The Tavistock Arena will play host for the 25th World Crokinole Championship on June 6th, 2026.

It may be the middle of winter, but the crokinole planners are already thinking ahead to Spring. The World Crokinole Championship committee met again recently as part of their ongoing preparation for the 25th edition of the event.

The first World Crokinole tournament took place in 1999, and with the exception of three years skipped over during the pandemic, has been played each year in Tavistock on the first Saturday of June. The committee hopes the 2026 tournament will be the largest-ever, but also will serve as a worthy celebration of the Championship’s long history. The committee has a few special ideas in the works for the tournament, which they plan to announce in the coming months.

The idea for the event goes back to Tavistock’s 150th anniversary celebration in 1998. Crokinole promoter and salesman, Wayne Kelly of Stratford, setup a crokinole display for the weekend event and encountered a great deal of interest, which kick-started a series of conversations. Barry Tate, former Tavistock School Principal, and Bruce Halliday, 150th Chairman, took interest in Tavistock hosting a large crokinole tournament, and pretty soon presentations were being made to the Rotary Club, the Tavistock Recreation Committee, and the Chamber of Commerce. Township Mayor Dave Oliphant provided the support of East Zorra-Tavistock Council, and the planning for the 1999 World Crokinole Championship was soon underway.

Tavistock was a fitting place for the World Championships. While it’s unclear where crokinole was invented, a key piece in crokinole history is the oldest-known crokinole board that was built in Sebastopol by wagon-maker Ekhardt Wettlaufer in 1876. That board, now 150 years-old, resides at the Schneider Haus museum in Kitchener.

While there were many key details to work out for the 1999 event, Mary Alice Roth provided a great deal of confidence that the event would be well organized. She had a wealth of experience organizing the annual crokinole fun-night at the Tavistock Public School in March. That school tournament ran from the mid-1980s until 2015 and frequently involved around 200 parents and children participating.

Thanks to support for local businesses the 1999 tournament was able to offer $4,000 in prize money, and such support has continued throughout the tournament’s history with businesses and interested individuals providing sponsorship funds or prizes for the tournament raffle table. The 25th edition of the tournament will have prize money of $6,000.

The timing for the World Crokinole Championship on the first Saturday of June places it in a busy segment for local activities, with the town-wide garage sale and annual Fireman Chicken BBQ usually happening on the same day.

Crokinole interest has exploded globally, but the biggest event in the world is by-far still in Tavistock. There are now crokinole tournaments in Italy, Spain, Hungary, UK, Belgium, Netherlands, France, Japan, Australia and all over the United States. While some of those cities have attempted to hold a prestigious event that welcomes the crokinole world, Tavistock still lays claim to the pinnacle event. The largest crokinole tournaments held outside Tavistock might have 100 participants, while last year’s World Crokinole Championship had over 400 with players from the Netherlands, UK, Japan and 16 American states, as well as 7 provinces.

Putting on the World Championship requires the efforts of some dedicated volunteers. A number of community members have accrued a lot of experience over their tenure on the organizing committee. John Schultz is the longest serving member, having joined the committee in 2000, and now looks after the crokinole boards for the event. Paul Epp, current chairman, Kathy Rosenberg and Keith Brenneman have all been on the committee for over a decade. Valerie Kropf, Sherrill Calder and Gloria Walsh have all re-joined the committee recently, but they also served for a number of years in the earlier editions of the tournament. Joining the locals on the committee are a few crokinole enthusiasts from nearby towns; Jason Beierling and Nathan Walsh have been on the committee for over 10 years, while board-builder Jeremy Tracey joined in 2018.

In addition to the organizing committee are a number of volunteers who assist in tournament setup the day before the event, or in ensuring the smooth operations on tournament day. Anyone interested in helping out could speak to a committee member, or visit the website for more details at worldcrokinole.com.

The committee hopes the 25th World Crokinole Championship will be a celebration of the long and proud history of the event, and once again draw crokinole players from across the globe.

The event takes place on the first Saturday of June at the Tavistock arena, and is open and free to spectators.