Tillerson's NK Interpretation. Grayling's Glowing Agri-Vision. Crokinole Games

Oak (European) leaf underside with galls

North Korea's Kim Jong-un reacts with angry rhetoric to the American Jet fly-over last week and the expected arrival of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and its carrier strike group at the Korean Peninsula. Rex Tillerson, strikes a more measured tone than the President in the past. "Those diplomatic efforts will continue until the first bomb drops," Tillerson said on CNN's "State of the Union.". Am I supposed to be reassured?

Cabinet Minister and Transport Secretary, Chris Grayling, took an optimistic view of a hard Brexit and it's impact on agriculture. "What it would mean would be that supermarkets bought more from home, that British farmers grew more and that they bought more from around the world." What he failed to mention is that this takes a while to adapt to. Supermarkets might scramble and succeed in  finding alternative food sources to make up for the cut-off of 70% of incoming agricultural products, mainly from the EU. However, expect tariffs of up to 22% on average, according to
Sainsbury's chairman David Tyler in the Sunday Times.

Furthermore, farmers actually have to plan ahead to choose commercially viable crops to grow  AND THEN GROW THEM. Which, contrary to Mr Grayling's optimism, actually takes months or even a year or more. Mind you, I look forward to the mandarin and lemon orchards in Kent, global warming permitting. It only takes three to six years for the orchard to mature sufficiently to bear fruit.

Modern Crokinole board, photo Alessio Sbarbaro

We, including visiting family, had a good lie-in today. I cooked a roast chicken lunch, followed by Yorkshire puddings with stewed apples for desert. Followed on with an afternoon of conversation and team battles of a gaome known in the family as 'Shove it', which has been in the family for a long time. The game is more commonly know as 'Crokinole' (pronounced Kroh-ki-nole perhaps an derivative or invention of 'Crock-in-hole!').

The earliest known crokinole board was made by craftsman Eckhardt Wettlaufer in 1876 in Perth County, Ontario, Canada, and we wonder if the idea of this game came into the family through a Canadian connection.

We played with either two players on opposite sides of the board or two teams of two on the quarters of the board. The circualr playing area is divided into three circular scoring rings with a central cavity which fits a puck. The inner ring and the central cavity are surrounded by 8 rubber protected nails. Each team has a set of 12 pucks, identified in two team colours. each puck is about an inch in diameter and has slightly concave sides to reduce friction. We wax and polish the board. The aim is to use a finger flick to get as many of our own pucks into high scoring areas. As shots alternate between teams, there is ample opportunity to try and remove opponent pieces whilst trying to score.

The game was originally thought to be of Mennonite or Aimish origin as it was popular in their communities. Rather than a game of the devil-like cards, Crokinole was considered a harmless pastime, misleadingly so when you consider the playful viciousness and guile that a flick generates, with considerable schadenfreude when the opponent is knocked off the board. Wikipedia has an entry on the game and it should be easy enough to build by any competent home DIY enthusiast. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crokinole. Game dimensions and rules available here http://crokinole.guru/game-rules/.