Barbara Lawlor, Gold Hill.  Community sports events come and go in the mountains. Most of the time their longevity depends on the perseverance and energy of the organizers and the determination of the players to win the trophy.

Bocce is a simple game, but under the seemingly innocent toss of the ball, is the scrutiny of an engineer, the lust for victory, the snarl of a tiger. The first Bocce tournament took place in 2001 in Ken Fernald’s yard, which a group of players had roughed into a court. There was something about the game that appealed to the original Gold Hill players and they continued showing up.

In 2002, the winners of the Poggio D’oro Bocce Champions in Gold Hill were Christine Mason, Michael Willard, Sandy Mahood and Barry Martin. The tournament takes place on the weekend before the Fourth of July. In that year’s winner photo, a gray-haired man in a white robe stood in the background, with his back to the camera.

The next year, in the winner’s picture, the jolly old soul was giving a hearty wave to the camera as the winners pasted happy smiles on their faces.

Last Saturday, June 31, 2018, the Gold Hill Bocce Tournament was just as enthusiastic and community-oriented as it was 17 years ago, but now the Bocce court, with its tents and scoring equipment belongs to the town and the bocce-ites who show up year after year to have a go at the coveted trophy.

The winners have changed, but many of the players have remained the same. The white-haired, white robed man in the background no longer shows up, but he was fun for a while.

Each year, 16 teams sign up to spend the day rolling a ball over a gravelly path in an effort to hit the other balls on the gravelly path, to get as close as possible to the palling ball without knocking it closer to the opponent’s ball. It takes finesse, hand to eye coordination, a steady stride and most of all, the ability to roll the ball down the court. The rest is up to the grooves in the gravel oyster shell or court clay and experience of the player.

Yanos Wilder will say the accuracy of the throw depends on the intensity of the facial expression, the grimace of the roll. It worked for him on Saturday when he and his wife Karen won the tournament, grabbing the trophy from Bear Carlsen and Tom Huth, two of the original members.

Carlson, being a good sport, says, “It was yet another fabulous bocce tournament. Many wonderful games rolled, and many ‘newbies’ did well. In the end, it was an epic see-saw battle between veterans Rebecca and Janos Wilder vs. Bear Carlson and Tom Huth, which was ultimately decided by a come-from-behind triple from Rebecca and Janos to win 13-11.”

It was a chilly day, but players and spectators brought great snacks to munch on and donated funds to the purchase of new canopies.

Enough money was raised to get new batteries for the lighted bocce balls for night bocce which will make its debut in the near future.

(Originally published in the July 5, 2018, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)