THE QUOIT PITS

Jamie Brunaccioni and his Dad Reno have been playing their own, home-made version of Quoits in Niagra Falls, Ontario, Canada for many years. In July of 2003, he sent an email along with photos of his game to The Quoit Pits. Jamie held two big tournaments in the summer of 2003, the Summer Invitational and the Quoit-Palooza. Photos from both tournaments are seen below. He writes:

"The game is similar to yours except our hoops our 1 foot in diameter. The scoring is similar. I started playing around 1974 when my dad introduced me to the game. He had been playing for years before that."

"We basically make the quoit stand about 15 inches square and the post stands a foot tall. The hoops are made out out rubber hose, garden hose is good, and are about a foot in diameter. I have probably made half a dozen sets now for my brothers and in-laws, we all love the game. To be honest though, I don't know of any one else that plays the game except for people we have introduced the game to. By the way, we pronounce the game koy-its, not kwaits. Not sure if this is correct but its what we know it as. Whenever the family gets together, we have a big game. Now that I have introduced my in-laws to the game, we have even more people playing. We just had a tournament with 16 people. We even modified an old bowling trophy into a quoit trophy by replacing the ball with a quoit." Here are the rules they play by:

RULES FOR THE CANADIAN GAME OF QUOITS

Teams - Quoits can be played with two or four people. With four people, 2 teams of 2 are decided. Each team chooses two quoits of the same color.

Equipment - 4 quoits of approximately 12 inches in diameter and 2 hubs that have a base of about 15 sq. inches with a post in the middle that stands roughly 12 inches high. The hubs should be placed 25 to 30 feet apart.

Pitching - A player from each team will stand at each hub. When pitching (throwing) a quoit your forward foot must not extend beyond the hub. All four quoits should remain untouched until after the last quoit is pitched.

Pitching Sequence - Teams will alternate when pitching quoits (A-B-A-B). A coin toss shall determine what team pitches first. The team not pitching first is said to have the "Hammer" as it is more advantageous for a team to be pitching last. Any team scoring points in a turn will pitch first in the next turn. The winner of a game will pitch first at the start of the next game.

Scoring - Only one team can score points during any end of play. A team will combine the points of each of their quoits that are closer than the closest opponents quoit. Three types of scores are available:

Ringer   -   5 points - a quoit totally encompassing the post of the hub.
Leaner   - 3 points   - a quoit leaning against the post of the hub.
Single   - 1 point    - a quoit lying and touching any part of the base of the hub.

Tie Breaking - When both teams have a single, the team with the quoit closest to the peg gets the single point. When both teams have a leaner, the team with the quoit closest to the top of the peg scores 3 points. When both teams have ringers, the team that scored the topmost ringer will score 5 points for each ringer on the post, including the opponents' ringers, plus any other points from his other remaining quoit if it beats out his opponents quoit. Thus, a perfect score of 20 is possible.

Winning - The winner of a game will be determined by the first player or team to reach a score of 21. The only exception being any team reaching a score of 11 before the opposing team scores a single point. This is known as a "skunk" and is a humiliating way to lose. When playing a match, the person or team who wins two out of three games is declared the winner.

You can find out more about Canadian Quoits at Jamie's Web site: http://www.geocities.com/playquoits/quoits

Jamie Brunaccioni shows off the version of quoits

that he and his family has been playing for years.

Jamie is ready to pitch his garden-hose quoits.

The taped area is used as a handhold when pitching.

Jamie's set of quoits are made from rubber hose and the

posts are metal pipe welded to a metal plate. Black or white tape marks the two pairs of quoits.

This set belongs to Jamie's Dad, and uses wooden dowels and boards for the posts. These quoits are distinguished by pieces of red or green hose and by blue or black tape.

The "Brunaccioni 5" perform live on stage in beautiful downtown Niagara Falls... Jamie, his Dad Reno, Cousin Justin, Brother-in-law Ed, and Brother Brian sing all of your favorite Motown hits at their Octoberfest Classic of 2002.