This article appeared in the January 2014 issue of the USBF Western Sector Newsletter.

A very interesting situation developed in the final game of the league playoffs in early December at Campo di Bocce of Los Gatos, CA.  Green established the point with their first ball. Red rolled two balls long and then rolled their third ball very close.  A red team player and a green team player measured and declared that red had the point.  Green rolled their remaining three balls and red rolled their last ball.  None of the last four balls played touched any other balls or beat red’s point.  The green team then decided to measure the two close balls again and determined that green was actually the closest ball and was holding point.

There ensued a lot of noise and some arguing about what to do to rectify the situation.  The sideline lawyers also all had different opinions on what to do. The league director was called and after being appraised of the situation decided that there was no specific rule about “bad” measurements or incorrectly called points.  Fortunately, none of the balls played after the faulty measurement had any effect and did not change the position of the previously played balls. The decision made was to return the three green balls and one red ball that were played after the original measurement and replay those four balls with green holding the point.  None of the replayed balls changed the situation and green was awarded one point.

There is precedent for this in the game of raffa when a referee makes a mistake in determining the point.  In raffa, after a mistake made in determining a point is discovered, all balls played after the mistake was made are returned to be replayed.  This is easy to do in raffa because the position of all balls are marked on the court and any disturbed item can be reset to its original location where it came to rest.  An analysis of the situation and a review of both the open rules and raffa rules might lead one to come up with a different solution to this problem.  As a matter of fact, errors are often made in determining points and it is a frustrating experience when it happens.  The raffa rule applies when an independent referee makes a mistake.  The rule is intended to protect both teams from a mistake made by the referee.  This was not the case in this situation because both team’s players participated in the measurement and there was no independent referee. It could be inferred that both teams accepted the point because they both participated in the measurement.

It is somewhat puzzling that no one consulted the league rules or USBF Open Rules.  Both sets of rules have a rule that handles this situation and can be found in the USBF Open Rules under Game Notes and states:

“If a player rolls or shoots out of turn or plays more balls than allowed, the opposing team has two options.  They can leave all balls as they rest or remove the thrown ball from play an return all other ball(s) to their previous positions.”

The fact of the matter is that both teams rolled balls out of turn!  No one on either team was aware that the balls were rolled out of turn because they believed that red was holding point. This brings to mind the old question: If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear, does it make a sound?  In this case the question might be:  If a ball is played out of turn and no one knows it is played out of turn is it really played out of turn?  Green had an opportunity to challenge the determination of the red point but did not do so until the end of the frame.  Red could have removed the green ball(s) rolled in error but opted not to do so.  The open rule states that if the balls are not removed from play the only remaining option is that they stay in place where they came to rest. The open rule does not provide an option to replay balls if the balls were rolled out of turn!  It seems that the correct solution to the problem would have been to leave all balls as originally played and award one point to green.  As it turned out, green was awarded one point so no harm was done.  Red went on to win the game.

The above discussion points out how important it is to know who has the point. Most points are determined by judgment without measuring.  When it is too close to call, a measurement is taken.  Both teams should participate in the measuring process and/or agree on the determination of the point at the time a judgment call or measurement is made.

Some observers of the chaos that night have suggested that a rule might be added to clarify this situation in the future. It might read: “After a point is determined by measuring or a judgment call, play continues until the next measurement or end of frame.”  This type of a rule might be redundant because even though there isn’t a rule about faulty measurements there is a rule about balls rolled out of turn.  All faulty measurements or incorrectly called points lead to a ball being played out of turn and there is a rule to handle this situation.  It might be best to follow the rules already set forth for the game of open!