Photos: Supplied.
BY JAN NARY
A ball game named after a kiss? It HAS to be Italian, surely…
Bacio is the kiss; bocce is the ball game where the aim is to toss or bowl your ball (a bit like a big metal tennis ball) so that it lands near – or kisses – the jack. Or if you’re really being Italian, the pallino.
Redlands Bocce is the biggest – and most awarded – club in Queensland. It was started 56 years ago under a mango tree in Thorneside, appropriately, by Italian immigrants. It proved an immediate favourite with other locals of all nationalities and has been at its current Wellington Point home for 34 years.
State President and coach of the women’s Redlands and international women’s teams is Kerrie Reitano.
“My husband’s Italian, but I’m fully Skippy,” she laughs; “In fact, I’m the first woman president of an Australian bocce club who isn’t Italian!”
And a proud president she is; the women’s team have just taken out the Australian Federation Bocce award, winning all of six games.
“We currently have 137 members, roughly equal numbers of men and women,” she says. “We also have non-playing social members. Bocce’s an inclusive game that can be played by people of all ages, genders, and abilities; our membership ranges from 13 to 98. It’s a non-contact sport that offers gentle exercise, and you have to use your mind too; there’s a lot of strategy and precision involved, and players need to develop various techniques.”
There are different levels of playing, from solo to teams of four and a form of progressive bocce that involves running and throwing simultaneously. Redlands was chosen to pilot a new concept called Games of Throws; it seems that a sense of humour is also necessary.
Bocce is played indoors on a river sand base, so weather extremes aren’t a problem, and a hat isn’t part of the uniform.
Kerrie has been recognised by Bocce Australia for initiating discussions with the world body to introduce a Female Youth World Championships, a competition innovation to world bocce, which claimed its place on the calendar in February this year.
Anyone wishing to join can contact Kerrie at [email protected] or call 0423 552 030.
