Knipsbrat

Author: Demian

2012 World Crokinole Championships

Each year, on the first Saturday in June, the National Crokinole Association (Canada) begins the new tour season with the World Crokinole Championships in Tavistock, Ontario.

Players from around the world travel to compete for bragging rights and cash prizes ($1,000 CAD for the first place singles winner). The top contenders are well known in the Crokinole community and their continued success demonstrates the degree to which crokinole is a game of skill.

This year, there were a couple of special occurrences.

First, John Conrad became the first competitor to win in both the singles and doubles brackets during the same tournament. This was his first singles championship. Its my understanding that John is one of the long time backbones of the crokinole community with significant involvement in the local club scene as well as the NCA tour and championship itself.

Justin Slater, the 2010 WCC Champion and 2012 runner-up, set a new record in the 20's competition. Competitors keep track of the count of 20's the make in the preliminary rounds (8 x 40 games= 320 shots). The count for the last dozen years has been between 86-108 20's. Justin tallied 142 20's or 44% of his shots during competitive play. Its quite amazing, I hope to get some commentary from some of the players that at the tournament to comment on both Justin's skill and if there were situational factors that contributed to such a blowout. Justin appears to be the poster child, along with the likes of Nathan Walsh, of the next generation of dominant crokinole players.

I'm amazed and thankful for those participants that shared tweets, blogs and especially video and photograph from Tavistock this weekend. As the game becomes more popular, it exciting to experience the community from a far.

I'm looking forward to making the pilgramage myself in the coming years, I'll have to enlist some family or friends to come with me.

Posted Mon 04 June 2012 by Demian in Competition

Recreational Doubles - WCC 2013

WCC_2013_Logo WCC_2013_Rec_Doubles

The World Crokinole Championships are an all day event. Doubles categories starts by 8:30am. Singles categories are held in the afternoon and evening.

My son, Kieran, and I entered the recreational doubles category. Simultaneously, the competitive category and the cues category held their tournaments.

The first round of the ...

Read more

Posted Sat 01 June 2013 by Demian in Competition (WCC)

Adult Singles - WCC 2013

WCC_2013_Logo

The World Crokinole Championships are an all day event. Doubles categories starts by 8:30am. Singles categories are held in the afternoon and evening.

As Kieran headed over to compete in the juniors (6-10) category, I got in line to draw my number for the competitive singles category: the main ...

Read more

Posted Sat 15 June 2013 by Demian in Competition (WCC)

2013 World Crokinole Championships

WCC_2013_Logo

From Last Year:

Each year, on the first Saturday in June, the National Crokinole Association (Canada) begins the new tour season with the World Crokinole Championships in Tavistock, Ontario.

Players from around the world travel to compete for bragging rights and cash prizes ($1,000 CAD for the first place ...

Read more

Posted Sat 01 June 2013 by Demian in Competition (WCC)

2014 World Crokinole Championships

WCC_2014_Logo

This past June, I found a reason to repeat what might have been a once-just-to-do-it trip to Tavistock, ON for the World Crokinole Championships: I was able to convince my brother and my father to join Kieran and I. What a great time.

It would be hard for my father ...

Read more

Posted Sat 07 June 2014 by Demian in Competition (WCC)

A Crokinole Birthday (the gift of crokinole pt 2)

Wiilardpro

While playing cards with my family this morning, I saw the mailman pull up out front for an apparent second delivery. With my birthday coming up soon, I wondered what may have arrived from Amazon.com or similar online store.

However, when I watched him pull out a large square ...

Read more

Posted Sat 09 June 2012 by Demian in Boards

A Crokinole Shake

Crokinole lovers should consider heading over to http://mlkshk.com/crokinole

to view a stream of Board photographs that I've started to collect. Please sign up, and "join" my shake to contribute your own Crokinole photos.

While there are several sources of board photos around the web, I hope ...

Read more

Posted Fri 20 April 2012 by Demian in Crokinole

A new Crokinole blog

Nathan Walsh, a ranked Crokinole player, just started a new blog called CrokinoleCentre with a post recapping the results of the 2012 London Crokinole tournament. Nathan is also a prolific poster of crokinole videos on youtube, you should check out his channel.

Posted Tue 03 April 2012 by Demian in Crokinole

A virtual fix for crokinole junkies

Croke

Since discovering the game, and reading everything I can find online, and ordering my own board. It became obvious that I ought to experience the game in some form.

I was able to find a version of the game for my iPad (its acutally designed for the iPhone/iPod touch ...

Read more

Posted Sat 04 February 2012 by Demian in Crokinole

Can't wait...

Puzzler

I know I've gone mental, while I await the work of art I ordered from Muzzies, I began to imagine sharing the game with others. Bring the board to the office to show to friends and colleagues, bring the board to VT to play with friends and family, having ...

Read more

Posted Thu 02 February 2012 by Demian in Boards

Clockwork Crokinole: Crokinole for the PC

Clockwork Crokinole hit the internet this past week. It appears to have been developed by Evan Smith of Nova Scotia, CA (as "Mud Puddle Games") based on GarageGames Torque2D engine.

The mechanics, ambient sound, and animations are "steampunk" style and have a nice feel to them. Easy mode is a ...

Read more

Posted Sat 14 April 2012 by Demian in Crokinole

Crokinole Board by Muzzies

Muzzies

Crokinole1

The first board I ordered arrived from Nova Scotia today. Sue shipped the board only 6 days ago, not bad for international postal service.

The board is maple plywood with a Red Chestnut stained playing surface, and clear poly for the ditch and rails. Murray and Sue do excellent finish ...

Read more

Posted Thu 16 February 2012 by Demian in Boards

Crokinole brings people together

Oldest known crokinole board

Crokinole is a game with unique culture that naturally brings people together. I was reminded of this while playing doubles with my brother, son and father-in-law over the weekend.

Within a family

Similar to card games, and traditional board games such as backgammon, checkers, and chess, crokinole is a low ...

Read more

Posted Tue 01 May 2012 by Demian in Crokinole

Crokinole Hangout

Armed with an iPhone and tripod mount, my brother and I put on a live demonstration of crokinole for our parents.

I'm sure this is possible with Skype or similar, but there was something funny about the multiple camera angle effect with both players' faces as well as a ...

Read more

Posted Sun 01 April 2012 by Demian in Crokinole

Crokinole is a winter wondergame

Setup my new crokinole board on a 32" inch table in the family room for the long weekend. 2 person games, 4 person games, adult games, and kid games. While I wouldn't call it an obsession, it got plenty of play from both my family and our hosts.

As ...

Read more

Posted Wed 22 February 2012 by Demian in Crokinole

Crokinole - quick to learn

While hosting a birthday party for my 9 year old and 7 of his friends,no had to opportunity to teach several of them crokinole. By first demonstrating the flicking dynamic and showing the goal of hitting the center of the board, they quickly understood what was required to take ...

Read more

Posted Sat 03 March 2012 by Demian in Crokinole

Crokinole Solitaire

Solitaire_crokinole

In the few times that I haven't had a partner since receiving my board. I figure I want to practice and develop my skills.

A clean solitaire game has emerged.

  1. Place opposing 12 discs on the board in a predictable arrangement

    • I recommend around the 5/10 line at ...

Read more

Posted Sun 12 February 2012 by Demian in Crokinole

Crokinole - The Movie

Crokinole (2006)

I haven't got my hands on a copy yet, but in 2006, a movie was made. Directed by Joshua &Jonathan Steckley, the film reportedly introduces us to characters such as Mr. Crokinole (Wayne Kelly), Willard Martin and "the Wayne Gretzky of Crokinole", Joe Fulop, in a light ...

Read more

Posted Fri 16 March 2012 by Demian in Crokinole

Does crokinole travel?

Over president's day weekend, here in the United States, my family is traveling north to Vermont to stay and ski with friends. Our friends have a nice home close to a ski area and enjoy getting away from the hustle and bustle of the city. I've decided to ...

Read more

Posted Sat 18 February 2012 by Demian in Crokinole

Fresh wax for the win

Shortly after receiving my Puzzler board, I wrote about the process and results of waxing. I performed my second waxing today and went out of my way to be more generous with the wax as well as letting it dry for 20 minutes before wiping it off. I basically let ...

Read more

Posted Sun 25 March 2012 by Demian in Crokinole

Gamecraft Quadpod: too tall

Gamecraft Quadpod

The Gamecraft Quadpod initially looks like a compelling and inexpensive portable table for a Crokinole board. Unfornately, it didn't live up to my expectations. Fortunately I found an inexpensive version on eBay. The image available widely online shows a thin rectangular surface. This is NOT included with or attached ...

Read more

Posted Thu 01 March 2012 by Demian in Accessories

Joys of playing crokinole

Having actually been playing the game for a couple of weeks, allow me to share some of the joys I've discovered.

The large board aside, its quick and easy to play a round or 2 of crokinole. Sit down, separate the discs and start flicking. A quick round can ...

Read more

Posted Sat 25 February 2012 by Demian in Crokinole

NCA Tour Finale at St. Jacob's

The NCA (National Crokinole Association) Tour begins the first Saturday of each June with the World Crokinole Championships in Tavistock, ON. Today is the tour finale with the St. Jacob's tournament as previously mentioned on this blog.

As a Canadian-American [ :D ] fan of the game, its one of those ...

Read more

Posted Sat 05 May 2012 by Demian in Competition

New Handmade Boards by Allinent on eBay

Allinet Crokinole

During my research on Crokinole craftsman, I had come across a few photographs of boards made by "Allinent." One of the side effects of ordering a handcrafted item, is waiting for it to be handcrafted and delivered.

Occasionally, you'll find the Hilinski's maintaining small inventory. Today, I noticed ...

Read more

Posted Tue 08 May 2012 by Demian in Boards

Pichenotte - Crokinole by another name

Pichenotte Board

Dave and Norm Lagasse of Sante Fe, New Mexico: ~ Like so many other families of Canadian descent, among our most valued family heirlooms is a "pichenotte" board (shown at left). Ours was made by our grandfather, Lucien Rajotte, back in 1926 out of a wooden starch crate (you can still ...

Read more

Posted Sun 09 June 2013 by Demian in Boards

Puzzler board arrived

My Puzzler Board

Murphy's Law held true as my board arrived Thursday when out of town and couldn't play with it. The next day, flight delays continued to separate me from my obsession.

An email exchange with the Joel Harper (the builder), reassured me that he was as anxious to hear ...

Read more

Posted Sat 11 February 2012 by Demian in Boards

The gift of crokinole

Burton by Hilinski

Today is my father's birthday. I imagine he's been watching my recent crokinole obsession with both curiosity and a bit of familiarity. Obsessive hobbies run in the family.

What might be particularly funny for long time Knipsbrat readers, is that it wasn't immediately obvious that this would ...

Read more

Posted Tue 17 April 2012 by Demian in Boards

Waxing my wood

Carnuba Wax

Having found some inconsistencies with my first set of discs and significant impact on the speed of the board. I ventured out of my house to find some pure carnuba paste wax. Boardgamegreek and other crokinole forum's highly recommend "Mothers pure carnuba wax."

Many car waxes, such as Turtle-brand ...

Read more

Posted Tue 14 February 2012 by Demian in Accessories