A Cribbaholics Unanimous exclusive
By Joe Kane
As readers of Cribbaholics Unanimous know, I am a big fan of King’s Cribbage. I have the board game, which Roy Cowley (of COCOCO Games, Inc.) was kind enough to send to me while I was deployed to Iraq in 2007 – 2008, and I can often be found at eCribbage.com playing the online version of KC at all hours of the day or night (when I’m not taking a break for pesky things like work, sleep, eating, family, etc). What you may not know is that King’s Cribbage is based in Canada and has largely sold to Canadian and U.S. markets… until now!
King’s Cribbage now has a distributor in the United Kingdom, which is only fitting since the UK is the birthplace of Cribbage. According to Corrina Turner, one half of the father/daughter team that runs “King’s Cribbage Connection UK,” the company was set up in early 2008 to be the springboard for KC in the UK.
“We are a family business in Somerset distributing Kings Cribbage… in association with a major Canadian games manufacturer COCOCO games,” said Turner. “Having always been keen card and board players, Cribbage in particular, we opportunely fell upon Kings Cribbage while surfing the net. We tried the game out and were so impressed we just had to contact the manufacturer to buy the game for family and friends. It turned out the company was looking for a UK outlet to sell their game and we would be a natural fit for them. We are very pleased to say we are now their UK sole distributor.”
Turner believes the market holds massive potential. In the UK “cribbage is played for fun to a very serious club level,” she said. “More importantly we want to bring the game particularly to young people who never had the opportunity to play cribbage before. We feel that the KC board game and Damien Blond’s* fabulous online version has a lot to offer to cribbage players.
“We are delighted with our new Web site www.kingscribbageuk.com and we hope we have given it a unique UK feel. The site in due course will be a portal for anybody who wants to find out where to play and buy the game in the UK.
“We are introducing Kings Cribbage to new player’s everyday - we still have a lot of work in front of us but the challenge has now begun…and we are getting ready for it!”
Turner and her father are using a “grass roots” strategy to help build the growing community of KC players in the UK.
“We think the best starting point is to move with social clubs and pubs. We hope this will establish Kings Cribbage nationally at these venues to run alongside with the traditional cribbage leagues. Currently we are working on introducing KC workshops to as many clubs, which is a lot of fun,” Turner said. “We are really looking forward to the UK being part to of a great ‘King’s Cribbage Global community’ with players who just love playing the game.
“We have had fantastic support from Roy Cowley and Damien Blond from the beginning on this project, and we’d like to say a very big thank you,” Turner said.
To check out the Web site for King’s Cribbage Connection UK go to: www.kingscribbageuk.com
To try King’s Cribbage Online go to the new home for free Cribbage on the Web: eCribbage.com. Look for me there and challenge me to a game of KC or traditional Cribbage. There is even a new version with muggings!
Cheers, and happy pegging everyone!
*Damien Blond is the designer of KC online
Showing posts with label roy cowley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label roy cowley. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Q & A with COCOCO Games, Roy Cowley
The following is a Q & A with COCOCO Games owner Roy Cowley, maker of Kings Cribbage, a game that incorporates elements of Cribbage and Scrabble to form an exciting game that has continued to grow in popularity and has recently been made into an online game where it continues to draw players from all over the world. Thanks Roy!
Name: Roy Cowley
Age: 35
Born and raised: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Company: COCOCO Games, maker of “Kings Cribbage” – The King of all Cribbage Games
Web site: http://www.cococogames.com
[The following is all direct quotes from Roy Cowley]
“My father, a born entrepreneur, came up with the novel idea of combining two all-time family favorites, cribbage and crossword puzzles, to make a whole new game. He invited myself (in construction at the time) and my brother-in-law (a New Zealand Shepherd), to all forgo our salaries and join him on this adventure. How could we say no?
We started by making 1700 games in a small warehouse. Me and my brother-in-law slogged away on table saws all summer. Next we rented space in a local shopping mall for the Christmas season, and miraculously sold out on Christmas eve. Early in the new year, we started getting rave emails coming in from customers wanting more. The cribbage players were loving it! We were worried whether cribbage players would be open to this new concept, but they emailed in droves, wanting to buy more games.
Once the snowball started rolling, stores were contacting us. They had people coming in requesting the game all the time. Since then, we’ve had our ups and downs on the business side, but demand has always steadily increased. The wonderful thing about inventing something people truly use and recommend is that eventually, the stores come to you.
Last year, a cribbage player from California named Damien Blond decided to make an online version of Kings Cribbage. He wasn’t looking for anything from us, he just wanted to play Kings Cribbage with his friends and family who still lived in other parts of the world, including up here in Canada. He contacted me to show us what he’d created. I couldn’t believe that someone would take the time to create such a wonderful online version of Kings Cribbage, all in his spare time. He clearly loved the game, and he could destroy me in head-to-head matches. He asked if I would mind him putting it up for public use. Kings Cribbage online was born: http://www.kingscribbageonline.com
Kings Cribbage going online has it’s perks! The best one is that I can play Kings Cribbage with our customers. This allows me to have a candid chat with Joe and Jane Sixpack about the game, where they are from, where they heard about the game, etc, all while enjoying a spirited game. This helps me make proper decisions about where to market, what should be included in future editions of the game, etc.
COCOCO Games will continue to make Kings Cribbage for the long haul. We’ve continuously focused on our customer service, providing free replacement of lost tiles, daily responses to the public’s emails, and just helping out wherever we can. I want all of our customers to know that we are a family business, first and foremost.”
END
Name: Roy Cowley
Age: 35
Born and raised: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Company: COCOCO Games, maker of “Kings Cribbage” – The King of all Cribbage Games
Web site: http://www.cococogames.com
[The following is all direct quotes from Roy Cowley]
“My father, a born entrepreneur, came up with the novel idea of combining two all-time family favorites, cribbage and crossword puzzles, to make a whole new game. He invited myself (in construction at the time) and my brother-in-law (a New Zealand Shepherd), to all forgo our salaries and join him on this adventure. How could we say no?
We started by making 1700 games in a small warehouse. Me and my brother-in-law slogged away on table saws all summer. Next we rented space in a local shopping mall for the Christmas season, and miraculously sold out on Christmas eve. Early in the new year, we started getting rave emails coming in from customers wanting more. The cribbage players were loving it! We were worried whether cribbage players would be open to this new concept, but they emailed in droves, wanting to buy more games.
Once the snowball started rolling, stores were contacting us. They had people coming in requesting the game all the time. Since then, we’ve had our ups and downs on the business side, but demand has always steadily increased. The wonderful thing about inventing something people truly use and recommend is that eventually, the stores come to you.
Last year, a cribbage player from California named Damien Blond decided to make an online version of Kings Cribbage. He wasn’t looking for anything from us, he just wanted to play Kings Cribbage with his friends and family who still lived in other parts of the world, including up here in Canada. He contacted me to show us what he’d created. I couldn’t believe that someone would take the time to create such a wonderful online version of Kings Cribbage, all in his spare time. He clearly loved the game, and he could destroy me in head-to-head matches. He asked if I would mind him putting it up for public use. Kings Cribbage online was born: http://www.kingscribbageonline.com
Kings Cribbage going online has it’s perks! The best one is that I can play Kings Cribbage with our customers. This allows me to have a candid chat with Joe and Jane Sixpack about the game, where they are from, where they heard about the game, etc, all while enjoying a spirited game. This helps me make proper decisions about where to market, what should be included in future editions of the game, etc.
COCOCO Games will continue to make Kings Cribbage for the long haul. We’ve continuously focused on our customer service, providing free replacement of lost tiles, daily responses to the public’s emails, and just helping out wherever we can. I want all of our customers to know that we are a family business, first and foremost.”
END
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