WCC Committee - June 7, 2025
Shawn Hagarty of Guelph poses as the World Championship trophy is presented to him by Paul Heinbuch of South Easthope Mutual Insurance.
Only three years into the crokinole tournament scene, Shawn Hagarty won the World Crokinole Championship following a thrilling final match against new comer Devon Fortino. In a sign of the growing popularity of the event, all of the top prizes at the 2025 World Championship were claimed by first-time winners.
5-time World Champion, Justin Slater was defeated in the semifinals by Hagarty, while another perennial favourite, Andrew Hutchinson, lost to Fortino in the other semifinal. 2-time and defending World Champion, Connor Reinman of Gross Pointe Farms, Michigan, lost in the quarterfinal stage of the event to Hutchinson.
Devon Fortino’s semifinal victory over Hutchinson came in dramatic fashion with Fortino scoring a perfect round (all 8 discs shot for 20s) to clinch the match. However, the drama of that match was only out-done in the finals when Hagarty and Fortino went down to a winner-take-all final round.
In the preceding round Hagarty played cautious, not choosing to go for an opposing disc hidden perfectly behind the pegs. In doing so Fortino had a difficult shot to win the World Championship, but also elected to play it safe, requiring the pair to play one more round to determine the victor. In which, Hagarty held tough to claim the World Championship title.
Hagarty, is an executive with Bad Boy Mowers and a former football player for the University of Guelph. While he had played crokinole socially for much of his childhood, he only re-discovered the game in recent years, but has been heavily involved since. He’s travelled to tournaments across Ontario and even into upstate New York and the Carolinas, and has also invented a crokinole shot-tracking statistics program that has logged over 100 matches into an online database.
Runner-up Devon Fortino almost managed to repeat the feat of 2005 World Champion Bruce Hartung who won the event in his very first year at the tournament. Fortino, an MRI technician from just outside of North Bay, has only started playing competitive crokinole in the last year but has made a major impact by immediately becoming one of the game’s top players.
In fact Fortino was regarded among the tournament favourites in a group known as “The Big 6.” All members of this group, Justin Slater, Andrew Hutchinson, Josh Carrafiello, Connor Reinman, Jason Beierling and Fortino, finished in the top 12 at the tournament. Hagarty wasn’t a part of “The Big 6” but was regarded as a top 10 contender coming into the event.
The 3rd place match was a repeat of the last year’s 3rd place match as Andrew Hutchinson of Kitchener played Justin Slater of Guelph. While Slater won their match last year, Hutchinson was victorious this year to claim 3rd place.
The World Crokinole Championship hosted their 24th annual tournament on Saturday, June 7, 2025 with another year of record setting numbers. 152 boards were in action during singles play and included contestants from Japan, UK, Netherlands, First Nations, 16 US states and 7 provinces. Registrations for the singles action were sold out over 2 months prior to the tournament.
Ezra Jantzi takes a shot during the doubles playoffs. Jantzi would go onto to win the Cue Singles title.
In the Cues singles division, Ezra Jantzi won the title for the first time. From Millbank, Jantzi participates in the Milverton Crokinole Club, and was formerly a fingers player. He switched over to Cues when he noticed that in high-pressure moments he was experiencing “crokinitis,” a version the yips that prevents a player from releasing their shooting finger. His previous best finish in the Cues division was 4th in 2019.
The top four in the Cues Singles featured a few more players having their best-ever finishes. David Notzold of Elmira finished 2nd, while Mike Towns, also of Elmira, finished 4th, both of whom well surpassed their previous best place finishes. Meanwhile Dennis Brubacher, another resident of Elmira, finished 3rd, which is his best finish since 2009 when he was 2nd.
In other singles play, Kyle Grasby won the recreational singles title, Peter Stokoe won the Intermediate division and Dietrich Clark won the Junior division.
TOURNAMENT BOARD BUILDER WINS DOUBLES CROWN
Jeremy Tracey, background, fist pumps as his doubles partner, Andrew Hutchinson, foreground, goes for the high-five following their team’s win in the doubles final.
Jeremy Tracey of Elmira, and Andrew Hutchinson of Kitchener won the Competitive Doubles World Championship after defeating defending champions Justin and Fred Slater in the final. The victory is the first time Tracey and Hutchinson have won the title.
Jeremy Tracey is the founder of Tracey Boards, who is the official board builder of the World Crokinole Championships. Both Tracey and Hutchinson have partnered up for a couple of years, and narrowly lost the World Championship title last year.
In the 3rd place match, brothers Kyle and Trevor Grasby of Holland Landing won against Brandyn Osborne of South Carolina and Darin van Gammeren of New York.
The Cues Doubles World Championship was also won by first-timers as Jeremy Brubacher of Cambridge and Jon Brubacher of Kitchener won the final match ahead of Doug and Phil Eby. Marlowe Martin and Lavern Brubacher won the 3rd place match against Wayne Kipfer and Lorraine Ziegler.
The Recreational Doubles championship was won by the father/son team of David and Peter Stokoe of Toronto. For Youth Doubles, Knox and Norton Clark of Ohio finished first with family members Jude and Dietrich Clark finishing second.
INTERNATIONAL PLAYERS COMPETE AMONGST THE BEST
Sander Brugman of the Netherlands, left, takes on Mike Ray of the United Kingdom in the Competitive Singles playoff
While crokinole is viewed as a Canadian game, its popularity has been growing massively in many other countries, and was underlined by a number of elite players travelling extremely far distances for the event.
The 2nd-ranked player in the Crokinole UK Tour, Mike Ray, competed and advanced into the Round of 32, although he did not make the quarterfinals. He was as successful in the singles as Ryotaro Fukuda of Japan, who returned to the tournament for the second straight year, this time bringing another Japanese player with him in Motoaki Takenouchi.
Also in attendance were two players from the Netherlands, Sander Brugman and Joert Edink, who previously won an elite event in Hungary, known as the World Cup. The Brugman/Edink pair have dubbed themselves “The Roaring Twenties” and using play in 1920s fashion attire.
A very large American contingent was present as well. Connor Reinman of Michigan, 2-time defending champion, made the quarterfinals before he was eliminated. He was joined in the quarterfinals by fellow American, Eric Mammen of Massachusetts.
MOMENTUM BUILDS FOR NEXT YEAR’S 25TH EDITION OF THE CHAMPIONSHIP
152 crokinole boards were in play during the singles competition at the 2025 World Crokinole Championships.
It was another year of tremendous success for the World Crokinole Championship organizing committee, who saw registrations for the singles categories sell out in March. The interest in the tournament has been building for many years now, and for the first time the event welcomed more then 400 competitors. “By making the tournament bigger, every year we (the organizing committee) give ourselves more work to do,” joked committee member Nathan Walsh. “Tavistock should be proud, nowhere else in the world could a crokinole tournament like this be held.”
A big thank you must be given to the many individuals in the Tavistock area who volunteered to help run the tournament. Additionally a number players assisted in the setup, cleanup, photography, videography and organization of the day, all of whom the organizing committee wishes to thank dearly.
Next year will be the 25th edition of the World Crokinole Championships and ideas on how to make the event even better are already being circulated among the organizers.
Anyone interested in lending a hand for the 2026 tournament should reach out to the organizing committee via email: worldcrokinole@gmail.com.
For more photos, see the photo gallery link below. For final statistics, visit crokinolereference.com.
For videos from the world championships visit the YouTube channel Tracey Boards.