Crokinole is over 140 years old, but it has never travelled like this

Another crokinole innovation has come out of CrokinoleDepot, and just in time for the 2016 World Crokinole Championship.

The 2010 Creation: The 20 Board

CrokinoleDepot is responsible for the introduction of the 20 Board and the ground-breaking 20 Holder to the crokinole world. While their annual Crokinole Post was most of the inspiration for the creation of this blog. Their latest creation: “Crokinole 2 Go”.

The new innovation solves the common problem with high quality crokinole boards of inconvenient size and width, and provides a unique way to compact the game to a two-player travel form.

“We are very excited to introduce Crokinole 2 Go to crokinole players and gamers everywhere.  It is our latest contribution to the crokinole community and it fills a huge void in the market”, says Jason Beierling, co-owner and marketing manager of Crokinole Depot. “This 2 player version of the game is great for beginners and professionals alike.  It is the perfect size to travel with, yet it maintains the same feel and fun of the original game.”

Tournament style crokinole boards ($200+) have an outside diameter of 30 inches or more.  This makes the game very awkward to travel with, space consuming to store, and difficult to handle.  Crokinole 2 Go has measurements of 21x12 inches, making it convenient for travel, easy to store and a breeze to manipulate.  This new product, priced at $100, offers the same quality materials and construction for half the cost of the traditional game. 

Ray Beierling, co-owner and head of product development at Crokinole Depot had this to say. “The centre hole, 15 circle, posts, and discs of Crokinole 2 Go are all tournament board specs.  This allows a player to get the same angles, bounces and shot selection they would get from a regulation board.  The side ditches are an integral part of the design and keep the discs from bouncing back into play.  We have put a lot of time, thought and effort into this product and we know it is a 20.”  

As detailed on the CrokinoleDepot website, the $100 board can be purchased at a discount of $95 for any order placed before June 4th, and at $90 for any pre-order set for pickup at the World Crokinole Championships on June 4th in Tavistock.

This board should help solve that common crokinole itch that players get when they are looking to get a quick game in anywhere they go. To learn more about Crokinole 2 Go, Crokinole Depot, or the Beierling Brothers, visit the website www.crokinoledepot.com or email ray@crokinoledepot.com or jason@crokinoledepot.com.  

Varna Cruises to Top Spot at Schneider Haus

They lost the team title by a mere 2 points last year, but for the 2016 Varna Crokinole Club, the team mantra may have been “leave no doubt.” By the end of the day there certainly was no doubt, as Varna rolled through the competition and won the Joseph Schneider Haus Crokinole tournament for the 6th time in their history.

The oldest running crokinole tournament in the world opened up its doors for the 24th year, inviting 6 teams including the long-time attendees of Preston, St. Jacobs and Varna, and the relatively new clubs of Waterloo, Scone and Quinte.

The tournament format is a simple singles round-robin, with every player playing one-game against each other, excluding that of their own team members. While some traffic issues caused half of the Varna team to show up just on time for the beginning action, they had no problems getting comfortable and picking up points in pursuit of the team title. By the half way point (10 games) the Varna club was on pace to win the event by 80 points, while the St. Jacobs and Waterloo clubs were in a dead-heat for second place.

Crokinole/Checker board dating
back to 1897-1901

The competitors got a chance to rest after 10 games, enjoying a fantastic lunch spread provided by the staff at the Joseph Schneider Haus museum, which, in addition to housing the oldest known crokinole board, also holds the incredible feat of being the oldest dwelling in Kitchener, built back in 1816. On display on the day was also a few other boards, clearly first-cousins of the game of crokinole we know today.

A crokinole/steeplechase
board made in 1906

When play resumed in the afternoon, the battle was on for players to hold and improve their positions. The Quinte Region Crokinole Club had a fantastic afternoon. After starting the day against the heavy-weights of Varna and St. Jacobs, the Quinte club had the strongest rise up the rankings, going from 6th place, to a firm 4th place finish.

Meanwhile, the Waterloo Crokinole Club put forth a very strong effort, and were rewarded with the Club’s best ever finish at the event, grabbing 2nd place. The strong Waterloo performance saw St. Jacobs fall to 3rd, just 14 points behind despite beating Waterloo in the head-to-head battle.

	Scone	Varna	St. Jacobs	Quinte	Waterloo	Preston	Total	Rank
Scone	0	38	49	49	35	66	237	6
Varna	90	0	89	95	78	84	436	1
St. Jacobs	79	39	0	88	65	78	349	3
Quinte	79	33	40	0	56	72	280	4
Waterloo	93	50	63	72	0	85	363	2
Preston	62	44	50	56	43	0	255	5

The Varna Crokinole Club closed out the day as strong as they had started, beating every team comfortably, with the smallest margin of victory 78-50 over Waterloo, finishing the event with 436 points.

For the individual scoring race, Nathan Walsh was able to claim the top spot for the 3rd-straight year, with 127 points. Not surprisingly, the next 4 spots were held by Varna members, as each broke 100 points.

Rank	Player	Club	Points
1	Nathan Walsh	Waterloo	127
2	Ray Beierling	Varna	122
3	Rex Johnston	Varna	110
4	Ab Leitch	Varna	104
5	Jason Beierling	Varna	100
6	Jon Conrad	St. Jacobs	98
6	Matt Brown	Quinte	98
8	Andrew Hutchinson	Waterloo	97

As previously mentioned, this is the 6th Joseph Schneider Haus victory for the Varna Club. Through the 24 year history, still only 3 clubs have won the event. With this year’s win, Varna ended St. Jacobs attempt at winning the title for a third-straight year. Only the now-defunct Cameron Heights Teachers Club can claim the prestige of having won the event 3 years in a row (1994-1996, 2003-2005).

With the tournament complete, the crokinole scene shifts back to the focus of the 2015-2016 NCA Tour, which will reach it’s conclusion in one month's time at the finale event in St. Jacobs on May 7, 2016. The golden stretch of the crokinole season is once again upon us, with the big prizes on the table, and everyone looking to put their best efforts into grabbing the sweet taste of victory.

2016 Joseph Schneider Haus Team Champions - Varna
"Not in my Haus"