Whether a purist or a novice, playing bocce ball has one key attraction – bringing people together.
The start of the village of Elmwood Park Recreation Department’s Adult Bocce League began July 10 at Centennial Park, 7600 W. Armitage Ave., attracting players of the game along with spectators. It was the start of league competition at the park’s two bocce ball courts, which will last until Aug. 28.
Elmwood Park Deputy Police Chief Andrew Hock showed up to participate as part of the Quattro Formoggi (Four Cheeses) team. He said he’d never played, but did pretty well in the first round of play, the team losing by one point to its opponents.
“I’ve never played, but anybody can do this,” he said.
Mike Ciancio, organizer of the league for the park district, said it’s not about competition, but more about using the facilities and having fun.
Bocce is played with eight large balls and one smaller ball called a “pallina.” There are four balls per team and they are made of a different color or pattern to distinguish the ball of one team from another. The game begins with the toss of a coin to determine who has first toss of the pallina.
The pallina is rolled by one of the winners of the toss and then the bigger ball is thrown as close as possible to it in order to begin play. Each team gets four balls.
Teams score points based on how close the bigger balls they use come to the pallina after everyone on the team gets a throw. The first to reach a designated number of points, usually 16, wins.
Lodean Fisher, 52, who lives a few blocks from the park, remembers growing up watching older men play the game.
“Me and my cousin would watch my grandfather play on 74th Avenue and Diversey Avenue,” she said.
As a child she was just a spectator, but today she is a player.
“It’s just nostalgia because we weren’t allowed to play when we were little,” Fisher said. “The old men would say, ‘Go away, go away.’ It was very intense.”
To some degree, the evening of July 10 play was a bit intense as well, with teammates congratulating each other and oohs and aahs filling the park when a good roll was made.
Elmwood Park Village President Angelo “Skip” Saviano said the game can become pretty competitive.
“Some of these old-timers are very good,” he said.
Yesterday, Governor Quinn came to town to announce that the city of Spring Valley will receive a $9.5 million grant to help repair the city’s wastewater treatment plant that was damaged by the April flood.
Special thanks to the efforts from State Rep. Frank Mautino (D-Spring Valley), State Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris) who helped make this happen for Spring Valley.
“The results of their efforts will provide a new wastewater treatment plant that will be constructed to safeguard the facility from future flooding and be designed to service our city for many years to come,” Marini said.
