Bocce Courts

Portland Bocce League matches are scheduled Tuesday through Friday at tow locations, 2 private courts in SW near the Keller, and the public courts at the north end of the North Park Blocks, at NW Glisan between 8th & Park Ave. Note that as of July 1, 2015 smoking is illegal at all park facilities, including the courts.

For more information, see the sections below.
Directions: Driving · TriMet and/or Bike

What size is a regulation bocce court?

Open Rules Bocce is played on courts that are 10, 11, 12 or 13 feet wide. The length should be no less than 80 feet if possible and 87 to 90 feet in length is preferable. The public courts in the North Park Blocks at NW Glisan between 8th & Park Ave. are 10 feet x 60 feet.

Bocce courts in the Portland Region

View Bocce Courts in the Portland, Oregon Region in a larger map

Public Courts

Portland

Portland Bocce League’s Official Courts
(built by the league) North Park Blocks, across from Santé bar & restaurant
GPS: 45.526419, -122.678856GPS: 45.526419, -122.678856

Elizabeth Caruthers Park
South Waterfront
(These courts do not have rails.)

Beaverton

Cedar Hills Park / William Walker Elementary School
11940 SW Lynnfield Lane

Ridgewood View Park
100001 SW Ardenwood St.
GPS: 45.5045172,-122.7800000

Scappoose

Veterans Park
West Road & Capt. Roger Kucera Way (West of Hwy 30)
Two 12x80' synthetic surface courts, built 2014
Park hours: 6am - 10pm
GPS: 45.757680, -122.885000

Private Courts

Portland

Leisure Public House
8002 N Lombard Street, Portland
M-F: 3pm - 1am-ish
Weekends: 12pm - 1am-ish
503.289.7606
www.leisurepublichouse.com

Beaverton

Ponzi Vineyards
14665 SW Winery Lane, Beaverton
30 minutes from downtown Portland.
Open Wednesday-Sunday, 10am - 5pm.
503.628.1910
www.ponziwines.com/our-locations/ponzi-historic-estate

Forest Grove

Apolloni Vineyards
14135 NW Timmerman Road, Forest Grove
(Highway 6 at Milepost 44)
Two 12x60' bocce courts built in 2013 with crushed granite surface, in a gorgeous setting next to the vineyard.
503.359.3606
www.apolloni.com

Gresham

Club Paesano at Cedarville Park
3800 West Powell Loop, Gresham
503.666.7636
paesanobocceclub.com/about-us
paesanobocceclub@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/PaesanoBocceClub

Newberg

Utopia Estate Vineyard
17445 NE Ribbon Ridge Road, Newberg
Less than an hour from downtown Portland.
Open daily, 11am - 6pm.
503.687.1671
Utopia Estate Vineyard annual cash prize Summer League plays Tuesday evenings June 21 through August 23, 2016! For more info: info@utopiawine.com
www.utopiawine.com

Carlton

Cana’s Feast Winery
750 West Lincoln Street, Carlton
One-half mile north of downtown Carlton
Open daily 11am - 5pm.
503.852.0002
www.canasfeastwinery.com

Sherwood

Ponzi Vineyards
19500 SW Mountain Home Road, Sherwood
40 minutes from downtown Portland.
Open daily, 11am - 5:30pm.
503.628.1227
www.ponziwines.com/our-locations/ponzi-vineyards-winery

Hood River

Wy’East Vineyards
12x72' courts, oyster flour surface
3189 Hwy 35, Hood River
6 miles south of I-84 exit 64.
Open daily 11am - 5pm or so. Use of courts is complimentary to customers of Wy’East Vineyards.
541.386.1277
www.wyeastvineyards.com

Please tell us about other courts in the region!

League courts in the North Park Blocks

September, 2013

Approximately 10 years ago, the Portland Bocce League raised the funds (approximately $20,000, at the time) to build these public bocce courts. Since that time, we’ve performed the maintenance (annual “overhaul” and “week-to-week” playing season maintenance) of the courts and playing surface through a combination of volunteer labor and paid contractor help. We perform this maintenance specifically for the benefit of our league play (with each reserved hour paid for by the Portland Bocce League), but it also benefits the many other users that play on these public courts when the nominal amount of summer seasonal evening league play is not occurring. In addition, Portland Bocce League pays City facility use fees to reserve these courts on summer evenings for our league play and season-end events (in 2013, over $2,000 in fees).

PDF Downloads

Bocce Court Site Plan

Unfortunately, after a decade of use, the playing surface has become extremely difficult to maintain for a number of reasons:

The upper 5-inches of fines that make up the playing surface have progressively degraded to “clay”. The clay holds onto moisture from rainwater and surface runoff onto the courts. When Portland Bocce League and other public users play on the wet clay courts during the fall/winter/spring, the ruts and divots that are created become “baked” into the surface during warmer periods, causing a particularly uneven and hard to maintain playing surface during the summer “bocce season”; and
Due to gradual settlement and erosion of the playing surface, the “drain holes” that were cored through the concrete/timbers that border the playing surface at the time of construction are now serving to “drain” surface water from the surrounding pavement/pavers onto the courts (see attached photo) rather than to drain the rainwater that infiltrates into the playing surface OUT through the drain holes.

To address these deficiencies, Portland Bocce League will remove the clay surface on each court (the East Court in 2013 and the West Court in 2014), add additional crushed rock to an elevation above the drain holes (6-8 inches) so that the surface water can effectively infiltrate into the ground below the playing surface (as intended in the original design), and add a small amount (1-2 inches) of new “playing surface” material above the new, free-draining gravel section.

The Portland Bocce League Board of Directors has determined that the league will perform the court resurfacing only on one court per year, beginning with the East Court in 2013. The rational for this is as follows:

The East Court conditions are far worse than the West Court, especially from a drainage standpoint. As a result, we are resurfacing the East Court First.
Because the work is being performed using volunteer labor from Portland Bocce League members, there is minimal economy of scale to resurfacing both courts at the same time. So it would not cost substantially more to resurface each of the courts at separate times.
Resurfacing only one court at a time will make it a more manageable task using only Portland Bocce League volunteer labor.
Resurfacing only one court at a time allows us to “experiment” with our installation methods and evaluate whether we succeed in our goal of improving the drainage.
Portland Bocce League will use decomposed granite as our new playing surface and evaluate its performance over the 2014 playing season. Decomposed granite is a commonly used bocce court surface and is far less expensive than proprietary oyster-flour surface blends. If we find it to be suitable, Portland Bocce League will use decomposed granite as the playing surface when resurfacing the West Court in 2014. If it is determined to be inferior to the existing West Court playing surface, then we may remove the decomposed granite (only the top inch or two of surface material) in 2014 when we resurface the West Court and surface both courts with a different surface material. As the gravel base will already be in place on the East Court, this would require relatively minimal additional level of effort.
Resurfacing only one court at a time may allow us to leave the court being resurfaced fenced from public access (while the material settles and stabilizes) for a longer period of time.
Resurfacing only one court at a time allows us to take what we learn during the 2013 East Court resurfacing, having as many league Portland Bocce League members as possible involved in the “knowledge” of court resurfacing, and resurface the West Court in 2014 — applying any material or process improvements that we take away from the 2013 East Court resurfacing effort.