Hole-hearted fun Crokinole cognoscenti aim to get more on board for tabletop tilts By: David Sanderson Posted: 3:00 AM CST Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025

It’s Monday evening at Devil May Care Brewing Company on Fort Street, where close to a dozen people between the ages of 25 and 65 have assembled to play crokinole, a tabletop activity that borrows elements from shuffleboard and curling.

While everyone present admits to having previous knowledge of the game, before tonight few of them had ever tested their skill at flicking wooden discs across a circular playing surface against anybody other than family and friends.

“I’ve always done OK versus my mom and uncles, but those are about the only people I’ve ever played with,” says Nick Schroeder, 33, a married father of two. “My wife bought me a board for Christmas one year but we don’t bring it out too much, so I thought I’d give it a shot, maybe meet some new people and, most importantly, enjoy a fun night out.”

Catherine Johnson, 25, was introduced to crokinole around this time last year. She typically plays on Sunday afternoons with her parents and boyfriend, all three of whom accompanied her to the downtown locale.

“My dad is originally from New Brunswick and tells us he played a lot of crokinole as a kid,” the Landmark resident says, pausing to aim her red disc — about the diameter of a bottle cap — at an opponent’s blue marker in an effort to eliminate it from the board. “He was the one who got all of us into it and he’s also the one who spotted a message online about the get-together. We thought why not come down and see what it’s all about.”

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Nolan Tracey is the organizer of what he hopes will become regularly scheduled crokinole nights, as often as twice a month. In August, the 23-year-old relocated to Winnipeg from Elmira, Ont., a community 150 kilometres west of Toronto. There, his family operates Tracey Boards, a seven-year-old business that has shipped handcrafted, Canadian-maple crokinole boards and accessories as far as Japan and South Korea, and to points across North America.

Compared to Tracey’s native Ontario, where there are 29 registered crokinole clubs spread across the province in burgs such as Windsor, London, Owen Sound and Niagara, Manitoba is a relative crokinole vacuum in terms of public participation. That’s a set of circumstances he intends to rectify, Tracey says, taking a break from the action.

“When I made the decision to move here, I knew what I was leaving behind, crokinole-wise,” says Tracey, who, in addition to belonging to two crokinole organizations based in the Kitchener-Waterloo area, currently sits on the board of the National Crokinole Association, a body that sanctions tournaments throughout Canada and the U.S., including a world-championship event held annually in Tavistock, Ont.

“Now, I’m excited to try to build a community here in Winnipeg, where people can either learn the game from scratch, or build on skills they already have from playing with their family at the cottage or wherever.”

Tracey guesses he was five years old when his father and two older brothers taught him the game, which, according to internet sources, was invented in the 1870s by Ekhardt Wettlaufer, a woodworker from Perth County, Ont.

The rules haven’t changed much since Wettlaufer built that first board as a birthday present for his five-year-old son. Taking turns, individuals, playing single or in teams of two, attempt to gain points by using a finger to propel their wooden discs, sometimes referred to as buttons, into the highest-scoring spaces of the board, which are semi-protected by eight thin pegs. If an opponent’s disc is present, your disc must hit it directly or carom off it, hopefully into the recessed hole in the board’s centre, good for 20 points. Miss and yours must be removed. Play continues until a predetermined target score is achieved.

“I’m excited to try to build a community here in Winnipeg, where people can either learn the game from scratch, or build on skills they already have.”

By age 13, Tracey was proficient enough to accompany his father — who, ahead of building his own boards, played with a friend on a near-daily basis — to a crokinole tournament in St. Jacobs, Ont., close to where they lived.

“There were two divisions — competitive and recreational. I was on the recreational side and even though I didn’t do too great — I got beat up pretty good in the early rounds — I entered another tournament a month or so later, where I fared a little better,” he says.

Tracey continued to improve through the years, largely due to tips he received from some of the top competitors on the planet. Unlike golf, where everyday players would never expect to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Scottie Scheffler or Rory McIlroy, Tracey says it isn’t uncommon to enter a crokinole tournament and find yourself seated across from a person like five-time world champ Justin Slater.

“One of the great things about crokinole is that even though everybody is out to win, veteran players are always eager to help others improve by answering questions about things like technique,” says Tracey, who relies on his right middle finger for the majority of his shots. “I remember at the Elmira tournament earlier this year, I played against Justin (Slater) and we had a bit of a strategy battle going. At the end, I asked him, ‘In Round 3, did I do the right thing with my last four shots?’ and he was very helpful.”

Like we mentioned earlier, Tracey arrived in Winnipeg this summer, with three of his family’s crokinole boards in tow. In September, he was leaving the Fort Garry Hotel after taking in a show at its basement comedy club when he heard music wafting from down the street. He followed the beat and eventually found himself at Devil May Care Brewing Company, which, as it turned out, was staging an outdoor Oktoberfest party.

He stepped inside to order a beverage, only to eye a shelving unit near the bar loaded to the hilt with tabletop games. Hmm, he thought, given their affinity for games, perhaps management would be amenable to a crokinole night at their premises.

“The person I spoke to was aware of crokinole — I believe he told me he used to play with his grandparents at the lake — and he expressed interest right away,” says Tracey, who subsequently posted a message on social media with the subject line “Winnipeg Crokinole Club,” as a way to generate interest.

“Almost everybody who responded told me they already play, but novices are definitely welcome, too. I’m more than happy to sit down with anybody for five or 10 minutes to bring them up to speed, before setting them loose.”

“One of the great things about crokinole is that even though everybody is out to win.”

Back at one of the tables of play, Tracey fields questions from attendees, primarily about the so-called house rules many have subscribed to for eons. For example, Johnson’s father Dave has never been sure how to determine who shoots first to start a match. It turns out his normal practice, where everybody counts to three then fires a disc toward the middle, trying to be the closest, is one Tracey is completely unfamiliar with. (There is no official NCA rule, he lets him know)

Another player asks about the “one-cheek” principle, whereby a portion of one’s derrière must be planted on their chair, when they fire away. That’s an actual regulation, Tracey assures them, causing a player to his left to sheepishly plunk himself back in his seat. (On the night we attended, players were instructed to switch partners after each game, in an effort to get to know one another.)

Two hours later, as Tracey is packing up everything up for the night, Schroeder thanks his host, letting him know that not only did he have a “blast,” he did far better than he expected. Johnson and her boyfriend concur.

“All the games were pretty competitive, but I don’t feel like I was letting any of my partners down, at least,” Schroeder says with a laugh. “Some people were certainly better than me but that’s fine, it should only improve my own game, going forward.”

That’s great to hear, Tracey responds, gathering some leftover scoresheets.

“I remember back home, people would join our club in the fall, get better and better, then return in the new year saying they went home for Christmas and obliterated everybody. Who knows? Maybe everybody here will be saying the same thing come January.”

The next Winnipeg Crokinole Club event is scheduled for 7 p.m., Dec. 1, at Devil May Care Brewing Company, 155 Fort St. For more information, visit the website. 

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca