TEAMS from across the UK and France will be throwing their boules in a bid to win the coveted Sherston Cup this Saturday in Sherston.

The red, white and blue bunting is already up, and early on Saturday morning tonnes of sand will be brought in to transform the High Street into 16 Boules pitches.

The tournament has grown from just 16 teams in 1986 to 128 this year, making it the biggest single day boules tournament in Britain.

Gien, Malmesbury's French twin town, is the current champion, but teams such as Boules Marniere, Lobstars and Boulfighter will be fighting it out from 9.30am for the coveted title.

This year, however, teams which fail in the quarter finals will be able to compete for a shield trophy.

Following the success of the event, boules has become a regular feature in Sherston, with the pub, The Carpenters Arms, starting a league last year.

There are now 20 teams competing in the league, and most will be testing their skills in the tournament.

Gwen Knight, the secretary of the Sherston tournament's organising committee and a regular player in the pub league, said her game has come on considerably since starting in the league, although she admitted that the tournament will provide some tough competition.

She said: "We have definitely improved with practise. I enjoy the competition and the rules are fairly simple and straightforward.

"It is a very agreeable game to play, especially when the weather is good and if you have a full glass in your hand."

She is modest about her own chances of winning, but said the village was taking competing a little more seriously than it did a few years ago.

Carpenters Arms landlady Karen Myers said this was one of the reasons the pub set up the league last year.

She said: "Boules is very important to Sherston because of the tournament and when we bought the pub in August 2001 the pub had a boules piste that had not been used.

"We asked regulars what they thought of setting up a league and weren't surprised there was an interest. But we were quite surprised that 20 teams or 60 people committed to play once a week for quite a few months."

Boules can be played one-on-one, called tte--tte or teams of two, doublettes, or with three, triplettes, the way Sherston plays it.

Each player throws the boule from within a circle towards the jack, or cochonnet.

The closest boule to the jack is said to be holding, and play transfers to the other team whose players throw one or more boules to try to gain the point.

The team can choose to point put its own boule closer to the jack than its opponent's, or shoot hit its opponent's boule away from the jack.

Once the boules have been thrown, the round is complete. The winning team receives one point for each boule closer than any of the opposing team's.