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Beaches and the coast

SEE MONSTER garden and pétanque court

On Monday 24 July 2023, we officially opened a new public garden and area for playing pétanque, also known as boules, at the Beach Lawns in Weston-super-Mare.

The SEE MONSTER garden and pétanque court is at the most southern end of the Beach Lawns, next to Royal Sands. The space was once used as a miniature railway and putting green.

SEE MONSTER Garden

This site was selected to accommodate many of the plants from the SEE MONSTER installation held in the Tropicana last year.

This has created the first entirely new public garden in Weston-super-Mare since the creation of Jill’s Garden in Grove Park 22 years ago. The garden, which contains a selection of different plants suited to the exposed coastal location, also represents a lasting legacy for SEE MONSTER.

A wooden park bench surrounded by trees and bushes.
Yellow flowers and blue flowers growing amongst the bushes.
Two wooden park benches sat in a grass clearing surrounded by trees and bushes.

Pétanque Court

Pétanque is a traditional game played in Europe and Malaysia using hollow steel balls (boules) and a small wooden target ball or jack.

At the Beach Lawns, the game is played on formal gravel-topped playing surfaces, each known as a piste. It can be played informally on any sandy or gravelly surface.

The pétanque court contains eight playing surfaces, which means that multiple games can be played at the same time.

The popularity of the game is increasing in the UK and it can be played by all ages. Children must be supervised by an adult.

Everyone is welcome

This is a public facility and free for people to enjoy using their own equipment.

Weston-super-Mare Pétanque Club regularly plays on the pistes at the Beach Lawns. For those wanting to join or enquire about the sport, please email the club at wsmpetanqueclub@btinternet.com.

How many can play?

You can play as individuals or teams: 

  • singles – two individual players (each with three boules) 
  • doubles – two teams of two players (three boules per player)
  • triples – two teams of three players (two boules per player)

Boules are supplied in sets of three, each set with identical markings called striations. These help to identify each player’s boules during a game.

How to play

  1. the two teams toss a coin to decide who starts first
  2. a player from the starting team draws a circle on the ground and then, standing with both feet in the circle, throws the target jack out to a distance of 6 to 10 metres
  3. the starting team’s player then throws their first boule, trying to get it close to the jack
  4. next, a player from the second team stands in the circle and tries to get their boule closer to the jack than the opposing team. They can do this simply by throwing their boule so it ends up closer or by knocking into the opposing team’s boule and moving it away
  5. if that team succeeds in getting their boule closer than all of its opponent’s boules, then the opposing team now has to attempt to throw a boule closer
  6. the team which does not have the closest boule to the jack after each throw, keeps throwing their boules until either they get closest, or they run out of boules to throw, at which point it is the other team’s turn to play
  7. when all boules from both teams have been thrown, that is the end. Points are awarded for each boule that is closer to the jack than the other team’s closest boule, and these points are added to the running score. For example, if team A has two of its boules closer to the jack than opposing team’s closest boule, then team A gets two points added to their score and is said to have ‘won the end’
  8. the team who won the previous end, starts the next one by drawing a circle around the current position of the jack and using that as the starting position
  9. play continues in this way until one team reaches 13 points, at which point they have won the game. There is no limit on the number of ends that can be played in a game

Boules are usually thrown underarm, with the palm facing down. While this technique is not required by the rules, it allows the use of backspin and gives better control.