7 Up!

This new competition played for the first time on Sunday proved to be a ‘Marmite’ event. You either loved it or hated it! A good turnout of members tried it and lovers/haters were pretty equally split.

The game is quite simple. Each team starts on 7-7 and first to 13 wins. If a player points past the coche they lose 1 point instantly. Players can shoot if they declare in advance that they’re shooting.

The format is really a training game to encourage players to avoid pointing past the jack by penalising them if they do so. Shooters are allowed to pass the jack without penalty but they must declare that they are shooting before throwing their boule.

Some members quickly realised that you could declare that you were going to shoot then actually point. If your boule then passed the jack you didn’t loose a point. Why do that? As a training game winning is not the prime purpose so there is really no need to ‘bend the rules’.

Lessons were learnt particularly the need to have timed games. Because points can be lost as quickly as gained games could potentially go on for hours! Also scores will not be recorded and no prizes offered.  So the rules can remain ‘unbent’.

We will repeat the format sometime in the future for the Marmite lovers alongside social play for the haters!