Shuffle Olympics

If you think you'll never have a question about shuffleboard in your next game of Trivial Pursuit, then feel free to skip this blog entry altogether, otherwise, be prepared for factiods galore! Some may even be accurate!

The action of playing shuffleboard is called 'shuffle' and the term is as flexible as any other English verb and it can even be a noun.  So yesterday there were the 'mixed shuffle olympics' held at this park [Pine to Palm Park]. The shuffle courts were essentially reserved for the whole day and for most of the time, all 24 courts were busy.  

The first picture is down the line of the first bank of 12 courts.  The lady in white, bending down, stick in hand is lining up her next shot [going out of the picture on your left].  The second lady with stick held high has just made her shot and is looking at the disk going down the lane.  The next person, in red [actually behind the previous person] is lining up her shot and the last person standing is just sorting or re-arranging her disks while waiting to play.  The rest of the players down the line are sitting down while their team partners are shooting towards them.  This was an inter-club competition and the bleachers were pretty full all day.  This is as serious as curling so all is quiet unless there was a spectacular shot, and applause was irrisistible...

The second picture is of a referee leaning over a disk to rule whether it scored ten points:  it can only score if it does not touch any line.  One of the players called for this ruling.  This one did not score if I remember correctly.

The last picture, of the ladies sitting, shows the other end of the lanes of the first picture.  This picture was taken when the competition was well underway and many teams had already been eliminated, so the 12 courts in the background are no longer in use.  The red box below their seat is the carrying box for the 4 yellow and 4 black disks used for the match, as well as a piece of chalk and an chalkboard eraser for the scoring.  Behind the ladies is the scoring board which not only tells the current score but also who will play first etc. and has one line for each player.  Scores in circles are minus [negative numbers], earned by the disk being in the last space of the scoring area called the kitchen.  It's fun to push your opponent's disk into the kitchen since it scores as a minus ten.  Unfortunately, such attempts are quite often rewarded by your own disk going into the kitchen, thus the local saying: 'He who plays the kitchen, dies in the kitchen'.

So there you have it; everything you always wanted to know about shuffling. 

E&OE