BELOIT, Wisc. — The first Co-Ed Festival on the Rock Kubb tournament took place in the Town of Beloit at Preservation Park. The tournament was part of a three-day festival to raise money for park improvements. Sunday, September 10 was a quieter day for the festival compared to the first two days, but there was a carnival, live music, Knockerball and fireman skill demonstrations occurring around the park with a lot of curious onlookers watching the kubb tournament.
One of the goals of the tournament was to draw in new players and create rules to get more female participation in the game. Of the 13 participating teams that played that day, there were five players making their tournament debut and five others playing in only their second tournament on teams Little Fingers, I Don’t Know Yet, River Bottom Kubbers, Kubb Dock Saints, Kubb Happens and Kubb Stake Boogie. Included in the 13 teams on Sunday was the Antczak family team called iKubb (David, Lar and Zoe) from Rockford, Illinois that has participated in all 13 tournaments in Rockford and Beloit (known as the stateline area) since 2010.
Rules that differed from the U.S. Kubb Open were team sizes greater than two, alternating drillers where a female needed to inkast every other round, and a requirement to have at least three batons thrown by a female each round where when six batons are thrown. It used the Klassic tournament format for the pairings each round, but didn’t add the elimination brackets. The tournament director discussed the intent and technical rules of vertically thrown batons with the hourglass rule, but stated up front they wouldn’t be enforced unless there was intentional misuse. Players were just asked to take the opportunity to try to work on vertically thrown batons due to lots of “newer” players. The 2014 U.S. National medalist, Rick Saegert was actively teaching spectators how to play kubb and answering questions from the crowd throughout the tournament.
The pace of the tournament went quicker than originally expected, so they agreed to play eight rounds instead of seven and still had time to get the Packer fans home to watch the game at 3:30 p.m. In the end, it was tournament veterans Flippin’ Batons (Chad Bevers and his mother Lynn Saegert from Appleton, Wisconsin area) and Rhymes With Tube (Dave Giese, Heidi Schwarzenbart from the Madison, Wisconsin area) that tied for first place. Flippin’ Batons were champions for the day due to head-head criteria. Third place was won by the Waukesha, Wisconsin area team called Finger United (Kelly and Darren Finger).
Final Results
- Flippin’ Batons (Chad Bevers, Lynn Saegert)
- Rhymes With Tube (Dave Giese, Heidi Schwarzenbart)
- Finger United (Darren Finger, Kelly Finger)
