Skee-asons greetings Brooklyn!
The country’s best Skee-ball rollers return to Williamsburg this weekend for the Brewskee-ball National Championship, a two-day tournament filled with parades, live music, and discount pitchers to determine who is the best skee-thlete in the world.
Players will converge at the mecca of obscure amateur sports, The Knitting Factory and Grand Street’s Full Circle Bar, for the seventh-annual, 64-roller tournament that comes with a $3,000 prize.
“This is the one — this is what we’ve been setting out to do,” said Full Circle Bar’s Eric Pavony, 32, who started the Brewskee-ball in 2005. “I never really intended to be an obscure sports junkie but I prefer taking old games, such as competitive dreideling, skeeball, and corn hole, and make them more challenging and a little more competitive.”
He has succeeded wildly.
This year the tournament expanded to include a team competition on Saturday featuring the best rollers from New York, Austin, San Francisco, and Wilmington trading “hundies,” or rolling 100 points, at The Knitting Factory in order to win the world mug — a crystal mug that slightly resembles professional hockey’s Stanley Cup trophy.
Pavony even organized a parade on Saturday afternoon, when teams will carry their city’s flag down Havemeyer Street through what he is describing as “Rollympic Village,” to spur the crowd.
Sunday’s individual competition is more staid — but there’s a lot at stake.
“The rollers tournament has proper decorum, etiquette, tradition, history, and respect for what it takes 64 rollers to get up there and put together a 10-frame matches,” said Pavony.
The champion receives the cash prize, a trophy, and a cream blazer with the official Brewskee-ball shield stitched onto its left pocket.
And the favorite to win this year is last year’s title-holder, Joey “The Cat” Mucha, who blew away Williamsburg’s David “The Bear” Mahler, though Pavony is expecting big things from Wilmington’s Lolos and Austin’s Brewbacca.
Joey is the best roller in the country and will be very tough to take down,” said Pavony. “Bear came in second last year and since losing he has won two New York City Best Roller titles. He has not been hibernating, he’s been rolling 40’s.”
And audience members are welcome not only to join in on postgame festivities which include live music and comedy shows, but a chance to contribute to a world record. Full Circle hopes to set a new record for the most number of people holding a skeeball in one room at one time and most points scored on one skeeball lane in one hour.
“The music, food, art and the obscure make it feel like Coney Island, where brewskee ball got its beginning,” said Pavony. “We feel we’re carrying on Coney Island as best as we can by making things weirder and weirder.”
Brewskee-ball National Championship at Full Circle Bar [318 Grand St. between Havemeyer and Rodney streets in Williamsburg (347) 725–4588. www.fullcirclebar.com]. May 29-30 at 1:30 pm. .
Reach reporter Aaron Short at ashort@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-2547.
