Madison Kubb Tournament 2018 Recap

MADISON, Wisc. — On the shores of Lake Monona at Olbrech Park the Madison Kubb Club hosted their seventh annual Madison Kubb Tournament. Aaron Berry and his crew once again raised money for the Goodman Community Center. They hosted 37 teams from Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, and Iowa. Throughout the history of the tournament, Madison has been known to have some unfortunate weather conditions, but this year was a near perfect day to go along with a great day of kubb.

After seven rounds of scoring using the Klassic system and randomized pitches using the U.S. Kubb Open rules for Open Play, Jeff Merryfield and Steve Beyer from Kubb Life club in the Milwaukee area stormed off to the first seed with some very impressive play. It was obvious they have been working on improving their game and are ready to make a big splash on the national kubb scene. They were followed by the Kubb Snipers (Chad Bevers, Matt Green) from Appleton, Wisconsin and Special Friends from the St. Paul Kubb Society with the second and third seeds.

Players from all five states in attendance were represented in the semi-finals. After a very competitive quarterfinal round, it was the number one seeded Kubb Life facing a pair of brothers (Pat Rupp and Evan Fitzgerald) from the number four seeded team SKOL that came from Elberon, Iowa and Roscoe, Illinois. The other semi-final game was the upstart number six Kubbfellas (Adam Dohm, Chad Stute) from the St. Paul Kubb Society versus the seventh seeded Michigan team called the Rescue Rangers (Phil Dickinson, Jesse Fraim). Both semi-final games ended with two straight wins and the final match was set between SKOL and the Rescue Rangers.

After some light rain began in the finals, the first game went to the Rescue Rangers after they went into the final round with eight kubbs in play and only one baseline remaining. Fraim showed some stellar inkasting skills (including a neighbor kubb) to setup Dickinson and himself to clear the pile in three batons. Dickinson finished off the baseline and killed the king to take the first game. SKOL was able to reverse the results in the second game by clearing nine field kubbs and a king to force the finals to a third game. In the last game, the Rescue Rangers started off by going two for two on the opening round and never looked back as they made short work of the third game to bring the Michigan team the victory.

The Kubbfellas finished off their impressive tournament run with two wins over Kubb Life to take home their first podium finish and third place.

Madison was the second leg of the second annual Cheddar Curtain Tour. The next tournament on the tour will be in Stoughton, Wisconsin on July 28. Kubb Snipers lead the team and individual rankings while Ronnie Keller from Shoot to Drill leads the youth rankings.

Final Results

1. Rescue Rangers (Phil Dickinson, Jesse Fraim)
2. SKOL (Evan Fitzgerald, Pat Rupp)
3. Kubbfellas (Adam Dohm, Chad Stute)