Draft:Fiolet (game)

Fiolet, in the past known as baculot, is an individual or team sport where the ball is hit with a stick. It is part of the traditional sport of Aosta Valley, with tsan, rebatta and palet, and for that reason it is protected from the Federachon Esport de Nohtra Tera and the Asosiachon Valdothena Fiolet, which also deals of the organisation of the championships afetr ages of spontaneity. In the past this game was playied also in the Canavese.

History
As the Rebatta, an other Aosta Valley 's traditional sport, the Fiolet comes form the Lippa. Pierre Daudry, player and reasercher of tradional sport, says that in Savoie the options of the same game were  ara, batonnet, baculot, fiole. The first witnesses of fiolet are from late 19th century - first 20th century; an anecdote says that people to catch the sticks used to go to Les Iles de Quart, a woody place, where also the tsan playeres catched their material. This situation was the main reason of some stresses, to catch the bests sticks.

In 1882 a municipal order espressly forbidds to play  boules paume, baculot at auter jeux because of the danger of the ball coming down on the heads of the bystanders. There was even a written complaint from baculot 's players, due to the difficulites in sharing the space with the army that used to train theirself in the Parade Square and did not want to be hit by the fiolet thrown by the players.

The players used to go and play there beacuse the Parade Square was a big place in the suburb of Saint Etienne, that was a refence point for all the players of the valley, since the origins of the game. At the beginning this place was the main cradle of the fiolet in Aosta Valley and after was overrun by the army.

The Champ de Mars was a place given by the major to Joseph Frassy to play the spring and autumn  championships of baculot. It was played there until the beginning of the Second World War, precisley until 1934 for the official matches, as from 1935 the regional competition moves to the Puchoz Stadium, also in Aosta.

A turining point for the organisation of the game was the founding in July 1924 of the  Societe Sport Club Aosta  ,in the presence of 51 members in the hall of Plaine d'Aoste, a sort of multi-sport club with his own statue, board of directors and people in charge of individual games and sport.

Within a year, the Society identified Joseph-Charles Farinet and René Fusinaz as those responsible for drefting the first official regulations for the game of baculot, from which to start a real championship.

The stereotypes
The game, according to some stereotypes, was the game of the  peasants , exclusively for man and loved by old man dedicated to the bottle; those stereotypes were later dismanteled by the studies of Pierre Daudry and Richard Savoye.

In fact, Fiolet is played in teams and involves generational mixing (old and young people plays together) and women have also been participating for decades. Moreover, according to some testiomonies about the early 20th century: Fiolet was an elite sport, in the early 20th century'' when palying with each other, pairs were formed, almost by drawing lots, for the game. The accouning of defeats was noted on a willow (in patois, the bitse) with notches. At the end of the day, those who had the most notches would go to the cahier to pay for the wine that was drunk during the afternoon (and that must have been no small expense). The idea of a game for goiters comes from the socialising combination of wine and game, a freqent element in traditional games (thinking on the combination pastis-petanque): at the end of fiolet matches, often played on sunday, people would return to the city to party. According to a witness:

Individual game
Since 1 May 1925, the most prestigious fiolet competition has been held, in which the Baton D'Or is awarded to the player who manages to score the most points in 10 strokes. This carved wooden trophy, on which the names of all past champions are engraved, remains with the winner for a yerar along wuth the title of Aosta Valley Fiolet Champion. The custody of the Baton D'Or is a real honour. The stick, carved by a craftsman from  Saint-Nicholas, was a gift from Alpine Captain Mario Brivio '' as a token of satisfaction with those who put Lo Viou joà di valdoten (..) back on its feet, as an endowment for the fiolet champions.  The first winner of the Baton D'Or was Joseph Jean-Savy, from 'the baquettaye dry and armonious .

The stick, hidden by René Fusinaz to preserve it from the ravages of war, it disappears for 25 years and was only given back in 1959, when in february of that year was officially handed back into the hand of the Fiolet secretary Italo Marguerettaz. Since then, this individual race has been held again.

Team game
Due to the ban on playing in the bulit-up area, games wew generally played at the foot of the mountains, on flat terrain, in spring and autumn. A proper championship was only established in 1953. While the Baton D'Or is an individual competition, the spring and autumn championsihips are played in teams and are called  Trofeo Consiglio Valle  and  Trofeo Autunnale . Nowadays, junior championships, competitions within the Youth Games and the Summer Masters are also played.

Playing field
The playing field is a flat lawn at least 150 metres long; on it the players play against each other, individually or in teams of seven each. It has the shape of a circular sector and is marked with semicircles about every 15 metres.

While in the last 50 years it was happened taht the absence of playing fileds made it difficult to play fiolet, up to the boderline case of 1976 in which this impairment even prevented the Valle Council Trophy from being played, today the fields are safeguarded and identified with grater certainty.

Materials
To play the game, one needs an ovoid ball ( called the fiolet, generally made of wood and with pegs to increase its weight) a smooth round stome (called the pire in eastern patois or the berrio in standard patois) sometimes resting on a tin base, and finally an eima, consisting of a tapered wooden stick, with a handle at one end and a ''maciocca' at the other, which is used to hit the fiolet.

Performance
An ovid ball placed on a round stone about 20 cm high is hit twice by the player with a stick, first to make it bounce in the air and immediately afertwards in the air to send it as far as possibile.

The player scores one point for each semicircle passed by the ball he has thrown.

Association Valdôtaine Fiolet
The Association Valdotaine Fiolet, part of the Federation Esport de Nothra Tera, is responsible for fiolet and the organisation of the championships. In each municipality where fiolet is played, there is an organisation section of the Association, except in Aosta, which has three equal to the others: Aosta, Arpuilles-Excenex (Aosta), Porossan (Aosta).

Sections
The municiplaities where fiolet is played are: Allein, Aosta, Avise, Charvensod, etroubles, Gignod, La Salle, La Thuile, Morgex, Oyace, Saint-Christophe, Saint-Rhémy-en-Bosses, Saint-Oyen, Sarre, Valpelline.

Champions of Bâton d'Or
Category:Team sports Category:Sport in Piedmont Category:Sport in Aosta Valley Category:Culture of Aosta Valley Category:Outdoor games