When one of the original Energy City Kubb members relocated to Southern California, it was all but a done deal that some players from our league would venture out to compete in the West Coast Kubb Championship. That's exactly what four member did! George Sloan and Brian Beling traveled the 2,000 plus miles to not only visit their friend and fellow league member, Mark Burke, but to also team up with him under the memorable name, Taste the Biscuit. They were joined by Brett Bauer and Doug Fetterman, who played as their usual name, Something Clever.

Unlike most tournaments, the West Kubb Coast Championship takes place on a Sunday. This year it was on April 28th and hosted by the LA Kubb Club at Orange Grove Park in South Pasadena, with the 3rd place and Championship games later played at a private (and super fancy) residence. The teams couldn't have asked for better hosts nor weather. The two Illinois based teams were joined by some familiar Midwestern faces that were all in need of a break from the brutal winter weather of the upper Midwest. The Kubboom posse out of Eau Claire, WI, combined to make three teams, including two-thirds of this year's national championship team, Kubboom Jr., Max and Sam. DeeDee and Jason of the Kubb Nerds also escaped the cold of Kasson, MN to try and win the left coast championship. Be sure to check out their tournament, Kubbin' to Kick Cancer on June 8th.

Taste the Biscuit finished the qualifying round with a big win in game 6 and ended up 3-1-1-1. They had a tie leading in front of them against the King Seekers in their 4th game were it not for just an incredible last turn by the Seekers that included a crazy triple and a baseline clear on their last toss of the match. It was one of the best turns of the entire tournament and sadly, it went against the Batavia boys. But Taste the Biscuit met their goal of finishing in the top 8, by taking that final spot in the Championship Bracket.

Something Clever also won their 6th and final game of the qualifying match against Pitch Perfect, one of the Kubboom teams, and finished the morning at 4-2 with their only losses coming to the top seeded Kubbix Rubes (JP and Marshall) and eventual 2nd place finisher, Mr. Kubboom (Pat and Steve). Much like their brethren from Energy City, the goal was top 8 and Something Clever headed into the afternoon as the 6th seed.

Unfortunately, the chase for hardware came to an end for both teams in the opening round of the Championship Bracket. Taste the Biscuit lost to the red hot Kubbix Rubes for the 2nd time on the day (they beat Something Clever too), but they cooled them off as the Kubbix Rubes lost the next match and ended up finishing in 3rd place overall. The story was much the same for Something Clever. Eventual 4th place finisher, Kubbake (Wayne and Ray) took care of the boys in two straight games. Doug had an early penalty in game 1 that Brett was no help in clearing and it ended up standing until the king was toppled. Game 2 was much closer until one too many porches were left. When it was all said and done, both teams finished T5 in a field of 31 teams.

Congratulations to the Lumber Liquidators (Ben & Julian Petrillo) on their back-to-back West Coast titles! And again, many thanks to our wonderful hosts, the LA Kubb Club. Regardless of Mark's whereabouts in 2025, you can bet Energy City Kubb will be well represented in the 2025 West Coast Championship!

Energy City Kubb's own Something Clever (Brett Bauer & Doug Fetterman) won the Silver bracket in last month's North Carolina Kubb Championship. The North Carolina Championship was hosted by Queen City Kubb (https://www.queencitykubb.com/index.html) and not only was it the second tournament of the year that featured Energy City Kubb members, but it was also the second of the six tournaments on the Atlantic Kubb Tour. The tournament took place on March 23rd in Davidson, NC.

Not too many folks showed up for friendlies on some arid pitches on Friday night due to rain in the forecast and boy did the rains come! Shoes were ruined and there was a lot of slipping and sliding in some extremely muddy conditions that lasted throughout the entire day on Saturday. The rain stuck around in the morning, but eventually the sun did peak through and by the end of the tournament, it was quite nice out.

Something Clever came out quick, beating My Pitches in 4 turns despite forgetting to use their short porch on their 3rd turn. Game 2 ended in a tie against the eventual champions, Kraken Beer (Dan Corey/Mike Horengic) as there were some great clears, but no one could quite get it going on 8 meters, which sadly became a theme to the day for Brett. Something Clever had plenty of ups and downs over the next four matches and ended the day 3-2-1, which was good enough for 5th place in qualifications.

The first Gold bracket matchup was a battle. Something Clever went up against Das Kubb (Mike Davids/Nick Bartlett) and the teams exchanged blows for nearly an hour. Das Kubb left a porch, but Brett went 1 for 3 in trying to clear the baseline. Das Kubb went on to win game 1 and eventually game 2 to advance and ultimately take 3rd place in the tournament. Losing dropped Something Clever into the Silver Bracket.

In their two Silver bracket matches, Something Clever found their groove and beat the Piss Missiles (Brian West/Bryant Cook) in a single game and the Functioning Kubbaholics (Ryan Huber/Shawn Bittinger) 2-0 in the Silver bracket championship.

Many thanks to Queen City Kubb for being great hosts and best of luck to all the teams competing for the Atlantic Kubb Tour title. Check out the remaining schedule here - https://www.atlantickubbtour.com/home.html.