STOUGHTON - Karen Coderre is a long-time member of the Stoughton Royal Canadian Legion branch and is known as the manager at the branch.
In those years that Coderre has been a member, cribbage was a part of the legion, playing on Tuesday nights from November until April. Anyone can come out to play the game, but only members can go to the playoffs and higher.
This past January, the branch held playoffs. These can be open or closed games, singles, doubles and teams of four.
From branch playoffs, normally they would attend the zone tournament, but since there were not other branches, they went to districts instead.
Districts were held Feb. 11 at the Stoughton Legion. Around 50 players attended from Melville, Lampman, Alameda, Balcarres and Stoughton. Games began at 8 a.m. and ran until the evening.
This district area runs from Regina to Melville, over to the Manitoba border, down to the U.S. border, over to Estevan and back up to Regina.
Twelve members from Stoughton qualified to attend the legion’s provincial finals on March 17-19 in Swift Current.
Out of the four different districts, 68 players came to provincials. They came from Elrose, Humboldt, Prince Albert, Saskatoon and Stoughton.
Throughout the tournament, meals were provided by the Swift Current legion branch, along with a banquet in the evening. Draws were held along with a 50/50 during the weekend.
At one point 11 players were tied for a place to go to dominions. At this point, the peg points are added up and Stoughton would lose out by 20 points, but a four-person team, comprised of Vern and Carol Lindsay, Linda Beckman and Peter Piper won provincials as a team and will attend dominion finals in Cochrane, Alta., on April 21-23.
The nationwide cribbage finals are held for legion members.
According to Coderre, provincials were a blast.
“It was a whole new experience that brought a lot of laughs and new friends,” she said. “I would go again, in a heartbeat.”
The Lindsays are excited to be heading to Cochrane. They have not been out of province in six years.
Beckman is also excited to go, although this is her sixth time going to dominions. In 2015, Beckman and her mom Eleanor Adams won the Canadian championship in doubles when they went to Spruce Grove, Alta. This was the last time she did so with her mom.
Peter Piper is the other member of the team, and this is his third time attending dominions. Piper said they will fly out to Cochrane.
“I am excited to be attending Dominion once again,” he said.
Over the years, Stoughton members have gone to dominions in Aldergrove, B.C., Sussex, N.B., Spruce Grove, Victoria and Ottawa, among other communities.
They will be playing other legion members from across the provinces in the hopes to bring home a championship to Stoughton.
