Shuffleboard At Its Very Best!! Bromleys Host!!

Floor Shuffleboard; Tournament Keeps Growing!!

FROM THE ATHABASCA ADVOCATE, June 21, 2005. 

Stan’s Intro: Take a moment and enjoy this article from 2005.  Whether your are from the “West” or the “East”, you will know some of the people referenced in this article.  Glen and Sylvia Bromley, pic on left, did  a Great Deal for our Sport!!  Do hope they are both enjoying good health.

Once again, Athabasca staked its claim as northern Alberta’s floor shuffleboard capital.  The town’s third annual shuffleboard tournament continued its streak of suc­cess, attracting 108   com­petitors this year, making it the second largest tour­nament of its kind in Alberta. Innisfail, which holds a tournament immediately before the Athabasca event, attracted 128 players this year.

“We’re hoping for 128 next year,” said organizer Glenn Bromley. ‘We could go higher, but 128 is a nice figure, It’s easy to draw up.” Participants in the Athabasca tournament are assured of playing three games over three days, although Bromley said that many of them don’t come just to play.   “It gets to be like a big family, because you see each other at the events,” he stated. “Some people come to the tournaments just to see their friends again.”

Lindsay, Ontario’s Stan McCormack, one of the men be­hind floor shuffleboard web­site TheShuffler.org, calls the Athabasca event “the best shuffleboard tourna­ment in the universe.”  “What makes it that way, in my opinion, is the social end of it,” he explained.  Not just about shuffle­board, the tournament in­cludes a barbecue and a dance. The Athabasca Curl­ing Club, said McCormack, is the perfect venue for such an event.  “The curling club atmos­phere is absolutely suited for shuffling,” he noted. “From the viewing perspective, from the bar point of view, everything lends itself to a good time.”

McCormack went so far as to pattern his own tour­nament in Blackstock, On­tario, after the Athabasca tournament.  “This one attracted so much attention from across the U.S. and Canada, that I included many things from it,” he said. “Copying is the best form of flattery.”  Of 64 competitors at McCormack’s event, 62 signed up to come back next year.

Adrian and Shirley Jerome made the trip to Al­berta from their home in Penn Valley, California, to visit their friends and com­pete in Athabasca and Inn­isfail.  “Basically, we have a lot of friends here playing in the tournament,” Adrian explained. “We thought we’d come up and have a good time with our friends.”  The Jeromes spend their winters among the Cana­dian snowbirds in Arizona, where they shuffle against many of the participants in the Athabasca tournament.  Jerome pointed out that most of the best floor shuf­fleboard players in Arizona come from Canada and have skills from another sport that transfer well into shuffleboard. “People who curl are good shufflers, basically,” he said:  Robbie Robinson of Washington State made his third straight trip to the Athabasca tournament, bringing along his friend Charles Krause, and both their wives.  Both Robinson and Krause have already reg­istered for the 2006 tour­nament. “Robbie says he has so much enjoyment, he wants to come every year,” said Bromley.

The tournament’s “A” event champion, for the second time in three years – he placed third in 2004  – was Red Deer’s Frank Stokowski. Stokowski’s only problem with the tournament’s increased popularity is that it attracts bet­ter participants. “It’s a tough go,” he said. “There’s more and more competition every time.” The top Athabasca-area performer was Lucille Pe­terson, who placed second in the C event. Former Athabasca resident Ray Jones, now of Stony Plain, finished second in the A event, Shirley Jerome of Penn Valley, CA 3rd, and Lois McCormack of Lindsay, ON 4th.  

STAN’S NOTE: as many Canadians know, Lois and I traveled to Athabasca to experience this event in June of 2005.  This article from the local newspaper refers to Shuffleboard as Floor Shuffleboard as do many of the Western Players!!  The other Shuffleboard, played in bars and many homes is more common in Western Canada than in the Eastern Provinces, and for that reason the need to differentiate.  I favour this terminology and believe that it should be widely adopted!!  Note the reference to an even larger event in Innisfail, AB.  Innisfail too, holds their event in the Curling Club, as does Tweed, ON and as of May of 2006, Coldwater, ON.  I cannot say enough about the wisdom of such a venue if it can be arranged.  Thanks so much to Sylvia Bromley for sending this article along!!  Stan of THE SHUFFLER 2005 08 30.  This “encore presentation” posted 2006 05 17.

Stan McCormack, 2013 05 05.