Beware Of Bouligans

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L'horreur! With many French sports fans still hotly denying accusations that cycling is plagued by doping, imagine the outcry at suggestions that all is not right with the nation's other beloved plebeian pastime — pétanque. The iconic Provençal game (also known as boules, a reference to the three metal balls each player uses) is enjoyed casually by an estimated 15 million French people at least once a year — usually vacationers or older gents whiling away their retirement years.

As unstrenuous as its British cousin, darts, pétanque requires contestants to toss their metal projectiles closer to a small wooden sphere than their rivals — either rolling or arching shots, or simply drilling an opposing boule into the weeds. But there are signs some of the 460,000 people registered to play pétanque competitively are taking things a little too seriously. An annual Montpellier tournament scheduled for last month was canceled when too many visiting teams bowed out after receiving threats from hometown fans. "Bouligans" have been known to warn out-of-town rivals to lose deliberately — or else. "That, and unsportsman-like behavior by some fans during play, got to be too much," laments Philippe Gaffet, secretary general of the Paris section of the French Pétanque and Provençal Game Federation, the sport's governing body. "So the city decided to shut it down."

Pétanque's evolution from leisure activity to serious sport has produced other growing pains, too. Some top players are suspected of seeking an advantage through performance-enhancing substances stronger than pastis. Random anti-doping tests are now common. "It's required for all élite sports, and the only infraction detected thus far was for cannabis a younger player had smoked the night before," chuckles Gaffet. Still, with the average age of competitive pétanque players now at just 30, Gaffet admits the risk of illicit toking — if not veritable doping — is higher than ever. "Pétanque isn't a game of granddads anymore."