The North Simcoe Sports and Recreation Centre in Midland was the center of the shuffleboard world Monday as 114 competitors from around the globe gathered to go end to end against each other.

Gary Pipher is the co-ordinatorof the international tournament. He says three years of planning went into this event and he expects fierce competition.

“Canada west would be first place, then the Netherlands and next the USA. But if you watch the Japanese you will see very precise shooting.”

There are teams from nine countries at this year’s world championships including Australia, Japan, Brazil, Germany, the U.S. and CANADA plus two international teams.

Casey De Boer is playing for the Netherlands even though he lives in Canada. He says winning here would be nice but shuffleboard is about more than that.

“We are all here to win but making friends is a top priority besides winning.”

The oldest player here is 96 and the youngest is 17.

Jonathan Schnapp is here from Brooklyn, New York, where shuffle board is experiencing a revival with all age groups.

“These people are great! They buy drinks for each other. The outfits they wear, they have victory dance. They have names for all the teams and it's been great how Brooklyn has embraced shuffleboard in that way.” 

Canadian Bill Bryan has travelled the world competing in shuffleboard including to Sochi, Russia, 3-years ago. He says the Russian team is conspicuously absent here.

“It's political, it's political. Let's face it, it's all politics.”

But Team Australia’s Pauline Hoare puts politics, language and culture aside at the world championships and has come half-way-around the world to be here.

“Everybody comes together and the world can be at peace because so many countries are represented here and come together and we are all enjoying this activity. “

The competition continues until Friday spectators are welcome and admission is free.  There is also a generous supply of cookies and coffee on hand.