Chatham board game cafe to host national crokinole tournament

Competitive crokinole players will descend on Chatham later this month for a National Crokinole Association (NCA) tournament.

According to organizers it will be the first time the city plays host to such an event.

“We actually hosted a little local tournament for Crow Fest in the fall, and everybody had a blast,” said Terry Johnson, owner of Turns & Tales Board Game Cafe and Bookstore. “It was great fun!”

Johnson said the Feb. 25 event is called the ‘February Frosty Flick’ and that registration is nearly full for both the recreational and competitive leagues.Crokinole in Chatham, Ont., on Friday, Feb. 17, 2023. (Chris Campbell/CTV News Windsor)

“We've got lots of people signed up already. I think a few spots are still available,” Johnson explained. “We have people who are regular players coming down from all over the province. Quite a few local people signed up as well, so it’ll be a good mix!”

Johnson told CTV News he hopes the event will bring some energy into the downtown core, suggesting more board game tournaments could happen in the future.

“When you play a tournament, you could play round robin so you actually get to meet a couple of dozen people from all walks of life and that's actually a large part of why I really enjoyed doing it.”

He continued, “It’s the combination of a game of skill that you can learn quite easily. And a little bit chance and a little bit strategy and just a lot of fun.”

“I think it's really fantastic,” exclaimed Turns & Tales general manager Megan Coulter.

“We are the first and only board game cafe in Chatham so it's really cool to be able to host something like this get back to the community and kind of bring everybody together for this.”

Coulter said, “It will definitely be a busy booming day here. Obviously you want to oust your opponent, get as many of those little pucks in the center and hopefully not bruise your fingernails and knuckles to bits.”

NCA spokesperson Nathan Walsh said the game dates back to the 1870’s and is very popular in southwestern Ontario.

“I think a lot of people have familiarity with crokinole that they played it as a kid. You know, as a family game. Maybe at the cottage,” Welsh explained.

“It's one of those few games you can have a conversation as you're playing and it's one of the few games where you can actually play across generations, across ages quite easily. Certainly doesn't impact your skill level just being older or younger by nature.”

Walsh continued, “We used to have crokinole clubs and crokinole tournaments. They've existed for years, but they all sort of existed kind of independently and there wasn't much communication between the groups. The NCA was kind of formed with the idea that we could connect all these different tournaments together and all these different crokinole clubs and that by promoting one tournament, you could sort of promote them all.”

Walsh noted the national tournament tour will continue in London in March, followed by Voorheesville, New York in April and Elmira, Ont., in May.

“We found a number of people are very, very willing to travel quite far distances,” Walsh said. “There'll be people in Chatham who will be driving at least three hours just to get there that morning. It's definitely most popular in southwestern Ontario for sure. That's where the majority of players come from, and also the majority of the very top players who take the game most seriously.”

The Chatham registration deadline is Feb. 23. Those interested in participating can email [e-mail].

http://nationalcrokinoleassociation.com