April Showers bring Crokinole Splendour! All of the April Croki-News

I’ll admit it, I’m not good at rhyming (splendour is a stretch from showers, I know). Nonetheless, there is plenty of things going on in the crokinole world that will be coming along with the April season! First and foremost: Kenneth Harkin (from the Long Island Crokinole Club) had the brilliant suggestion of us posting our newsletter up on our socials, so we’ll be posting it here in our blog as well as through the email! With three of the most anticipated tournaments of the year happening in the next two months, there is so much to keep an eye out for!

  • Tracey Travels and Crokinole Content:
    ​    The Tracey Family has been keeping it local this past month, but that by no means means we haven’t been busy! From tournaments, hockey games, and new content, see everything the family has been up to!

 

  • Upcoming Events: the BIG THREE:
    ​    The National Crokinole Association 2024-25 Tour is coming to its end in two months, but there are still three major tournaments coming up: The US Open, immediately followed by the Ontario Singles Crokinole Championship, and to close the season, the 2025 WORLD CROKINOLE CHAMPIONSHIPS! Read all about these events below!

 

  • Club Feature: The Long Island Crokinole Club:
    ​    It’s long overdue that we introduce to you the club run by the Crokinole Fairy, Lizz! Here’s everything you need to know about Long Islands very own Crokinole Club!

Crokinole for the Rainy Days

“April shower’s bring may flowers”; that’s true, but what does that leave us to do while it’s pouring outside? Play crokinole, of course! Whether it’s a family activity or a games night with friends, Crokinole is easy to learn, fun to play, and can last you through an entire thunderstorm (and then some)! Don’t miss out: Buy your very own Tracey Crokinole Board Today! ​

Tracey Travels: Keeping it Local

Throughout March the Tracey family mostly stayed local to the Southern Ontario area; that’s by no means saying we didn’t get up to much! Here’s everything we got up to over the last four weeks:

  1. The Elmira Sugar Kings: In a day that brought together two of the best Canadian games out there, Jeremy was the game day sponsor for our local hockey team, the Elmira Sugar Kings! With a few crokinole boards out for the community to try, and some photos on the ice, it was a pleasure to support the Elmira team!
  2. 2025 London Crokinole Championship: Jeremy, Garret, and Nolan all travelled out to London for the London Crokinole Championship, a Tier One National Crokinole Association event! All the Tracey’s ended up in the same A-Pool and had tough matches against each other as well as the rest of the top competitors! None of us made it to the semifinals, but left happy overall with our performance (10th for Jeremy, 11th for Nolan, and 12th for Garret)! See more on the top players and the final matches down below!
  3. The Crokinole Cup Finale: The crokinole cup finals went down March 30th, and featured an all Tracey semifinal match! The whole family was in attendance, cheering on the brothers through their matches. See more below about the results of this tourney, and which brother made it into the final round of this epic crokinole series!

What’s next for the Tracey’s? The big thing on the schedule is the US Open, one of the most exciting doubles tournaments of the season! The Canadian Cueballs, AKA Jeremy and Andrew Hutchinson, are teaming up once again to take a shot at the title! With more and more competition coming out each year, only time will tell if this duo will be able to come out on top! Stay tuned in for more updates.

Crokinole Content: Crokinole Variations, and Chasing Records

For starter’s: Garret’s schedule has just opened up greatly, and we want to know what YOU would like to see us pumping out in terms of content: if it’s videos on specific rules, different gameplay styles, crokinole challenges, or something else, leave a comment somewhere to let us know what you want to see! With that, here’s some highlights from the past month:

“That’s not how you play crokinole”! This is one of the most common comments we get on our socials. Given that Crokinole existed in small pockets of rural areas for decades, and the NCA rules are relatively young compared to the game as a whole, there is a plethora of different ways people play crokinole. We wrote up a blog post covering some of the most common variations: check it out now, to see different styles of crokinole and why we prefer the NCA rules!​

Garret has also been working at beating the consecutive 20s record: right now, he is in the mid-thirties, and attributes his progress to a related challenge: shooting 20s until you miss 2 in a row. As he explains it, this helps to stay motivated, and gives you a secondary challenge to work at while trying to beat Steve Burrows daunting record of 93 20s! Here is the video with his explanation: can anyone beat Garret’s record of almost 15 minutes without missing twice in a row?! Let us know!

​Shooting Crokinole 20s until I miss twice in a row

SPOTLIGHT: The Long Island Crokinole Club

If you’ve attended events such as the US Open or the PAX Board Games conventions, you are most definitely familiar with the Crokinole Fairy, Lizz Donnelly! She has been a long time friend to the Tracey Family, and is highly involved in the Crokinole Community. Exuberant in personality and passionate about the greatest game on Earth, Lizz has recently started up her own Crokinole club: The Long Island Crokinole Club!

Founded in 2024, the Long Island Crokinole Club meets weekly at the South Shore Craft Brewery on Tuesdays from 6:30-9:30PM. They also have a monthly Friday afternoon meet-up at the Oceanside Library. Lizz runs the club alongside co-runner Danny Shreek, who plays a crucial role in making this club and all of its events possible. As Lizz describes it, “LICC is a group of people who love this amazing game! We are excited to teach all different age groups in our community, from preschools, senior centers, teen library programs, local breweries and more… Every other week we hold open play sessions where everyone is welcomed to play and the other weeks we run our clubs Singles League in their private Captain’s Lounge”.

Lizz also gives huge props to the Brooklyn Crokinole Club (run by Marc Ponzio), who has been a great support to the newer LICC: “With the help, support and encouragement of the Brooklyn Crokinole Club we are continuing to share this amazing game right here on Long Island”! The LICC currently has around 15 members, with meet ups consisting of around 10 dedicated players enjoying the greatest game on Earth!

This new club is one we are sure will continue to grow and build the crokinole community in the future, and you can help! Give Lizz and the Long Island Crew support by giving them a visit, or by following them on one of their socials! Here is their LinkTree, and everywhere you can find the Long Island Crokinole Club online! ​

Upcoming Crokinole Tournaments and Events

Here are some of the upcoming events in the next two months around the globe!

See the National Crokinole Association current standings and the entire tour schedule here, and subscribe to Tracey Boards YouTube to see coverage of some of these events!

REGISTRATION OPEN: The Masters of Crokinole Tournament

Tracey Boards
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