You’ve probably heard of, and likely played at some point, the French game ‘Pétanque’ or a similar type of ‘Boules’ game. Sock Pétanque is an indoor version which will allow people to throw things without doing too much damage!

Sock Pétanque - Socks flying through the air.
Stuff needed:
  • A pair of balled up socks for each player, or two or three pairs each.
  • A round coin, a hair elastic or a small item to use as the ‘jack’ or marker.
Instructions:
  1. Agree a place to stand to take your turn (the doormat at the end of a hallway or corridor is a good place but anywhere without breakable items too near is fine).
  2. Nominate someone to place the marker. If using a coin, if could be rolled, a hair elastic could be thrown or another type of marker could just be placed down before starting.
  3. Take turns to throw your pair of balled up socks, aiming to get them to stop as close to the marker as possible. If you have a lot of socks you may use two or three pairs each. Throw them one at a time so everyone throws their first pair before anybody throws their second. Remember which are yours!
  4. The person who got their socks to land (and stop) closest to the marker wins that round and gets to place the marker for the next round.
Alternatives
  • Try throwing individual socks. They don’t need to be in a ball for this but you may need to stand closer to the target!
  • Use a bin or bucket to aim for, to see who can get their socks to land in the bucket (the first person can move the bucket to a place of their choosing).
  • Mark out spaces on the floor and assign points to each part (tape lines across a corridor work well). Either play to get the most points or play as you would play ‘round the clock’ in darts where each person has to score the lowest score, then the next lowest, and so on. A player may not move on until they’ve achieved the score they were aiming for. The first person to score every score from one to the highest score you have and back down again, is the winner. If you are in a house that has stairs, you could use the stairs for this challenge.

Did you know…? The name Pétanque literally means ‘foot fixed’ implying that you should keep your feet still when you make a throw. Does this make it easier or harder to throw accurately?