8th Annual BC Crokinole Championship

Contributed by Quin Erzinger

It was a gorgeous day that greeted the players of the 8th annual BC Crokinole Championship.  After coffee and some muffins, the doubles competitors drew their starting tables and settled in for play.  This year there were six teams on the competitive side and twelve on the recreational.  A five game round robin was played by both divisions, with the top six teams in recreational advancing to the next round.  Another five games were played and the top two teams on each side faced off in the finals.  After some thrilling action on both sides, the Good family from Kelowna really took things home with daughters Elle and Petal beating out Wilf and Pearl Pauls from Enderby to win the recreational title and last year’s champions Linda Irvine and Quin Erzinger narrowly losing out to the father-daughter team of Jody and Saje on the competitive side.

After a short break for lunch, singles play got started with a ten game round robin with the top eight scores on each side advancing.  This year it was evident that play was more strategic as, for the second year in a row, Quin Erzinger took home the award for most 20s with 75, a sharp drop over last year’s total of 91.  After playing another seven game series, the top four scores moved on to play each other and this determined who would face-off for the respective championships.  On the recreational side, Gordon Gunn from Owen Sound, Ont. beat

Brendan Pauls from Kelowna to take third place and the final was a showdown between the morning’s doubles victors, Elle and Petal Good, with Petal edging out Elle to take the title.  

Competitive Finals - Linda Irvine (left) vs Jordan Ripley (right)

On the competitive side, Quin Erzinger defeated Michael Hughes to claim third place and the final this year was between two opponents who had never before played in the finals, Linda Irvine and Jordan Ripley.  It was an intense display of skill and concentration, but after trading the first two games in the best of three series, a shocked Linda emerged as the first female competitive singles champion in the tournament’s history!

I love seeing the local talent improving each year and we now have a strong group any of which could win on a given day.  I hope to see you next year for the 9th annual BC Crokinole Championship!

For more about Crokinole in British Columbia, visit their Facebook page: Crokinole Players of BC

Quin Erzinger is a competitive crokinole player from British Columbia, and a 2-time BC Crokinole Champion. He posts crokinole videos on YouTube can be followed on Twitter @Q_Baller16. He also once had a crokinole tournament named in his honour.