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Pichenotte () refers to a family of several disk-flicking games, mostly French Canadian in origin, including
crokinole Crokinole ( ) is a disk-flicking dexterity board game, possibly of Canadian origin, similar to the games of pitchnut, carrom, and pichenotte, with elements of shuffleboard and curling reduced to table-top size. Players take turns shooting discs ...
,
carrom Carrom is a tabletop game of Indian origin in which players flick discs, attempting to knock them to the corners of the board. The game is very popular in the Indian subcontinent, and is known by various names in different languages. In Sou ...
, and
pitchnut Pitchnut is a wooden tabletop game of French Canadian origins, similar to carrom, crokinole and pichenotte, with mechanics that lie somewhere between pocket billiards and air hockey. Unlike with other wooden board games, there are no records of ...
, which may sometimes be played with small
cue stick A cue stick (or simply cue, more specifically billiards cue, pool cue, or snooker cue) is an item of sporting equipment essential to the games of pool, snooker and carom billiards. It is used to strike a ball, usually the . Cues are tapered stick ...
s. Pichenotte is a
Canadian French Canadian French (french: français canadien) is the French language as it is spoken in Canada. It includes Varieties of French#Canada, multiple varieties, the most prominent of which is Quebec French, Québécois (Quebec French). Formerly ''Can ...
word meaning 'flick', which is derived from the European French word (), also meaning 'flick'. These folk games are in the
public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...
, and are not subject to copyright like a commercial board game. Nor are they
patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
ed games (though a now-expired patent for one board variant was issued in 1880 in New York). However, the names ''Pichenotte'' and ''Pitchnut'' are
registered trademark The registered trademark symbol, , is a typographic symbol that provides notice that the preceding word or symbol is a trademark or service mark that has been registered with a national trademark office. A trademark is a symbol, word, or word ...
s in the United States. "Crokinole is a popular Canadian board game also commonly called pichenotte." "The carrom game throughout Quebec is known as 'pichenotte The game community site ''Knipsbrat.com'' states that, like the German name ('flicking-board'), "pichenotte is another name for crokinole" The Canadian game board collection at the Quebec Museum of Civilization in Quebec City includes both the square carrom-type board and the round crokinole-type game Crokinole is also called 'pichenotte' throughout much of North America; modern-day tournaments have been held as far apart as Tavistock, Ontario, and Santa Fe and Albuquerque, New Mexico.


Origins of disk-flicking games

In
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
and the surrounding areas of
Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
, the game of carrom is generally considered to be the origin of the disk-flicking games that have evolved over time. Carrom has been played since ancient times and is currently played socially and professionally around the world at countless clubs and carrom tournaments. The word ''carrom'' may be a shortening of and alteration of the French and Spanish , both referring to the red in billiards, or by extension referring to
carom billiards Carom billiards, sometimes called carambole billiards, is the overarching title of a family of cue sports generally played on cloth-covered, billiard tables. In its simplest form, the object of the game is to score or "counts" by ' one's o ...
games as a class. The word ultimately originated in India; ''
karambal Karambal is a village in Belgaum district in Karnataka, India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most pop ...
'' is a name for the orange fruit, said to resemble a billiard ball, of the ''
carambola Carambola, also known as star fruit, is the fruit of ''Averrhoa carambola'', a species of tree native to tropical Southeast Asia. The mildly poisonous fruit is commonly consumed in parts of Brazil, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the South Pacif ...
'' tree. Research has found early ties to the game in Portugal and Burma. While the specifics are uncertain, the different, yet similar games called pichenotte, crokinole and pitchnut may have originated around the mid 19th century, in Canada and the United States from the newly introduced Indian game of carrom via Southeast Asian immigrants or travelers returning home from Southeast Asian countries. The games are also considered
cue sports Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . There are three major subdivisions of ...
when played using small cue sticks. Because of the many different types and shapes of the boards and playing pieces, there are often '
house rules House rules are unofficial modifications to official game rules adopted by individual groups of players. House rules may include the removal or alteration of existing rules, or the addition of new rules. Such modifications are common in board g ...
' that govern play from region to region.


Canadian–American carrom


Origins and history

This version (sometimes also called ''pichenotte''), with a flat square playing surface and four corner pockets, is played in many parts of French Canada as well as the Northern United States. Many different sizes of boards and disks and varying rules exist. There are often "
house rules House rules are unofficial modifications to official game rules adopted by individual groups of players. House rules may include the removal or alteration of existing rules, or the addition of new rules. Such modifications are common in board g ...
".


Equipment

The game board is a square smooth flat wooden board often about 30 inches side to side with a raised wooden rail or bumper surrounding the game board. In each corner is an oblong hole, often about four inches long by three inches wide, and underneath each hole is a net to catch the pieces, much like the on a
pool table A billiard table or billiards table is a bounded table on which cue sports are played. In the modern era, all billiards tables (whether for carom billiards, pool, pyramid or snooker) provide a flat surface usually made of quarried slate, that i ...
. Game pieces are round wooden disks about the size of checkers (draughts) pieces. Each player or team has nine disks. Three colors are typically used: white (9), black (9), and red (1 queen).


Game play

At the beginning of the game, the 19 disks are arranged in a circular pattern in the center of the board, with the red ''queen'' (final target piece) in the center. Each player uses a larger disk, called a ''striker'', to flick at his or her own other disks and attempt to drive them into the corner pockets. The first player to pocket all of their pieces, and to then pocket the queen last, is the winner of that game.


Canadian–American pitchnut

The name
pitchnut Pitchnut is a wooden tabletop game of French Canadian origins, similar to carrom, crokinole and pichenotte, with mechanics that lie somewhere between pocket billiards and air hockey. Unlike with other wooden board games, there are no records of ...
an
anglicization Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by Culture of England, English culture or Culture of the United Kingdom, British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English ...
of ''pichenotte'', and this game is sometimes referred to as ''pichenotte''.


Origins and history

Pitchnut Pitchnut is a wooden tabletop game of French Canadian origins, similar to carrom, crokinole and pichenotte, with mechanics that lie somewhere between pocket billiards and air hockey. Unlike with other wooden board games, there are no records of ...
may have evolved as a combination of two wooden games: carrom and crokinole, both of which are played by flicking wooden checker-like pieces. Although its precise origins remain a mystery, in St. Edwidge, Quebec, Canada, pitchnut or "pichenotte" boards are found in almost every household and most were built by Achille Scalabrini, a descendent from an Italian who settled there from Montreal. Pitchnut remains the rarest of the disc-flicking wooden games. Pitchnut is a registered trademark in the United States.


Equipment

A square board which is about 30 inches from side to side, and surrounded by a wooden rail. Four ovoid pockets about 3 inches across are in the corners with nets underneath. Four recessed alleys lie just within the rails. There are four pegs in the center circle area and two pegs in front of each pocket. Playing pieces, also called 'nuts' are wooden disks approximately 1-1/4 inch diameter and 3/8 inch tall with convex sides, made of maple wood. Typically, there are 10 black nuts, 10 white nuts and one red nut called the ''poison''. The poison is similar to the ''queen'' in carrom and the ''jack'' or in several lawn/court bowling games such as
bocce (, or , ), sometimes anglicized as bocce ball, bocci or boccie, is a ball sport belonging to the boules family. Developed into its present form in Italy, it is closely related to British bowls and French , with a common ancestry from ancien ...
. Each player has a ''shooter'', a larger wooden disk, similar to a ''striker'' in carrom.


Game play

Goal: To sink all of your pieces and the poison before your opponent does. May be played with two or four players. Play begins with alternating black and white pieces (nuts) in a ring, in the center of the board. Five pieces fit between each screw. The odd-colored poison is placed in the center of the board. The pieces must be struck with the shooter. The shooter is usually flicked with the index (or middle) finger and thumb in a flicking action (French: ). The shooter may be pushed with a finger without the use of the thumb, but may not be "carried" across the board. To win the game, a player must sink the poison after pocketing all of that player's pieces. If a player sinks the poison before the other pieces have all been pocketed, that is a loss of game, comparable to pocketing the black 8 ball early in most versions of
eight-ball Eight-ball (also spelled 8-ball or eightball, and sometimes called solids and stripes, spots and stripes or rarely highs and lows) is a discipline of pool played on a billiard table with six pockets, cue sticks, and sixteen billiard balls (a ...
pool.


Canadian–American crokinole or pichenotte


Origins and history

After 30 years of research, Canadian crokinole historian Wayne Kelly published his assessment of the first origins of ''
crokinole Crokinole ( ) is a disk-flicking dexterity board game, possibly of Canadian origin, similar to the games of pitchnut, carrom, and pichenotte, with elements of shuffleboard and curling reduced to table-top size. Players take turns shooting discs ...
'', in ''The Crokinole Book'',: "The earliest American crokinole board and reference to the game is M. B. Ross's patented New York board of 1880. The earliest Canadian reference is 1867, and the oldest surviving game board was dated at 1876 by Eckhardt Wettlaufer. As the trail is more than 100 years old and no other authoritative source can be found, it appears, at the moment, that Eckhardt Wettlaufer or M. B. Ross are as close as we can get to answering the question ade the first board" The name ''crokinole'' is generally acknowledged to derive from the Canadian French word , which (aside from also being a French name of this game) has several meanings: ''flick'', ''
fillip Fillip is a Vancouver-based contemporary art publishing organization formed in 2004. It publishes a magazine as well as books of critical writing. The magazine with the same name was started in 2005. The publisher of the magazine is the Project ...
'', and ''snap'', but also ''biscuit'' and ''bun''. Kelly wrote: "crokinole derives its name from the verb form f defining the principle action in the game, that of flicking or 'filliping' a playing piece across the board."


Equipment

The ''
crokinole Crokinole ( ) is a disk-flicking dexterity board game, possibly of Canadian origin, similar to the games of pitchnut, carrom, and pichenotte, with elements of shuffleboard and curling reduced to table-top size. Players take turns shooting discs ...
'' game board is a wooden game board consisting of a base, a round playing surface (the deck), the rails, and the recessed ditch area between the deck and the rails. The most critical part is the round playing surface. The official size at World Crokinole Championships in Tavistock, Ontario Canada, is 26 inch diameter. The round playing surface has concentric rings marked with thin lines to delineate the scoring point zones of 5, 10, 15 and 20 points for the center hole. The center is a recessed hole about inches in diameter. There are four quadrants marked by small lines that give each player one quarter of the board as a shooting zone, from the outermost ''baseline'' running the circumference of the board. The round playing surface is raised significantly above the deck. The opponents' disks are shot into the recessed area that is called the ''ditch'' between the rails and the round deck. When the discs end up in the ditch, they are worth zero points. Surrounding the game board are rails that are often round or octagonal.


Game play and rules

The object of the game – which has similarities to aspects of
shuffleboard Shuffleboard (more precisely deck shuffleboard, and also known as floor shuffleboard) is a game in which players use cues to push weighted discs, sending them gliding down a narrow court, with the purpose of having them come to rest within a ma ...
,
bocce (, or , ), sometimes anglicized as bocce ball, bocci or boccie, is a ball sport belonging to the boules family. Developed into its present form in Italy, it is closely related to British bowls and French , with a common ancestry from ancien ...
, and
curling Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding ...
– is to shoot one of one's own discs to attempt to knock a opponent disc into the ditch or into a lower scoring position, while progressing one's own discs into the higher-point zones and ultimately cause them to fall into in the center hole for 20 points. When a disc lands in the center hole, it is removed to a designated visible area like a clear plastic cup; these 20-points discs are tallied at the end of the game. There is no queen or striker as found in carrom and pitchnut. Each piece has scoring potential. The game may be played by 2, 3, or 4 players. Play starts with the game pieces off the board. Each player will have 12 discs of one color and shoot the discs one at a time, from within the quadrant, starting on the outermost baseline. Players choose who goes first then play alternates, one shot each in a clockwise direction, until everyone has shot all of their discs. Scoring is done at the end of the game. First, a player's 20s are added up, then points for whichever scoring zone the player's discs ended up in. The player / team with the higher score after a round shall receive two points. If the round is tied, each player / team shall receive one point. Zero points for a loss. A "game" shall consist of 4 rounds, other than where exceptions are made for Tournaments Championships. The number of games in a "match" is normally 10. However, this can vary in tournament pla


Clubs and tournaments

Perhaps the biggest crokinole tournament is the World Crokinole Championship in Tavistock, Ontario, on the first Saturday in June. This tournament attracts players from all over the world. There are many more tournaments and clubs all over Canada and the Northern United States, and some have arisen in other areas, including the Southwestern United States, American Southwest.


See also

*
Carrom Carrom is a tabletop game of Indian origin in which players flick discs, attempting to knock them to the corners of the board. The game is very popular in the Indian subcontinent, and is known by various names in different languages. In Sou ...
– an ancestral game from India *
Novuss (also known as or ) is a two-player (or four-player, doubles) game of physical skill which is closely related to carrom and pocket billiards. Novuss originates from Estonia and Latvia, where it is a national sport. The board is approximately s ...
– another development from carrom, with a larger board and played standing, with cues


References

{{Reflist


External links


Quebec Museum of Civilisation collection of pichenotte boardsPichenotte.comPitchnut.comCrokinole games by Jeremy TraceyCrokinole games by Ted FullerCrokinole by Caleb Kelly
(archived) Disk-flicking games French Canadian culture Canadian board games