Bocce - relaxed and fun

On Friday we had our end-of-summer team picnic. And I was introduced to a new game "Bocce", pronounced as "Bochee". It is a fairly simple game, but not easy. So here is my understanding from a total stranger's perspective.

The game goes like this. There are 9 balls in all. One is a white ball which is smaller than the others. The rest 8 balls are divided into two groups, 4 in each group. Each of these 4 balls is of different colour, we used red, blued, green and yellow. To distinguish one group from the other, as the colours are the same, the balls in two groups have different texture. E.g. one group will have circles marked on the surface while the other will have squares marked on the surface.

To play the game, you need at least two players. Each player selects the group of balls he wants to play with, either the squares (on the surface) or the circles. One player then starts the game by throwing the white ball as far as possible. Then each player competes to throw their set of balls as close as possible to the white ball. You are allowed to hit the white ball or any other ball, the only thing counts is who gets closest to the white ball.

More details will be on Wikipedia. I just think this is a pretty cool game and could be played anywhere and by people of most age groups.