around round three and teams will be left waiting. Below are complete schedules for eight, twelve and sixteen teams, with the pool draw, the scoring, the time per round and the equipment list. You can print them out and take them along.

Three choices first, then the schedule

Before you plan the rounds, settle three things. Together they determine how long the day lasts and how much you need.

How many people per team. Pétanque comes in three formats. Doublettes is two against two, with each player having three boules. Triplettes is three against three, with two boules per player. One against one exists too, but it's not much use with a group because there's nobody to confer with. For a company or club tournament, triplettes works best: three people per team, everyone throws every mène, and there's always someone to ask what you should do now.

How many teams. This follows from the group size. With twenty-four participants you get eight teams of three. With thirty-six, twelve teams; with forty-eight, sixteen. Keep the number of teams a multiple of four, so the pools fit exactly and nobody needs a bye.

How many courts. Two teams per court, so the number of courts is the number of teams divided by two. Four courts for eight teams, six for twelve, eight for sixteen. In practice this is the limiting factor, because not every venue has eight courts. How to deal with that is covered further down.

The rules you really need to explain

Keep the explanation to four points. Anything beyond that you can sort out on the spot.

• Throwing the jack. The team that starts throws the jack six to ten metres from the throwing circle. The circle is about fifty centimetres across and both feet must stay inside it until the ball has landed.
• Turns. The team that isn't closest to the jack throws. This carries on until a team takes the lead. So it's not neatly one after the other, but always whoever is behind.
• Points. When all the balls have been thrown, the end (mène) is over. The team with the ball closest to the jack scores a point for each of its own balls that is closer than the opponent's best ball. That can be one point, and in the best case six.
• New end. The team that scored the points throws the jack again, from the spot where the old jack lay. This way the game moves back and forth along the court.

Two things to mention straight away, because otherwise they cause arguments halfway through. You may knock a ball away, which is called shooting (tirer), and that's perfectly allowed. And if there's doubt about which ball is closer, you measure with a tape measure or a piece of string. Whoever measures does so for both teams.

The match format in a tournament

A normal game of pétanque goes to thirteen points. That takes anywhere between twenty minutes and an hour, which is no use in a tournament because you don't know when the next round can start. So shorten it:

• A match goes to seven points or until time is up, whichever comes first.
• Playing time is fifteen minutes. When the signal sounds, you finish the current end and that's it.
• A win earns three match points, a draw one and a loss zero.
• Also record the game points, meaning the score the match ended on. You need these to compare teams from different pools.

Seven points is a deliberate choice. It's long enough that one lucky end doesn't decide the whole match, and short enough to get there within a quarter of an hour. Allow for four to seven ends per match.

Tournament schedule for 8 teams

Two pools of four, with everyone playing everyone else in their pool, then cross-over finals. Each team plays five matches. You need four courts.

Divide the teams into pool A (A1 to A4) and pool B (B1 to B4). Number them when you split them up, so the schedule only needs the numbers.

Round 1

• Court 1: A1 vs A4
• Court 2: A2 vs A3
• Court 3: B1 vs B4
• Court 4: B2 vs B3

Round 2

• Court 1: A3 vs A4
• Court 2: A1 vs A2
• Court 3: B3 vs B4
• Court 4: B1 vs B2

Round 3

• Court 1: A2 vs A4
• Court 2: A1 vs A3
• Court 3: B2 vs B4
• Court 4: B1 vs B3

After round three each team has played three matches and you work out the pool table. Then you cross the pools over, so that the two strongest teams don't have to meet straight away.

Round 4: semi-finals and placing matches

• Court 1: first in pool A vs second in pool B
• Court 2: first in pool B vs second in pool A
• Court 3: third in pool A vs fourth in pool B
• Court 4: third in pool B vs fourth in pool A

Round 5: finals

• Court 1: final, between the two winners from courts 1 and 2
• Court 2: match for third place, between the two losers from courts 1 and 2
• Court 3: match for fifth place, between the two winners from courts 3 and 4
• Court 4: match for seventh place, between the two losers from courts 3 and 4

This schedule has one property that matters a lot in practice: even the teams that come through the pool stage badly are still playing for something in rounds four and five. Nobody spends the last forty minutes watching, and that's the difference between a tournament that rolls on into drinks and one that empties out halfway.

Tournament schedule for 12 teams

Three pools of four, then a knockout with four teams. Each team plays five matches. You need six courts to keep everything in step.

Pool A (A1 to A4), pool B (B1 to B4), pool C (C1 to C4).

Round 1

• Court 1: A1 vs A4, court 2: A2 vs A3
• Court 3: B1 vs B4, court 4: B2 vs B3
• Court 5: C1 vs C4, court 6: C2 vs C3

Round 2

• Court 1: A3 vs A4, court 2: A1 vs A2
• Court 3: B3 vs B4, court 4: B1 vs B2
• Court 5: C3 vs C4, court 6: C1 vs C2

Round 3

• Court 1: A2 vs A4, court 2: A1 vs A3
• Court 3: B2 vs B4, court 4: B1 vs B3
• Court 5: C2 vs C4, court 6: C1 vs C3

You now have three pool winners and need a fourth for the semi-finals. That will be the best second-placed team from all the pools, and for that you use the tiebreak from the next section.

Round 4: semi-finals and consolation round

• Court 1: winner of pool A vs the best runner-up
• Court 2: winner of pool B vs winner of pool C
• Courts 3 to 6: the remaining eight teams play for places five to twelve, arranged by pool position: the two remaining runners-up against each other, the three third-placed teams and the three fourth-placed teams among themselves

Round 5: finals

• Court 1: final
• Court 2: match for third place
• Courts 3 to 6: winners vs winners and losers vs losers from the consolation round

If you only have four courts instead of six, play the pool stage in two blocks: pools A and B play round one, then pool C plus the first two matches of block two. That costs an extra ten minutes per round. An alternative that works better at an outing: send the waiting pool to a second activity and swap after every two rounds. With us, a tournament like this often runs alongside klootschieten (traditional Dutch road bowling) or traditional Dutch games, precisely to take that waiting out of it.

Tournament schedule for 16 teams

Four pools of four, then quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final. Each team plays six matches. You need eight courts.

Pools A, B, C and D, each with four teams. The pool stage is the same for each pool as above:

• Round 1: 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3, in every pool
• Round 2: 3 vs 4 and 1 vs 2, in every pool
• Round 3: 2 vs 4 and 1 vs 3, in every pool

With eight courts that means eight matches at once per round: two per pool. Hang a card with the pool number at each court, otherwise everyone ends up on the wrong court in round two.

Round 4: quarter-finals and losers' round

• Court 1: first in A vs second in B
• Court 2: first in B vs second in A
• Court 3: first in C vs second in D
• Court 4: first in D vs second in C
• Court 5: third in A vs fourth in B
• Court 6: third in B vs fourth in A
• Court 7: third in C vs fourth in D
• Court 8: third in D vs fourth in C

Round 5: semi-finals and the rest

• Court 1: winner of court 1 vs winner of court 3
• Court 2: winner of court 2 vs winner of court 4
• Courts 3 and 4: the quarter-final losers play for places five to eight
• Courts 5 to 8: winners and losers from the losers' round play for places nine to sixteen

Round 6: finals

• Court 1: final
• Court 2: match for third place
• Courts 3 to 8: the last placing matches

Sixteen teams on eight courts takes a lot of space: about forty by twenty-five metres if you lay the courts side by side with a metre between them. If you don't have that, the practical solution is to work with four courts and split the group. Pools A and B play the pool stage while C and D do something else, then you swap. The tournament then takes about an hour longer, but the schedule itself doesn't change.

Scoring and the pool table

For each match you record two things: the match points and the game points. The match points decide the ranking, the game points are your tiebreak.

You work out the pool table in this order:

1. Number of match points, so three per win and one per draw.
2. Game point difference, so what you scored minus what you conceded.
3. Number of game points scored. This separates teams that did win, but only narrowly.
4. Head-to-head result. Only if all of the above is level do you look at which of the two won against each other.

For the best runner-up across three or four pools you use the same sequence. That only works if all pools are the same size, and that's exactly the reason to keep the number of teams a multiple of four.

Practical point: have the teams write the score on a card themselves and have both captains sign it. That stops a result being disputed at the end of the day when nobody can check it any more. Collect the cards after each round and copy the standings onto one central sheet. Don't do it on a phone, because then nobody can read along.

Time per round and the day plan

Twenty minutes per round is the figure that holds up in practice: fifteen minutes of play, five minutes for changing courts, handing in the score cards and having a drink. Those five minutes seem like a lot and aren't, because between two rounds someone always goes to the toilet.

• 8 teams: 5 rounds, 1 hour and 40 minutes of play
• 12 teams: 5 rounds, 1 hour and 40 minutes of play
• 16 teams: 6 rounds, 2 hours of play

On top of that: a quarter of an hour for the explanation, the team split and handing out the balls, and ten minutes for the results. A tournament with eight or twelve teams therefore fits in a good two hours, one with sixteen teams in two and a half. That's also the upper limit for most groups. Play pétanque for longer than two and a half hours at a stretch and attention visibly drops.

A separate tip for the start: let the teams have a few practice throws in the first five minutes without it counting. That's quicker than explaining how far six metres is.

What you need

Per court:

• Twelve boules in two recognisable types, six per team. Metal boules of 650 to 800 grams are standard. With mixed sets, look at the grooves, because that's how you tell them apart.
• One jack, the small wooden or plastic ball.
• A throwing circle of about fifty centimetres: a plastic ring, a piece of string or a line in the sand.
• A tape measure or a piece of string for measuring when in doubt.
• A score card per round with the team numbers, the courts and two boxes for the score.
• A cloth to wipe the balls, because they get sandy and slippery.

For the event as a whole:

• Barriers between the courts, for example cones or planks. Without barriers the balls roll onto the neighbouring court and that causes grumbling every round.
• A printed schedule at each court and one large schedule at the bar or the entrance.
• A scoreboard or flip chart for the standings after the pool stage.
• A horn or bell for the start and end of every round. Shouting doesn't work once eight courts are in play.
• One person who doesn't play and only looks after the time and the scores.

That last point is where doing it yourself usually falls down. A tournament with twelve teams needs someone who walks around the whole time, and that person doesn't play.

Four things that bring a pétanque tournament to a halt

1. Too few courts for the number of teams. Rotating four teams around one court means two are always waiting. Work out the number of courts first and only then adjust the number of teams, not the other way round.
2. Playing to thirteen points. Then one match takes twenty minutes and another fifty, and your whole schedule jams. Shorten it to seven points with a time limit and say beforehand that a draw is allowed.
3. Not being able to work out the pool table. If you only keep track of wins and losses, you have no tiebreak when teams are level and have to draw lots. Record the game points from match one.
4. Giving the eliminated teams nothing to do. A knockout without a consolation round takes half the group out of the game after round four. Counter that with placing matches, even if it's for fifteenth place.

The court and the surface

For competitions the official court is fifteen by four metres. For a tournament at your venue, twelve by three metres is enough, because the jack only needs to be able to lie six to ten metres from the circle and a metre on either side is plenty. So allow about forty square metres per court, plus a metre between them.

The surface matters less than people think, as long as it's the same for all courts. Semi-paved ground and gravel are best because the ball stays where it lands. Short grass works too, but the ball rolls further, which makes shooting harder and a high lob more effective. Sand is slow and takes more strength. What you want to avoid is a court with a slope, because then everything rolls to one side and the team that works out that side wins.

Walk the site once beforehand and look out for two things: where the sun is around midday, and where you can lay the courts so that nobody walks through them. A footpath across court four is no problem in round one, but it is in round five.

Run it yourself or let us do it

A pétanque tournament is one of the easier formats to run yourself. The game is explained in five minutes, the equipment can be borrowed from a club or community centre, and the schedule is above. What it costs you is mainly time: the planning, the printing, setting out the courts and two hours of keeping an eye on the time and scores. Allow three to four hours of preparation and one person who doesn't play on the day itself.

It comes down to two things. If you want to take part yourself, because a tournament needs someone standing next to it the whole time. And if you need more courts than you can borrow, because scraping together forty-eight boules is still doable and ninety-six is not.

If you'd rather have us run it, we bring the courts, the balls, the schedule and the scores and come to your venue. A compact tournament starts at €195 for the whole group. A larger set-up with several courts, hosts and its own prize-giving starts at €550, depending on group size and the number of courts. We price larger projects on request. On the pétanque page you can read how we set that up, and via the quote page and you'll get a reply within one working day.

What you get from this

The schedule for eight, twelve and sixteen teams is above and is meant to be printed out and taken with you. Above all, remember four numbers: one court per two teams, seven points per match, fifteen minutes of play and twenty minutes per round. With those four you can convert any number of teams into a day plan.

From the first match, record the game points alongside the win, so you don't have to draw lots when teams are level. Give the eliminated teams in the knockout stage placing matches, and the whole group stays busy until the last round. And put one person who doesn't play in charge of the time and the scores.

If you're looking for a format that can run alongside the pétanque, take a look at the overview of activities. For a complete afternoon in the area, head to company outings in Twente and team outings in Twente to see how we put a programme like that together.