When playing painted pitches, no stakes. Can the baseline kubbs be set up on the corners? You know I won’t settle for “only if both teams agree.” I need a firm ruling!!! Peace. Love ya.
Andrew Thibodeau (Minneapolis)
This is very easy if you are at a tournament using US National Championship rules as it clearly states:
Pitch marking stakes are placed so that a rectangle is formed, measuring 5m x 8m, with a centerline intersecting the rectangle, and sidelines running on the long edges of the rectangle. The king is placed upright in the center of the pitch, and the kubbs are placed upright on the baselines, five kubbs on each side, no closer than a baton length to the corner stakes. Kubbs starting the game on the baseline are referred to as baseline kubbs. The baseline should run through the center of the kubbs
U.S. National Kubb Championship Rules, Section C. Setup
Andrew’s question revolves around the ruleset created by Kubb United for tournaments that utilize painted pitches. In Kubb United tournaments, there are no pins at all. None in the corners or at the midline. Because there are no pins, we have started to see teams set up the pitch at the beginning of the game with the furthest left baseline kubb as far left as possible (it can’t touch the sideline since they use 100 percent in rules) and the furthest right baseline kubb as far right as possible. This opens up a spirited debate on how to handle the situation if you are playing a team that sets up the pitch this way.
In the past, my answer revolved around the top of page four of the U.S. National Kubb Championship ruleset. There you will find a graphic that breaks down the phases of the game to summarize our complex game into one chart. You will find it below and it states “Start Here: Setup pitch and game pieces, and agree on setup, then: Determine sides and who starts…”
So, when pressed into deciding on this matter at the start of a round during the U.S. Kubb Open years ago, my ruling was the game could not start until both sides agreed on pitch setup. I reminded them this was the timed rounds of the tournament and that time had already begun. They could use as much or as little of their time disagreeing on the pitch set up. If memory serves, the team that was placing the kubb close to the sideline finally relented and put them equally spaced and away from the corner. The idea of losing points for not even starting because they wanted to argue rules was eventually enough motivation to finally give in to their opponents opinion and change the spacing so the match could actually begin.
But there’s got to be a better way, right? So I dug into it. The problem starts with Kubb United Rules for Open Play. They were first adopted after the creation of the Kubb United organization for the purpose of identifying the rules they were altering or changing from the U.S. National Kubb Championship rules for their tournaments. As it states, “the U.S. National Kubb Championship Rules will be used as the primary source of adjudication with the following adjustments and/or clarifications below.” The adjustments and clarifications listed on their document are the only things being changed to the established rules. If it’s not listed there, then the U.S. National Championship rule still holds.
No where in the list of alterations and changes does Kubb United handle pitch setup and starting of the matches. Seeing as they eliminated the use of pins, this was an oversight. It could be easily clarified in the ruleset, however there has been no updates to their rules since 2018. I would recommend that if a tournament director is a Kubb United certified tournament or uses their ruleset, that this be addressed at the captains meeting prior to the start of the tournament so that all teams are on the same page.
My not-so-professional opinion is that baseline kubb cannot be placed in the corner at pitch setup because Kubb United did not address this in their list of alterations. If it’s not listed, then the U.S. National Kubb Championship rule is what needs to be followed. And as covered earlier, those rules do not allow a baseline kubb to be placed in the corner. Furthermore, I believe I found some guidance in the General Rules section on page 10. There it states,
Some phases and situations in kubb can be complicated and potentially indefinable by any ruleset. If a situation is not covered in these rules, the decision shall be made in accordance with fairness, with decisions being influenced by the spirit of the game. Often a logical extension of the closest existing rule or the principles embodied in the rules will provide guidance for determining the resolution.
Again, in my not-so-professional opinion, a team placing a baseline kubb all the way to the edge believes they are gaining an advantage on their opponent because many 8 meter players will stand directly across from the kubb they are throwing at. By placing it so close to the baseline, it will affect where the opponent will stand. They may have to take an angle to throw at that kubb now, which will definitely get into the throwers head. Potentially they could call that person out-of-bounds if they stand with their foot touching the sideline or happen to step on the line or have their momentum carry them left or right (depending on which side they are on) and now they have committed a foot fault. That’s a very good tactic and strategy for when you are selecting where to place a punishment kubb, but I do not believe it is in the spirit of the game for how a match would start.
That being said, what do you think? Leave a comment below.
And that ends another edition of Ask a Kubb Ref. Be sure to submit your questions on the web, or on social media with the hashtag #AskAKubbRef.
