Valencia Cove Rules and Regulations for Bocce Tournament Season 2022-2023

Regular Season and Post Season Tournament Rules

1.       Each team will have a captain and/or designated captain present at each match.

2.       Team captains are obligated to rotate their players fairly throughout the regular season and post season tournament.

3.       It is the responsibility of the team captain to provide their team members with all relative game schedules and communications regarding tournament game play.

4.       It is recommended that each team have a designated player at each end of the court to expedite decision making in determining which color balls are the closest to the pallino.

5.       No players, spectators or team members are to be in the middle area between the courts or along the sidelines while teams are playing. Team members are allowed in these areas when play is halted to determine which ball is closest to the pallino.

6.       All players must wear rubber soled shoes or sneakers and both feet need to be on the court when tossing the balls.  For the safety of individual players, open toed footwear is not permitted.

7.       Only scheduled players are allowed on the courts and benches during play.

8.       In the absence of game officials, each team is permitted to have only one player on the scoring end of the court for measurements.

9       All games are to start at their scheduled start time. Regular season games are limited to 50 minutes.  Penalties for fewer than 4 players as specified in rule 20 below will be applied. Players arriving late may be added to the game to reduce or eliminate the player shortage penalties.

10.       There will be no substitutes once the match begins, except for injury or illness.

11.   In order for a player to play in a match, they must be a paid-up member on the team’s roster. Only players on a team roster at the end of the regular season may play in the post season tournament.

12.   The scoreboard will be adjusted at the end of each frame.

13.   The match consists of multiple frames with players from each team at each end of the court.

14.  In the event of thunder or lightning or if the field becomes unplayable, the match will be stopped. If neither team scored six or more points or if the score is tied, it will be considered a rainout.  Otherwise, the team in the lead will be declared the winner at the current score.  Regular season rainout games will not be rescheduled.

After a rain event, our Athletic Director will determine if the courts are playable.  If they are not, a notice will be sent to the captains informing them of the morning cancelations.  Since the Athletic Director leaves prior to the afternoon/evening games, it is the responsibility of the captains to determine if the field is playable. If either captain decides the field is not playable, the afternoon/evening game will be canceled.

15.   A regular season match will end at the scheduled stop time or when one team reaches 12 points.  During the post season tournament, a team must reach 12 points and win by two or more points, otherwise the match continues until one team is ahead by two or more points.

16.   All games will end at their scheduled stop time and the team with the higher point total would be declared the winner. If a frame is in the middle of being played at the stop time, that frame would be completed.  If the score is tied, one additional frame would be played, and the winner of that frame would be the winner of that match.

17.   There is no limit on extended play time for post season matches.

18.   The colors for each team will be determined by a coin toss.  The team winning the coin toss will be tossing the RED bocce balls.

19.   A maximum of 4 members from each team will play during a game.

20.   Two players from each team alternately throw 2 balls each from each end of the court during every frame.

21.   Teams may choose to play with fewer than 4 players.  However, there will be no rotating of players from one side of the court to the other during the game and a team might be at a disadvantage as each player is only permitted to toss 2 balls in each frame.  When a team has 3 players, 1 will play from one end and 2 from the other end. With 2 players 1 would play at each end. 

22.   No player will toss 2 consecutive balls except a lone player mentioned herewith.

23.   All measurements will be done using the tape measures attached to the devices that fit over the pallino.  This permits measurements from the center of the pallino to the front of the bocce balls.  Measure only when absolutely necessary as excessive measuring is time consuming and distracting.

24.   Game scores are to be reported to [email protected] within 48 hours by winning teams.  Non-reported scores will count as a loss for both teams.

25.   During the post season tournament, should there be any rainout games, those games will be rescheduled by the Bocce committee and all following scheduled games will be rescheduled as necessary and it is up to the team captains to ensure that their teams are present to play in accordance with the updated schedule.

26.   The team standings at the end of the regular season are only used to determine post-season brackets. Awards will only be presented based on post season play.

27.   We are playing for fun with friends & neighbors... profanity will not be tolerated.

Playing the Game

1.       The game is played with a little white ball (the pallino), 4 red balls and 4 green balls.

2.       Two teams play against each other, with one team tossing the red bocce balls and the other team tossing the green bocce balls. 

3.       The object is for each team to get their bocce balls closest to the pallino which is initially thrown between the two yellow lines at the opposite end of the court and at least 12 inches from the sides of the court.  The tossing of the pallino starts each frame.

4.       All balls are tossed underhand from behind the white foul lines.

5.       A frame is completed when each player has tossed 2 bocce balls from their end of the court.

6.       At the end of each frame whichever team has 1, 2, 3, or 4 of their balls closer to the pallino than any of the other team balls will receive that number of points for that frame

7.       After each frame play will resume in the opposite direction.

8.       Each game will begin with the RED team tossing the pallino and first bocce ball.

9.       The team with the rights to toss the pallino has two (2) chances to toss the pallino within the designated area as indicated above and then throw the first bocce ball. If they fail to do this, the opposing team has one (1) chance to toss the pallino within the designated area and then throw the first bocce ball. If neither team is successful, the pallino is placed in the center of the designated area and the pallino player from the first team will throw the first bocce ball.

10.   After the first frame the pallino is always tossed by the team receiving the last point.

11.   After the first ball is tossed, the opposite team tosses their color bocce ball.  They continue to toss their color balls until they toss one closer to the pallino or are out of balls to throw.  Once they have tossed a ball closer to the pallino or are out of balls to toss, the other team will toss their balls until they are closer to the pallino.  This alternating process continues until both teams have tossed all of their bocce balls.  If the team closest to the pallino still has balls to toss, they continue to try and get as many balls as possible closer to the pallino than the closest ball of their opponents.

12.   If a player tosses the pallino, when the other team should have tossed it, the pallino is returned and the frame will start over.

13.   All teams must alternate which player is tossing the first ball of their color in each frame.  This will also determine which player will toss the pallino for their team.

14.   A bocce ball toss hitting the side boards is acceptable and will remain in play.

15.   Any bocce ball toss that hits the backboard before touching any ball in play – including the pallino --is out of play and removed from the court for that frame.

16.   If a player mistakenly tosses a bocce ball of the wrong color, the toss will count and the ball replaced with the correct color ball.

17.   Any bocce ball mistakenly played out of turn will remain in play. 

18.   If a player mistakenly crosses the foul line while tossing a ball, the ball will remain in play and all players on both teams will be given a warning.  If it happens a second time during a match, the tossed ball will be picked up from its final resting place and removed from play.  All other balls will stay in place, whether or not they were moved as a result of the ball being removed from play. 

19.   If a player intentionally crosses the foul line, that player will be ejected from the match and any balls affected by that toss will be moved back to their prior positions as best as possible.

20.   At the end of each frame, whichever team has 1 or more bocce balls closer to the pallino than any bocce ball of the opposing team, will receive that number (1-4) of points for that frame.  Only one team can receive points at the end of each frame.

21.   If each team’s closest bocce ball to the pallino is exactly the same distance from the pallino, then there will be no points awarded for that frame. The match will continue with the team scoring the last point tossing the pallino.