EAU CLAIRE, Wisc. — The fourth annual Eastside Hill Neighborhood Derby was held on Aug. 20 at Boyd Park along the Eau Claire River. The tournament is held as part of the annual Eastside Hill Neighborhood Picnic. Teams needed to be comprised of at least two players, and no player could throw more than two batons in a row. All players need to live in the Eastside Hill Neighborhood (a.k.a. Championship Hill). All teams were either households (husband/wife, parent(s)/kid(s)) and/or teams of kids from different families. There were 16 teams with over 40 players who participated in the tournament. Since the first year, the winning team gets two Eastside Hill Neighborhood Derby Champion flags to hang up at their home. The top four teams and Consolation winner received medals.
One of the hopes with the Derby is to continue to have kubb help build community in the neighborhood, through an extremely diverse (male/female and adult/child) and family-oriented tournament. The weather was very warm and sunny. Local musicians were playing music, brats and hot dogs were being cooked, people were riding by on their bikes, and the park was full of people.
Some of the players at the Derby normally play on teams such as: Throw Storm, MPG Kubboom, Team Kubboom-Supernova, Kubboom Jr., Tyr’s Tre, Kubbitz, The Big Kubbowski, The Kubbing Projekt, Pitch Perfect, Baller Boyz, Napoleon Kubbamite, True Grit, Sons of Pitches, and Kubb Money Drillionaires. The teams were grouped into four groups of four, and each team played the other three teams in their groups in a best-of-three match with 30 minute time limits. After the preliminary group-play rounds were complete, the top two teams from each group advanced to the championship bracket and the bottom two teams from each group played in the consolation bracket. Teams had the opportunity to play out to their final spot.
The championship bracket semifinals consisted of matchups between Kubbs of Dunshire (Charlie Gibson, Jeff Gibson) versus Anderson Laget (Eric Anderson, Erin Anderson) and Throw Storm (Mike Paulus, Shannon Paulus) versus Team Kubboom (Pat Klages, Sam Klages). The Final was a match-up between Anderson Laget and Team Kubboom. Anderson Laget prevailed.
Final Results
- Anderson Laget (Eric Anderson, Erin Anderson)
- Team Kubboom (Pat Klages, Sam Klages)
- Kubbs of Dunshire (Charlie Gibson, Jeff Gibson)
Consolation
- Pitch Perfect (Maja Anderson, Clare Long)
