“You don’t have to be Italian or like spaghetti to love bocce ball,” said Skip Taylor, as he announced plans to form a bocce ball club and league at Winters Gone Farm in Wiscasset.

This is a game that almost anyone can play and enjoy, said Taylor. The history of bocce is as interesting as the game is enjoyable.

Throwing balls toward a target is the oldest game known to mankind. As early as 5000 B.C. the Egyptians played a form of bocce with polished rocks but the early Romans were the first to play a game resembling what we know as bocce today.

The game enjoyed rapid growth throughout Europe, being the sport of nobility and peasants alike. However, the future of bocce was not bright in Europe because the popularity of the game was said to interfere with the security of the state because it took too much time away from archery practice and other military exercises.

According to legend, Sir Francis Drake refused to set out to defend the English against the Spanish Armada until he finished a game.

The sport first came to America around 1750 in the English version where the balls were thrown on close cropped grass which some say is the origin of modern lawns.

One early American playing field was Bowling Green at the southern tip of Manhattan and George Washington built a court at Mount Vernon in the 1780s.

Thanks to the many Italian immigrants at the turn of the century, Bocce has come to flourish in the United States. During its beginnings in the U.S. there were as many versions of the game as there were towns the immigrants had come from. Bringing some order to the game is the Collegium Cosmicum ad Buxeas, which is the preeminent bocce organization headquartered in Rome, Italy.

It should be noted that the oral traditions of bocce are just as much an important part of the game. Throw out a pallino and become part of the long heritage of the game that include great thinkers such as Galileo and da Vinci, to rulers Augustus and Queen Elizabeth, to the noble Sir Francis Drake and America’s own George Washington.

Enjoy the world’s oldest sport, a sport known to revive the body and mind, and next to soccer, the most popular game in the world.

In forming the Winters Gone Bocce Club our goal is to provide an enjoyable and relaxing social experience while respecting the traditional aspects of the game.

We invite all area adults to join. We will meet on Sundays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and play on a traditional grass surface. League play will include singles, doubles, mixed doubles and 4 person teams. There is no cost to join.

Initial membership is limited and on a first come basis. Here is your chance to revive your body and mind while having a ball. A bocce ball of course.

For more information call Winters Gone Farm at 207-882-9191 or stop at the farm located at 245 Alna Road (Route 218) in Wiscasset. We are open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily but closed on Monday.