Crokinole

Origins of this game as such are unknown. Some people who have attempted to establish a history for Crokinole indicate that like many other games which involve shooting an object into a hole or target area, may have their origins in ancient Egypt and the middle-east. Some have pointed out that Crokinole has a strong link to the game of Caroms, which is known as an Asian game from Burma and Eastern India. Still others point to an old English pub game "Shove-ha'penny" as a possible origin, or a similar early German game know as knipps-brat. Be that as it may, Crokinole is a very popular Old Order Mennonite game and they call it Knipsbrett.

We do know from existing documents that Crokinole games were being made in the Mennonite areas of Ontario as early as the 1860s and by 1880 there was a commercial pattern registered in the United States for the game.

The photograph on the left is of a wooden Crokinole board commissioned by a donor, made in Ontario, Canada by a Mennonite craftsman in 1982 and given to the Museum at that time. It is one of over 20 Crokinole boards of different ages in the collection. Click on this photograph on the left to find out more about this board.

Note:

Some of the boards in the collection are only for the game of Crokinole. These boards are "round" or "octagonal". Others boards feature Crokinole on one side of the board, and a chess and checker matrix on the reverse side. These latter boards are octagonal or square shaped. When this occurs, that information and photos of both sides are present on the appropriate Webpage. If the Crokinole board is part of a "multiple-game" board, it usually is square and both sides of the board are game boards.If one of the games is Caroms, the board will have billiard-type pockets in the corners. Multi-game boards and Carom boards are designated on the "Table Games" Webpage.

Click on the "Tablegames" item in the upper left menu to be taken to a Webpages about Caroms, and another about "multiple-game" boards. For a page with instructions for playing Crokinole click on that menu item.

Click on one of the photographs below to be taken to a Webpage about a specific Crokinole board in the collection.