Bob Brewer has been playing the game for 29 years and plans to play it until the day he dies.

A longtime Euclid resident who moved to Colorado last year, Brewer traveled back to Ohio this weekend for the 26th annual Pat O'Brien Chevrolet Cleveland Challenge Cup of Bocce Tournament at the Wickliffe Italian-American Club.

"I've played 25 years in this tournament ... and I'm planning every year, the good Lord willing, I'm coming to play," he said, adding he has a lot of friends and family who attend the tournament, making it all the more worth his visit.

"I'm also trying to get a bocce tournament started in Colorado," he said.

"I never played it until 1980, when my neighbor took me to a game. I played and I was just hooked on it. It's just in my blood, and I'm not even Italian."

Brewer was one of 10,000 to 12,000 people who attended the three-day event, which hosted an unprecedented 92 competing bocce teams from Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, Florida and Canada.

"That's a record for us," club president and tournament director Gino Latessa said.

"The people that come here for the first time are so impressed by how we run the tournament and the hospitality we have, and the people that come every year are impressed by where we are today."

Latessa said the tournament has gone from only three bocce courts and no fences to seven fenced bocce courts, six of them covered by pavilions, and future plans include two more courts and another pavilion.

With ancestry as far back as Egypt, Greece and the Romans, bocce — which involves two people, or teams of two, three or four — is popular in Italy.

Each player must take turns rolling the ball, or boccia, toward the pallino, the smallest ball, which already has been thrown onto the field. The players are given points for the balls thrown closest to the pallino. Players also may throw on the fly to move the point ball.

"I've been playing all my life," said John Calabrese of Chardon. "It's one of the most popular games from Italy. We brought it over here and made it pretty successful. This tournament keeps getting bigger and bigger every year."

Calabrese, whose team won the tournament in 1993 and 1994, said while he's very competitive, he and his teammates have fun no matter what the outcome.

"We have a tremendous time and enjoy watching others play, too," he added, while two teams battled it out behind him. Some players kneeled down to throw and froze in place to watch their ball in motion while others quickly scampered behind their ball, flailing their arms, willing it to go further.

Club member Tony Continenza, to whom Latessa attributes a lot of the tournament's success, was proud to see his vision continue to thrive.

"When I first joined the club, I saw the potential the tournament had. I proposed ideas about adding vendors, sponsorship, entertainment and making it more of an Italian festival, expanding on the Italian heritage a lot more," Continenza said. "This year, we had two brothers, a 12- and 14-year-old, playing ... and our oldest player is 82. The generations continue throughout the years ... keeping that tradition going."

Latessa echoed Continenza's sentiments.

"We've created a family atmosphere with entertainment, food vendors and activities for the kids," he said.

Festivities included an Italian band Friday, a classic rock band Saturday, a live broadcast with an Italian radio station Sunday, and an Italian Cultural Exhibition, cooking demonstrations and a wine-making workshop.

The top 16 teams received cash prizes totaling $15,000, with the first place team, Maxxy Valley 777 from Toronto, taking $5,000.

The club also hosted its second annual cornhole tournament, featuring 64 two-man teams competing for $1,600 in prize money, which ran simultaneous to the bocce tournament.

"Throughout all the tournaments I compete in, this one, by far, is the best tournament," said bocce player Ezio Carrozzi, of Rochester, N.Y., whose team Rochester won the tournament in 2007 and 2008 and came in second Sunday, taking home $3,000.

"It's the best run, best people. I look forward to coming to this one every year."

Carrozzi, who has been playing for 18 years, said there are many levels of bocce, from the kind played in backyards to tournaments like this one to national tournaments, and he enjoys playing them all.

He added, "I like the competitiveness, sportsmanship and meeting people from all over the country, but I love winning."

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