LADORA, Iowa — The third Kubbtoberfest in Ladora took place on Sunday, Oct. 21. Kubbtoberfest is a free tournament hosted by the Ladora Bank Bistro and the trophies were sponsored by Walter Family Chiropractic in Belle Plaine, Iowa. The tournament was comprised of players from Illinois and Iowa. Players were fortunate enough to have great weather and were treated to German-themed wood fire pizzas to celebrated Octoberfest in Eastern Iowa.
Since the tournament started at 1 p.m., four rounds of the Klassic format were played with the 11 teams in attendance. A few of the bye games were played out by spectators trying out the sport for the first time. After four rounds of play, the team called A Boy and His Dad (Boston Scott, Grant Scott of Des Moines) collected the number one seed going into the championship rounds with 3.33 points.
In the quarterfinals, A Boy and His Dad shutdown tournament veterans Hodge Podge to advance to the semifinals to play against last year’s runner up team called Gunnar (Pat Rupp, Cody Walters) from Belle Plaine, Iowa. Gunnar had won the two other tournaments held in Iowa this year in Decorah and Amana, and were looking to complete the Iowan trifecta for 2018. Gunnar beat the team from Illinois called Must Be Nailed Down (Michelle Fitzgerald, Andy Terveer). The other semifinal consisted of the surprise third seed team called the Kubban Floaters that ousted the Amana, Iowa team called Kolonie Kubb. The Kubban Floaters were set to face off against the number two seeded Knocked the Block Out team from Belle Plaine, Iowa (Aaron Hultquist, Greg Johnson). Knocked the Block Out outlasted the other team from Illinois called Bubb (Emily Fitzgerald, Evan Fitzgerald), in a competitive three game match. This proved to be the only match that went to three games on the day.
Gunnar took out A Boy and His Dad in two games behind 2018 U.S. Kubb Open champion, Pat Rupp’s strong short game play and some timely 8 meter shots by Cody Walter. Three-time U.S. National Champion Grant Scott and his son made the games competitive, but came up short in the end. In the other semifinal, Knocked the Block Out dominated both games quickly as The Kubban Floaters weren’t able to match their opponents who were playing very strong in all three phases of the game. This set up the finals between two Belle Plaine teams that get together to play each other every Thursday night. In the first round of qualifying, these two teams played to a 4-4 tie. Despite every effort by Greg to get Gunnar off their game with some good-natured trash talking, Pat and Cody took both highly contested games and collected their third tournament victory this season.
Final Results
- Gunnar (Pat Rupp, Cody Walters) from Belle Plaine, Iowa
- Knocked the Block Out (Aaron Hultquist, Greg Johnson) from Belle Plaine, Iowa
- A Boy and His Dad (Boston Scott, Grant Scott) from Des Moines, Iowa
