Pichenotte

Pichenotte (French: [piʃnɔt] / PEESH-nut) refers to a family of several disk-flicking games, mostly French Canadian in origin, including crokinole, pitchnut, and North American carrom, which may sometimes be played with small cue sticks.

The game community site Knipsbrat.com states that, like the German name Knipsbrat ('flicking-board'), "pichenotte is another name for crokinole"[4][5] The Canadian game board collection at the Quebec Museum of Civilization in Quebec City includes both the square carrom-type board[6] and the round crokinole-type game [7] Crokinole is also called pichenotte throughout much of North America.

Modern-day tournaments have been held as far apart as Tavistock, Ontario,[8] and Santa Fe and[9][10] Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The word ultimately originated in India; karambal is a name for the orange fruit, said to resemble a billiard ball, of the carambola tree.

[13] 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[14] via Southeast Asian immigrants or travelers returning home from Southeast Asian countries.

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.

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.

The poison is similar to the queen in carrom and the jack or pallino in several lawn/court bowling games such as bocce.

Each player has a shooter, a larger wooden disk, similar to a striker in carrom.

Play begins with alternating black and white pieces (nuts) in a ring, in the center of the board.

The earliest Canadian reference is 1867,[18] 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 who [made the first board]."

Kelly wrote: "crokinole derives its name from the verb form [of croquignole] defining the principal action in the game, that of flicking or 'filliping' a playing piece across the board.

The official size at World Crokinole Championships in Tavistock, Ontario Canada, is 26 inch diameter.

The opponents' disks are shot into the recessed area that is called the ditch between the rails and the round deck.

There are many more tournaments and clubs all over Canada and the United States, and some have arisen in other areas, including the American Southwest.