A bocce ball competition may start slow. As the Natchez experts at the game began to demonstrate on a recent afternoon, however, the quiet soon gives way to banter and the banter to whooping.

Bocce ball? Well, no, it is not a sport most people in Natchez know. That is precisely why John Holyoak, general manager of Dunleith Plantation, decided to call in his bocce buddies and hold lessons and demonstrations on the bluff across the street from Bowie’s as a feature of the Great River Roads Food Festival Saturday, noon to 4 p.m.

&uot;We’ve done some fairly formal events in the past,&uot; Holyoak said. &uot;We’re trying to get some different appeal for the festival.&uot;

So for $20, a participant can have the famous Soulshine pizza from Jackson and Abita beer from Abita Springs, La., and play bocce ball with Holyoak and friends.

With Dr. Kenneth Stubbs as the official referee and one of the most experienced of the bocce players, other aces are Dennis Hogue, Ken Price and Brent Bourland.

With permission from city officials, the bocce instructors will create three courts, drawing lines with chalk to create fields close to the regulation size, long and narrow.

Two teams will play on each field, competing to throw or roll the bocce balls as close as possible to a smaller ball called the pallino.

The game begins with the tossing of the pallino at least more than half the distance of the court. Back and forth, the teams throw or roll their balls, larger than a softball but smaller than a bowling ball.

The game is Italian in origin and is a version of lawn bowling. According to Webster’s, the word is pronounced like &uot;botch-ee.&uot;

&uot;We’ll be overlooking the games but might have to jump in when we need to fill in the gaps,&uot; Holyoak said of his group of coaches.

Four people make a team, with two players from each team on each end of the court. At the end of each frame of two balls each for both sides, the game resumes from the other end of the field.

Judging which balls have landed closest to the pallino elicits the most noise from teams, as the referee uses an instrument &045; a piece of string will do &045; to measure the distances in case of disagreements.

&uot;It starts quiet and then works into a frenzy,&uot; Bourland said.

Anyone hoping to get a jump on the competition Saturday might check out the Web site worldbocce.org for more details on the history and rules of the game.