Richmond Bocce League is building a following around the popular lawn game
It’s not uncommon to come across a group of friends playing a friendly game of bocce ball at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery on a Wednesday night. But it may seem odd on a Sunday afternoon to stroll through the mostly deserted Stony Point Fashion Park and come across another group of friends also playing.
It's all part of the Richmond Bocce League, an outpost of the self-proclaimed third most popular sport in the world.
“This is our fourth season with the Ruff Riders,” said Josh Kyer on a rather chilly Sunday at Stony Point. “It is very easy to show up and learn the game, which makes it very accessible.
“There's a lot of reasons to start playing it. The barriers to entry are very low.”
It’s that easy access to the sport that made David Pope start the league back in 2022. After living in the city for 20 years, he and his wife moved to Charlotte, then wound up in Asheville.
“I played in a league when we lived in Charlotte," Pope said. “It was a similar, social recreational bocce league that had a fun atmosphere at a restaurant/bar kind of vibe.”
Pope loved the game so much that he now runs leagues in seven cities, which include Asheville, Charlotte, Durham and Knoxville, Tennessee.
Richmond’s league got its start at Slingshot Social Game Club in Scott’s Addition in 2022. That spot closed its doors after it was sold in 2024. Pope said because of that league, he knew there was a market to continue the league games elsewhere, leading him to Hardywood Brewery West Creek that year and eventually to Stony Point this year.
It’s at Slingshot where Kyer and his friends started playing.
“We transitioned from dog park friends to kickball friends to now just really good friends,” he said. “And it's really cool to see people have gotten married since we've been friends and they've had kids since we've had friends.”
Bocce ball is also known as Italian Lawn Bowling, according to the United States Bocce Federation, which adds it’s also one of the oldest lawn or yard games in the world.
But the sport actually got its start far beyond Italy’s borders. Egyptians were known to play a form of bocce using polished rocks as far back as 5000 B.C., according to Bocce.org, which also estimates that roughly 25 million Americans play the game, which has an organizing body and world championships.
The players in Richmond’s Bocce league aren't vying to get to the national or world championships, but they are competing for prizes.
“We give out prizes for the top four teams. There's a little trophy and there's some awards and sometimes we give out medals in some of our larger leagues where we have multiple divisions,” said Pope. “Normally our sponsors, like Hardywood, give us gift cards.”
Kyer said Pope does a phenomenal job organizing the league.
“Every week you can see the standings and they break it down by point differentials,” said Kyer. “And you can really see, ‘I'm playing this team and they're 3-2 and they've lost to these teams.’ So it's really easy to track throughout the season where you are and how you need to get there at the end of the year.”
Teams also have unique names. Besides Ruff Riders, there’s Boccin’ It Up, Rolling Stones, Bocc'd Surgery, La Bocce Vita, Pallino Posse and Cavalieri Ruvidi which translates from Italian to Rough Knights in English.
Teams are made up of three to four people each – though championship matches require a team of four. Games typically last about 45 minutes and players must be at least 21-years old, since many matches are played at Hardywood. The cost to join is $40 if people sign up early. Pope said teams are usually made up of friends, but he’s able to match single players with others to make a team.
The summer season will run from June 3 to August 5.
