Purchase the official set of the U.S. National Championship from Old Time Games.
Eau Claire, WI
Saturday July 09, 2011 U.S. National Kubb Championship & Fundraiser
All proceeds went to We Help War Victims and Eau Claire County's Girls
on the Run program.
The event had 84 teams and 186 participants representing eight different
states. There were players from Wisconsin, Minnesota,
Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Kentucky, Kansas, and Nebraska. The event
raised over $4600 for the two organizations. The proceeds will go to We Help War Victims and Girls on the Run - EC County.
The day started at 5:45am with tents, tables, the flags of Sweden and the U.S., and banners being raised. Next were the 42 kubb sets. Clouds lined the sky, with a hint of possible rain in the air. At 7:15 the first teams started arriving at the Eau Claire Soccer Park. Registration began at 7:30. Quickly, pitches started filling up with practicing teams. 8:30 came. Volunteers and sponsors were recognized. Next, buttons were given out to the four players who have played all five years. Brief rules were discussed. Then the Swedish and American national anthems were played. At 9am 42 kubb pitches were played on. The round-robin was filled with seeing old friends and meeting new ones, a little rain (of course), and a few upsets.
The round-robin was completed at 12:30. Soon after, the sun came out from behind the clouds and the warm and humid day, got a whole lot hotter, with the high reaching 88F (31C). From the mid-morning to the late afternoon, the south wind played an important role in the matches, wind speeds between 10-20mph and gust up to just below 30mph. With the sun beating down on the 42 battlefields, several matches in the round of 32 included teams that had their sights set on elite eight status. This round was highlighted by three matches. One included two teams made up of players with experience and high finishes in several tournaments in WI and MN, Team McKie and Tiger Blood. The other match included two teams that have in the past year performed extremely well in their respective local/regional tournaments: Kubbolutionaries from Des Moines, IA and Leinenkubbels from Eau Claire, WI. The third match included NW MN Kubb and Kastpinnar Kings, which lasted around two hours in the blazing sun. The intensity of these three matches were on par with any match in the semi-finals.
The round of 16 saw the 2010 Nationals Champions, The Ringers, lose, the 2010 2nd place team Default need three games to beat Chippewa Fall's own Uber Kubbers, and The Kubbolutionaries beat the 4th place team from 2010. The quarterfinals proved to be a battle, with Knockerheads eventually beating Default 2-1, in what was possibly the best match of the tournament. In the same half of the bracket, there was rematch from the 2010 quarterfinals between Eau Claire's Kubbsicles and Tad Kubbler from Minneapolis. In 2010 Tad Kubbler won. In 2011, the two recent graduates from Memorial High School were able to pull out a victory in the three game match. In the other half of the bracket seasoned tournament veterans Tiger Blood and Kubb'n Missile Crisis made it to the semi-finals.
The semi-finals saw two matches with teams with very different histories. On pitch one, Tiger Blood vs. Kubb'n Missile Crisis. These two teams have played in tournaments in the Midwest for the past five years, many times against each other, even matching up last year in Eau Claire. Pitch two involved two teams that had their first tournament experiences in 2010, both competing well in the tournaments they played in, but still new to the larger tournaments in the Midwest. At around 9pm, both Kubb'n Missile Crisis and Knockerheads were able to make it to the final of the 2011 U.S. National Kubb Championship. With clouds in the sky, the setting sun was not able to provide light to the pitches. At 9:30, with still 40 minutes to play before a Champion was to be crowned, darkness hit the U.S. Championship. Soon, a car was pulled up see if headlights would help the players, and it was determined it did not. The moon and parking lot lights 100 meters away help to some extent, as did cellphones. Then, at 10:10pm Dwayne Ballmer of Knockerheads knocked the king over for the 14th time of the day and Josh Feathers and Dwayne Ballmer became the 2011 U.S. National Kubb Champions. Trophies and medals were handed out to the four teams after their 13 plus hours of tournament play.
Later, just before 11pm, with the park empty and quiet, the rental truck all packed, players, volunteers, news media all gone, and a new national champion enjoying the victory, a son and his father stood, under the moonlight, and talked about the wonderful day, alone. Yes, kubb unites people and creates peace on Earth.
