Crokinole
A guide to the rules, game options and preservation of a crokinole board
Basic information about the game of crokinole.
It is believed the first crokinole boards were built in the mid-1800s either in Canada or the northern
U.S. Crokinole is known in gaming circles as a dexterity game because the discs, which are similar to checkers, are flicked with your finger toward the center and into the scoring rings. It is much like shuffleboard or curling.
Crokinole parts
While the origin of Crokinole is unknown, there are traditional rules and standards that are followed.
Tradition holds that a crokinole board have a 26-inch diameter playing surface surrounded by a 2-inch wide ditch banded by 1 ½ inch high rails. The playing surface is lined with concentric scoring circles of
8, 16 and 24 inches in diameter. The middle 8-inch ring contains 8 posts or pegs evenly spaced protecting a 1 3/8 inch center hole.
The playing surface is divided into four quadrants (see the color area at left) For scoring purposes, the center hole is worth 20 points, the inner 8-inch diameter ring is worth
15, the next ring is worth 10 and the third ring is worth five. The one inch outer ring has no value and is the shooting line.
In each crokinole set there will be two sets of different colored discs, 12 of each color. Each disc is approximately 1 ¼ inches in diameter.
Other than the board and discs, the only other necessary article is a way to keep score. Our boards come with scoretrack and scoring pegs.
Shooting and general standards
To shoot a disc, you must first locate it within your quadrant in contact with the shooting line. The drawing on the next page shows legal locations for starting your shot. The disc is then propelled with a flick of the finger toward the center of the board.
Shooting alternates between opposing players with the starting shooter of each round alternating also.
While rules vary somewhat for each type of game, there are some general rules that apply to all.
If there is an opponent's disc on the board, you must hit it on your shot. If you do not hit your opponent's piece, yours is removed from play and does not score any points. If you hit any of your discs on the shot but do NOT hit his,
ALL of your pieces that were touched as well as the shooter are removed from play.
If there are no opponent's discs on the board, you may shoot for the 20 hole directly.
However, on any “free” shot such as this, your disc must come to rest within the 15 circle. If it does not, it is removed from play.
If your opponent's disc is resting against a peg and you hit the other side of the peg and your opponent's disc moves, that counts the same as directly hitting the opponent's disc.
To score a 20, your disc must come to rest COMPLETELY in the 20 hole. If it is leaning against an edge (a “leaner”), it is still considered in play and can be knocked out by your opponent. Once a disc comes to rest in the 20 hole, it is immediately removed from play and put aside to be tallied in at the end of the round. A disc can go into the 20 hole from a direct shot, a bounce off another disc or any other fashion. It does not matter who initiated the shot, the 20 goes to the player who owns the disc that went into the 20 hole.
Any disc that touches the outside of the 5 circle (the shooting line at the 24-inch diameter) is
IMMEDIATELY removed from play. Do not leave these deadbeats on the board...once they touch the outside circle they are to be removed immediately.
Any disc that leaves the playing surface and bounces back onto the board is considered out of play.
Remove it from play. Discs it touched are, however, left where they end up. Do not attempt to move them back to their original positions. If 20s occur during this event, consider it bad luck and a travesty if your opponent got the 20, good fortune (well deserved at that) if it is your 20.
The shooter should be given a stern reprimand and a scowl and be reminded that this is a game of finesse and precision and not one of power.
Players MUST REMAIN SEATED while shooting. They may not get up and move to improve their position. They may lean as grotesquely as possible (this is called the “one cheek rule”). Opponents sit opposite each other. If playing doubles team play, partners sit opposite each other.
Scoring
Scoring is done after each round of 24 discs have been shot. Scoring is done according to these guidelines:
#1. A player receives 20 points for each shot that landed in the 20-hole during play.
#2. A disk is considered in a scoring ring if it is completely within that ring. If a disk, for example, is mostly in the 15 ring but is touching the 10 ring line, it is counted as a 10. If a disk is touching a line, it will always score the lower value.
#3. Each player or team adds up his or her points at the end of the round. The player or team with the higher number of points scores based on the game variation that is being played. See below.
Game variations
Stroke Play: At the end of each round, the players add up their points and the player with the higher score receives the differential. For example, if Blue has 45 points (including 20s removed during play) and Red has 25, Blue gets 20 points and Red gets none. Players alternate who starts each round and play proceeds through as many rounds as necessary until one player has 100 points.
In Stroke Doubles Team play, partners sit across from each other and shooting rotates in a clockwise fashion (unless in the Southern Hemisphere). The start of each round should rotate to the next person also. Scoring is the same as head to head stroke play.
Match Play: In match play, at the end of each round, the players tally up their points on the board
(including 20s). The player with the greater number of points receives two points and his lesser, humbled opponent receives zero points. In case of a tie in a round, each person or team gets one point.
In match play only four rounds are played, so the worst/best final score would be 8-0 (assuming one player or team won each of the four rounds). In a case of a tie after four rounds, play additional sudden death rounds until someone wins.
Match play makes a very good tournament style. Each person will end up shooting the starting shot once and having the final shot once during the match.
Vider le Salon: Litterly, “empty the parlor,” the object of this game is to clear the board of your opponent's discs. Play proceeds as normal with each player alternating shots and all common rules applying. However, in Vider le Salon, the final location of discs on the board is unimportant...the scoring rings are meaningless. At the end of a round, add up the number of discs of each color left on the board and give the “leader” the differential. Twenties scored during play are immediately removed during play and are considered mis dans le placard or
“placed in the closet” where they are protected until the end of the round at which point they are placed back on the board and scored as though they were still in play. Let's say at the end of a round, Blue has four discs on the board and Red has two plus one “in the closet.”
So the score for that round would be Blue 4 and Red three, so Blue gets 1 point. The first person to 10 wins the game.
The classic shot in Vider le Salon is the balayer le plancher (sweep the floor). This happens when a player clears the board of all his opponent's discs with one shot. At least three opponent discs must be removed on this one shot...anything less is worthy of a mere shrug of the shoulders. The ultimate shot is the balayer le plancher combined with a mis dans le placard (called a Chuck Daggle) where with one shot your opponent knocks all of your discs off the board AND lands one of his discs in the 20 hole at the same time. The balayer, dans and Chuck Daggle only score points in the hearts and minds of your fans; they do not add any bonus or style points to your score.
Crokinole board care
A crokinole board has a highly polished surface. It can be coated with multiple coats of many different types of topcoats. Even after a board has been around for awhile, treating it poorly will result in problems. If you have white rings on furniture caused by your spouse putting coffee cups and cold drinks and not
USING THE DAMNED COASTERS (why do you think we have them? For decoration?), then you have some idea what can happen to a board. A good board is a piece of furniture...possibly a piece of art.
First off, hang the board on the wall. Hang it out of the sun and away from heating vents. Don't lean it against the wall in a closet. It is wood. Wood is dynamic. Wood will move. Wood will warp if not treated properly. Do not take it to the family reunion and leave it in the car all day in 100 degree weather. Cracking the windows won't help.
Second, keep it clean and protect it from situations where it could receive dents, scratches or liquids. If anything gets spilled on it, clean it up immediately.
Cleaning. The boards come with several coats of paste wax that is high in carnauba content. I use Mother's California Gold auto paste wax. There is nothing to be gained from stripping off the wax with a cleaner that promises to remove “wax buildup.” Don't use a cleaner. If you notice some marks, try applying some paste wax and immediately rubbing it off...the solvent that keeps the wax soft will clean and wax at the same time.
Waxing. When the board gets slow, wax it. Waxing the discs can help, too.
Peg removal. Can you remove the pegs to make it easier to wax? We don't recommend it. After a certain amount of time, the pegs could form a bond with the topcoat as it cures. Pulling the pegs out could tear chunks out of your finish.
Rubber bumpers. We don't provide rubber bumpers because people told us they either took them off (if we installed them) or never put them on (if we provided them but didn't put them on). It seemed a waste of good natural resources to give people something they didn't want. But if you insist on having rubbery bumpers, we suggest going to a local hardware store and looking in the plumbing section for what we used to call surgical tubing. It is highly stretchy tubing. Buy some, take it home, cut small pieces with a brand new single edge razor and slip them over the pegs.
Want more discs or the last time you saw it the cat had it? We get our discs from Workshop Supply in
Canada. Their website is workshopsupply.com and you can order discs in different colors. These will match the provided discs in density, size, thickness, etc. They are nice people.
Powder. Some people like to “salt” or “juice” their board. This means they apply a special low friction powder on it. This has gone by several names over the years. Mespi, crokinole wax, carrom powder, shuffleboard wax, anti-friction powder etc. A very little goes a very long way. It's availability waxes and wanes, so it might be difficult to find at times.
