Featuring stories and information about outdoor games.

Do you have an old Bocce Ball set collecting dust in the garage? If you do, then Squareball is a GREAT new game for you!  Squareball was developed by the Brothers Jenne, as an “Open Source” lawn game! They created a starting point for the game, and encourage you to take it even further!  Don’t like a rule?  Change it!  Want to add something to the game?  Add it!  It’s up to you! You can even discuss the game on the Squareball Blog

Squareball is a great yard game that can be played with game pieces you may already have!  If you don’t already have Bocce Balls around, you can pick them up pretty cheap wherever games are sold.  The rest of the game pieces are probably things you have lying around already, like rope.  If you don’t have rope around, you can use pretty much anything to mark the square playing area.

Setup

Items required to play:

• 6 – Bocce Balls :: 3 of each color. Other balls may be used, but Bocce Balls tend to work the best.
• Minimum 10′ x 25′ Playing Area. A larger area makes for safer and more enjoyable game play.
• 7′ square target area.  Create using rope, spray paint, etc.
• Throwing box.  Approx 7′ wide by 3′ deep.  Create with rope, spray paint, etc.

Objective

Score points by trapping your opponent’s balls in a triangle formed by your three balls, and generally score more points than your opponent.

The first player to reach or exceed 15 points wins the game and is declared the winner.

Rules

Create a Playing Area as shown below. The Square should be 7 feet by 7 feet, and should be 12 feet from the throwing area. See the graphic below.

• There are two players or two teams.
• To see who will throw first, each player should toss one ball into the square. The player who throws the ball nearest to the front edge will play first.
• The game is played in rounds. Players alternate tossing 1 ball at a time from the Standing Area into the Square.
• Once all six balls have been tossed, the round is over and the points for that round are tallied.
• The player with the highest score for that round subtracts his or her opponent’s score for that round from his or her score and adds the difference to his or her total score. See more on scoring in the next section.
• Only one player earns points each round. If both players score the same number of points neither player adds points to his or her total score.
• The player that won the previous round tosses first.
• If your ball does not land in the square it is out-of-bounds and out-of-play for that round.

Scoring

There are 5 main ways to score.

• 3 Points – For each enemy ball captured in your Triangle.
• 2 Points – For each ball that ball that avoids capture from the enemy’s Triangle and V’s.
• 2 Points – For landing a single ball between 2 enemy balls. Only works if enemy lands 2 in the square to your 1. The “2 vs 1″ rule.
• 1 Point – For each enemy ball captured in one of your V’s
• 1 Point – For each ball landed in the Square.

Points are Scored by Cancellation

At the end of each round, each player or team will count their points. The difference of the two scores is the number of points earned for the round.

For example: In a given round Player A scores 5 points and Player B scores 2 points. Player A will add 3 points to his or her total score.

Players should add points earned for all Triangles and V’s.  Both players may capture each other’s balls in V’s.

Points may be scored for capturing an enemy ball AND for eluding capture in the same round. Highest total score is 15 points. See images here.

More Scoring Info

Scoring can get complicated.  For even more information about scoring, see the Original Squareball Website.

Squareball Resources

If you’d like to learn more about Squareball, please check out the Original Squareball Website.  You can comment on the Squareball blog to ask about rules, scoring, etc.

We’ve also created a game page for Squareball on Outdoor Game Players.

For a related game, check out Bocce

Need a Bocce set? Check out this Bocce Set on Amazon

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