ABL's Winter Shuffleboard League is back!

If you're looking for something to do this cold winter season, playing the old-time bar game of Shuffleboard is a great way to warm up with an adult beverage, revel in the camaraderie, and compete against other teams from around the neighborhood. 

The league plays from Feb - April (18-game schedule), and if your team makes the playoffs, you'll be seeded in a single-elimination tournament for the chance to drink victory from the Lord Shufflepuck Cup! So, are you ready to embark on this great season, to go beer for beer and puck for puck vs. your division opponents?

Please register now to secure your spot. A schedule will be posted by February 1st. 

NEW YORK, NY -- They say when you get to the playoffs, you throw out the records, as a new season has begun. 

And the same goes for Shuffleboard. 

The EarthQUATES, former champions of the elite Hoboken Shuffleboard Division, cruised along in the regular season in NYC, compiling a 13-3 record. Their first task in the single-elimination playoff round was to play the winner of the Wild Card play in game.

In the Wild Card game, House Shuffle Puff eventually pulled away to win after a close game broke out. John and Jerry played well, but not well enough as KB had one of his best games to date and scored 14 points to help HSP win 21-13. 

The EarthQUATES lost 3 games in the regular season and one of them was to close out the regular season, losing to HSP. I guess you could say momentum helped HSP to continue their winning ways against The EarthQUATES. In a somewhat surprising start, HSP won decidedly to begin the 3 game series. KB and Jake scored 11 and 10 pts respectively as JVB and Lisa combined for only 15 pts themselves.  

JVB and Lisa came back to take a super close game 2 to a score of 21-18. But game 3 HSP stunned the Shuffleboard world by beating the number 1 seed EarthQUATES 21-14 to move on to the championship. 

"I watched some tape of these two," KB said while sipping his Bud Light. "The tape seemed to show that if you score more than them, you will more than likely win. Literally, all of their losses had them scoring less points than their opponents. So it was pretty clear what we had to do."

In the other matchup, #3 Every Day We're Shufflin was set up to face # 2 seed Truffle Shuffle.

TS started out strong taking game 1. But it wasn't easy. This game set the pace for the rest of the matchup as TS narrowly won 21-20. Josh helped carry the load by scoring 12 points. 

In the second game, Josh and Emily tried to close out EDWS, but Clifton and Neil were having to part of that. Neil scored 11 points while keeping Emily down to 4, to even the series at 1 a piece. 

As tight as those 2 games were, the third was not quite as close. It appeared as though TS ran out of steam, as EDWS moved on to the Championship matchup, cruising to a 21-2 victory. 

Asked about the defeat, Josh said, "It keeps us hungry for next season. You can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. The night is always darkest before the dawn."

The final matchup, which began around 11pm, if I am correct, saw two teams destined to face each other. Both teams wanted to be champions, but only one team could be. 

EDWS started out by taking game one 21-17. Neil continued his scoring ways by scoring 11 again, and keeping KB down to 7. Jake tried his best and was able to score more than Clifton, 11-10, but in the end, it was not enough. 

Game 2 KB scored 16 points while keeping Neil down to 6 points, and Jake was able to add 5 of his own while playing solid defense against Clifton. HSP wins game 2 to a score of 21-14. Series tied 1-1

Game 3  must have seemed like history repeating itself for EDWS. After demolishing TS to end the first series 21-2, EDWS was doing the same thing to HSP, seemingly cruising to the championship title, outscoring HSP 13-2. But KB and Jake didn't come all this way to go down like this in the championship round. They clawed their way back to tie score at 19. However it was too little too late as Neil, who scored 18 in this game, answered with a two pointer to end the game. 

Ladies and gentlemen, your NYC ABL Shuffleboard champions: Every Day We're Shufflin'!

Congrats to EDWS! It was a great season with ups and downs all along the way. Thanks to those who played and with everyone returning next season, we should all have some more fun starting early February!