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Canary ball

Canary Ball

Precision throwing game that belongs to the bocce family and has rules similar to petanque. It is played on a bounded rectangle of sand, which traditionally used to be next to bars and canteens. You can see many on the island: by the sea and in the town squares. If you want to see how it is practiced, go to Varadero. There the locals meet almost daily to demonstrate their skills and their art in close matches that last until night.

The game consists of placing the greatest number of balls as close as possible to an objective called BOLICHE or MINGUE. The adversary will try, in turn, to place theirs by removing those that prevent it or moving the pin.

The instruments of the game are 12 balls all of the same color that will differ from the color of those of the other team and the bowling alley. The balls can be made of pasta or wood.

At the beginning of the game, the bowling alley is raffled, which will be assigned to the winner, made by coin toss, unless the winner prefers to choose balls. If you choose bowling, it will be the opponent who chooses the color of the balls. The team that has the bowling alley throws it and plays the first ball. Then, and for the rest of the game, the team that does not have the winning point must play until they do, with the ARRIME or the BOCHE.

When the team has no more balls, their opponent plays and tries to get other points, either by approaching or bowling the balls that interest them, or bowling. You can also consider the remaining balls to be played as rolls and go to the points count.

When all balls are played, a team has as many points as balls closer to the bowling alley than the opponent’s closest to it. The game will continue in the opposite direction and the pin is thrown by the team that scored points.