We looked undermanned and overmatched as we lined up against our opponents on that bright spring day at Meadowland Park.
In what some pundits describe as a preview to the 2023 U.S. Kubb Championship, we outlasted our opponents (who were also our hosts) to win the day.
What we lacked in skill, we made up for with sassiness, stealth and a secret weapon, Baby Margo. Our hero sat serenely in her stroller until, by prearranged signal, she let loose with an impressive demonstration of her digestive ability so…pungent, she immediately drew the attention of our opponent’s star player, her mother.
With Tara confined to the penalty box (the family car) for checking from behind (to change Margo’s diaper), we made our move.
By rule, each teammate must alternate throws and it took a while for us to find our rhythm but eventually Katherine, Vinnie and I managed to put together enough successful inkasts that only the king remained.
As we stood literally inches away from victory, one of us Leon Lett-ed himself by kasting forward such an ill-advised and over confident shot through the legs that it landed nowhere near its intended target. (I’m not going to say who did this in our match, but his first name rhymes with “we almost didn’t winnie”.)
Fortunately, we rallied and took the title on the next round of throws.
I like Kubb, a weird cross between Viking chess, lawn darts and bowling. I imagine there’s a strategy more sophisticated than ours, but I wonder if there are any more effective.
In any case, it was a lovely way to spend a Saturday afternoon in the park and I look forward to defending our title in July.
