Pitchnut club, born of family history, a niche game, and a thirst for competition
If you’ve ever wanted to play pool but struggled to knock billiard balls across the table with a cue, Pitchnut, known as Canadian pool, played with one’s fingers, may be the sport for you.
Every Friday in technology teacher Lee Larcheveque’s room, 191, students come together during Flex Block to play Pitchnut, on boards created by Larcheveque himself, who has deep connections to the game, with his family tree drawing him to it.
He said he believes it dates back to “a village named Ste-Edwidge de Clifton a few miles north of the Vermont border.”
“Most French Canadians who grew up playing the game have connections to the Menard family, including my mother’s great aunts and uncles,” he said. “I know Eugene Menard built a bunch. Achille Scalabrini, too. His mother-in-law was a Menard.”
Since learning of the game, and falling in love with it, he began building the boards and eventually trademarked the Pitnutch name. “I didn’t invent [the game], so I don’t have a patent for it, [just the name],” he said.
“It’s probably a combination of crokinole and carrom, both of which are called pichenotte by French Canadians. Pichenotte means “flick” in French. “It’s basically pool rules. Easier, though,” said Larcheveque.
According to Larcheveque, the game has many appeals. “It’s highly addictive. It’s very fun once you get the hang of it,” he said. “There are crazy things that happen when pieces unexpectedly go in. The best players can be beaten by newcomers if they make too many mistakes.”
He said the game requires a lot of strategy as well, but “it’s the lucky stuff that keeps it engaging.”
Most interesting to him is that people develop rivalries. He said he would guess that the ARHS group of players is “the biggest Pitchnut club in the world.”
“There are a few players at Wesleyan and UMass, but they were started by former ARHS students,” he said.
Larcheveque originally built boards for his nephews for Christmas when they were in high school about 18 years ago. “I brought the boards in [to school] in the weeks leading up to the holidays. A few students got hooked immediately so I built a few more and started up a club,” said Larcheveque.
Occasionally, he hosts singles and doubles tournaments. He ended by saying, “Some kids got better than me fairly quickly, but it’s good because it keeps kids off their phones.”
Senior Liam Whitcomb is a lover of the game who was drawn in during a Community Day at ARHS where students could engage in games and activities from face painting to Spikeball to Pitchnut.
“Then one of my friends told me about Larch’s flex block where you can play Pitchnut and I have been going ever since,” he said. “It not only allows me to play a fun engaging game with my friends, but it also allows me to see friends I don’t have any classes with.”
Students even end up playing against similarly ranked students during tournaments hosted in the club The prizes are limited. “Donuts? A mug? Bragging rights?” joked Larcheveque. “But this allows people to not only get better but also engage in a bit of competition to keep things fresh.”
