Local Cultural Report #2
Everywhere you go, you'll find that there is something in that town that people take seriously. For a while, when I lived in Aylmer, we took our flea market seriously, after all, it was Canada's largest temporarily. In Ottawa, they take bilingualism seriously. In Kitchener-Waterloo, they take Oktoberfest seriously. My new home community in Tavistock is no different. Here, the people take Crokinole seriously. Still recovering from gorging ourselves on baked and fried goods at last weekend's MCC relief sale, the town of Tavistock is gearing up for another big weekend.

How seriously can a town take Crokinole? If it were only that the majority of residents played the game, you could say it was an interest. If they only held a local tournament, you could say it was a passion. But no, Tavistock goes one better. On June 5, Tavistock is hosting the World Crokinole Championships. The game was locally invented, and players really do come from all over the world. Many of my friends here in town have played in tournaments in years past. I like Crokinole too, but I didn't know it was possible to like it as much as these people do. I won't be playing in the championships this year, but perhaps with some practice I'll be ready to go next year.

What can you expect to see at the World Crokinole Championships? There is a whole division for people playing with cues, they generally allow for greater accuracy. People use board wax, not for surf boards, but for crokinole boards. A Dookie is what you call it when your piece goes into the middle hole.

I thought it was only a fringe of the community that really paid attention to this tournament, but after a ball game the other night, a few of my teammates over beers were discussing how these WCC rules made for "wussy crokinole". I'm not sure that phrase has every been muttered outside of Tavistock.

   [ posted by William @ 1:24 PM ]