The Agenda with Steve Paikin (Audio) - World Crokinole Championship

Episode Date: June 27, 2024

It's a beloved game found in cottages and farm houses across the province. And every year on the first Saturday in June, the top players from around the world gather in Tavistock, Ontario to compete in the World Crokinole Championship.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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a better world through the power of learning. Visit TVO.org and make a tax-deductible donation today. Who's ready to place his program on the wall? The World Crokinole Championships is held on the first Saturday in June every year in Tavistock, Ontario. The tournament started in 1999, so it has been 25 years. It started just as a meeting up of people who are both interested in Crokino and then also some community people who are just really excited about having like a top-tier, world-class event in their communities. We've been trying to put on the biggest Crokino tournament in the world and definitely in our history as well.

So yeah, I've been running around trying to make sure everything's running smoothly and in addition to that you know playing a little bit as well. Crokino is a game that's played by players flicking wooden discs across the board. The objective of the game is score more points than your opponent by pushing your disc close towards the middle and simultaneously demoting the scores of the opposing discs. The scoring ranges are five points from the outside, ten from the next circle in. The 15 circles encased in a set of pegs. And then in the middle is a recess hole worth 20 points. In 1999, there was just shy of 200 people who attended the World Crocodile Championships. And now in 2024, we've got just shy of 400 people.

People mostly came from Ontario, definitely again being the hotbed, but different provinces were represented. So BC, PEI, Nova Scotia, Quebec. Players from 15 different US states came in from some of the very faraway states like Alaska and Washington and California. And we also had some international competitors. So one competitor from Japan who's quite good and he's playing in advance of the playoff round here today. And another competitor as well from Australia and from Sweden.

My name is Ryotaro Fukuda. I'm from Japan. My name is James Sullivan, and I'm here from New York City. My name is Dale Henry. I'm from the Tuscarora Nations, First Nations. My name is Harry Blaine. I'm from Sydney, Australia, and I'm here via Sacramento, California. I'm Justin Graff, and I'm Prashant Vibhakaran, and we're both coming in from Detroit, Michigan. I'm Patrick Ten Eyck, and I'm here from Iowa City, Iowa. I'm Taylor. I'm from London, Ontario. I'm Piper and I'm from India.

One of the great things about Crokino is how accessible it is. So at the World Championships even we've had today a competitor as young as five and one as old as 92, which is quite a range. Crokino's history is somewhat murky. It's not clear exactly where it came from. The word is definitely a French word, but it seems like in Ontario is where the game at least took off, perhaps originated from as well. There was a lot of board makers in the early 1900s that came from southern Ontario, and the game, as progressed over time, has definitely been most popular within southern Ontario. And the game, as progressed over time,

has definitely been most popular within southern Ontario. So the very first known board that can be actually verified to a particular date was built in 1876 outside of Tavistock. Here is our famous board. Oof. Isn't it lovely? Yeah, I mean, it's impressive amount of detail. What can you tell me about it?

So this board was made by Eckhart Wettlaufer for his five-year-old son Adam for his fifth birthday, which dates the board to 1876. And that makes it one of the, if not the, oldest documented crokinole board, at least in Canada, if not the world. Eckhart was a wagon maker, and he would have, as part of his job, done a lot of very intricate painting on the wagons he made. So that's why we believe it has such an elaborate pattern on it and is quite beautifully done.

And this doesn't look like it's played on too much. No. So apparently Adam wasn't a big fan of the game and actually rarely played it, so it usually hung on his bedroom wall. So that helps explain why it's in such great condition. Lovely. So if the World Championships needs another board, can we can we grab this one?

Unfortunately, no, we can't lend it out. And actually, it usually isn't even on display. It's in our storage facility under climate controlled conditions, but we're happy to pull it out for visitors if they give us advance notice. We do like to share this particular piece from our collection. Awesome. We have a lot of top-quality boards out here. There should be no food, water, or drink in the playing area.

Normally we have to cap off our registrations because we don't have enough boards or enough tables to service all those players. This year, though, we kind of went the extra mile, tried to actually acquire more tables, more boards, and actually the cap that we're running into now is we actually just can't fit more boards on the arena surface. Every board that's on the floor today was or is being made in Elmira. Elmira is about a 40 minute drive from Tavistock. Tracy Boards, Jeremy speaking. My name is Jeremy Tracy. I am the owner of Tracy Boards.

I am absolutely blessed to work with my entire family. My wife Elaine and I are owners and all three of our sons are involved in the business. Our oldest son, Reed, is the production manager. Our youngest son, Nolan, looks after fulfillment, all customer service emails. And our middle son, Garrett, does all the social media, TikTok-y stuff that is out of my realm. I had grown up playing just friendly, casual Crokinole.

But as soon as I got involved in tournaments, of course, I learned about the World Crokinole Championships and started playing the first chance I got. And it was a few years after that that I became the board builder and the official board builder for the World Crokinole Championships. I was looking for an opportunity and a friend came to me and mentioned that Willard Martin was looking to retire from board building after 30 years. And Willard and I met, hit it off, and he basically took me in as an apprentice. Morning Jeremy. How are you guys? I got to the taking the business over from my father,

who wanted to retire, and he was well into his 80s. It's cool. In 1988, my father was featured in a croquenole story in a magazine. It was quite labor-intensive in those days because he put the lines on by hand. Everything was done by hand and he did them one at a time. That made a pretty good board. He made croquenole boards for about 20 some years and I made croquenole boards for 33 years. crokinole boards for 33 years? Well first of all right off the pop you've got to have good finish. The finish needs to be very smooth, very quick, very fast and if you don't start with good material you'll never have a good board. In this area I would say most homes have a crokinole

board. It's very common to have, especially amongst the more conservative people. The reason that it was always acceptable in the homes was because it was never connotated with gambling. People would comment to me, well, don't you ever get sick and tired of making croquenole boards? I said, no, not if I try to make the next one better than the last one. The popularity is absolutely growing. And when I initially met Willard, he told me that him and his brother Bruce were building 300 to 500 boards a year. That was our goal to get to that.

And once it started to explode, we quickly jumped to 900 boards, and then it was 1800 boards. Last year, we did 2,800 boards, and we are still continuing to grow. I would estimate that this calendar year we're probably looking in around the 4,000. Probably 90% of our retail is going into the US,

but we're also seeing it grow in the UK, the rest of Europe, Australia, and literally all over the world. My sons and I all play at an extremely high level and we often say, we're not gonna sell a board that we wouldn't want to play on. That's something we remind ourselves and I talk with my staff about it is that,

you know what, this might be the 20th top you sand today, but it's somebody's only board. Croak and I was in a contact sport, but people do take it quite seriously. And I know for sure, and I know from experience, people when they don't win are quite disappointed, and when they do win, they are quite elated. Justin Slater is one of our top players. He's won the World Championships more than anybody else.

He's won it five times. I've been playing Crokinole since I was a kid, but I started playing competitively in 2009, so about 15 years. It's a story similar to many where you know you have a board at the cottage and you know it's an old rusted thing. When we were kids I was always the worst crokinole player of my brothers because my brothers are both older than me and so I was always worse than them and in any game we'd ever play I was always worse than them mainly because I was younger and so I think I developed a very competitive spirit through that.

younger and so I think I developed a very competitive spirit through that. Very very strong player you know had a reputation for scoring a lot of open 20s being a very good 20 shooter early on but his game is really really refined. The key skill to being good at croquenol is being able to shoot your disc in a straight line and that involves a lot of hand-eye coordination involves a lot of patience and involves a lot of practice andeye coordination, involves a lot of patience, involves a lot of practice. And just being able to make your disc go where you need it to go. And as soon as you can do that, the rest of the game is very easy. Another strong player is Connor Ryman. He's the current world champion.

And he is really a guy whose 20 scoring is incredible and he often goes for 20s when perhaps they're not even needed. I'm the only person who came from the States who's won the World Crokinole Championship. So in the US, crokinole is still relatively little known. It is, it's played by small but dedicated groups. When I was really getting going, I used to practice several hours a day. I would come home from, come home from school and just sort of shoot for a little while and not come up until I heard all the suppers on. And new Crokino clubs are cropping up all over the country.

The thing I like most about Crokino is the community. The group of people that you get out here on this arena floor is astonishing. When I come up from the States for these tournaments, they've fed me and given me a bed to sleep in, and we play quite a lot. And it's a really wonderful community. I've met several of my closest friends in this group. The players are very, very competitive. There is no one, obviously, who wants to lose.

And lots, lots and lots of people are really driven to win. We're in the semifinals right now, so it's the big four that everybody was expecting. And the big two, Justin Slater and Connor Ryman, are actually facing each other in the semi-finals, so it should be interesting to see who wins. I still don't know how to handle the nerves. We're working on it, but it's still a work in progress. The nerves, you know, it's a small world, Crokino, to be sure, but it matters it matters and it bothers you when you get up into those high-stakes games there's there's no way to way to

describe it the grand prize for winning the competitive singles competition is $1,000 there's a thousand dollars on the line it's time to get serious I I felt like he wasn't missing anything. So, yeah, I don't know how to beat someone who doesn't miss anything. So, until I figure that out, I guess, until we meet again. It's time for the finals of the game. And the World Championship of Pergamon 2024 will be played with me, Conor Ryman, and Josh Carrethel. I am exhausted. Eurocon Ravens! I am exhausted, I am overwhelmed, but I am on cloud nine obviously. That's a great win. The planning for the 2025 World Crooked in a Shapechip starts almost immediately after the 2024 World Championships ends.

Our next committee meeting is actually just one week after the tournament is done. So pretty much right away, about 51 weeks in advance, we'll be starting again. The Agenda with Steve Paikin is made possible through generous philanthropic contributions from viewers like you. Thank you for supporting TVO's journalism.