Meet Carrooka
The brand new, fabulous finger-flicking, spinning, home snooker game. Sustainably hand-crafted in the UK.
We are Jack and Georgina (George) Furnival, the inventors and makers of Carrooka! Married for 31 years and business partners since we plunged into business nearly two years ago, we are based in Leek, the gateway to the stunning Peak District.
We almost accidentally invented Carrooka when we were looking for a good quality home snooker game that would fit into our tiny terraced house. It turns out, that unless we knocked through the walls into our neighbour’s house to make space, there was absolutely nothing on the market that would satisfy an experienced snooker player. Instead, we stumbled across the ancient Indian game of Carrom. We played two games, before Jack realised the linkage to Snooker and that he could invent a hybrid game that would bring Carrom bang up-to-date. Then lock-down happened. While George continued to manage an international development charity; Jack, an experienced carpenter, had time to make prototypes and refine our new game- Carrooka.
Carrooka is a finger-flicking, wooden table-top dexterity game that spins, meaning you can play without moving around as you rotate the board to line up your next shot. This makes it a perfect after-dinner game with friends (especially with the odd glass of wine!) but it’s also highly accessible for anyone with mobility difficulties. The idea is simple, flick the snooker coloured counters into pockets to score points. But the added challenge comes from it being round; there are far more angles in a circle and judging shots is really tricky, making Carrooka the ideal game- it’s intuitive and fun to play instantly, but it will take a life time to master!
We launched with a Kickstater in 2021 and quickly realised we had invented a sought after item. It felt like only days before George handed in her notice at work and we threw ourselves into self-employment. We’ve developed the website, attended games exhibitions and crucially we’ve been discovered by the pub trade. As pubs have had to remove snooker tables to make space for drinking tables, they’ve discovered that Carrooka is the perfect small space alternative and Carrooka can now be found in many pubs and cafes around the UK, meaning you can play for free with friends at any time!
Running a business is never without challenge, but it’s thrived from day one. We weren’t the only people to think there was a gap in the market for a good quality grown-up game! We now make every Carrooka board ourselves by hand, although we have a growing band of helpers. We only use sustainable materials, planet friendly products and we’re 100% single use plastic free- making a tiny ecological footprint is so important to us, especially as Carrooka is a luxury item.
Our main goal, is to always delight our customers, each and every Carrooka board takes many hours to craft, we have to create a super smooth playing surface so that the counters fly like air-hockey. But as well as being the perfect board to play a game on, we want every board to become a cherished object. It’s the kind of game you buy to play, then you play it with your children, then your children take to it to Uni, then they play with their friends and suddenly it is a heritage piece passed down through the generations. This also means Carrooka is fantastic value for money as, thanks to the care and traditional processes we use- it will never wear out!
The Carrooka community is growing and this year we’re holding the first Carrooka World Cup- we hope that one day, Carrooka will be a word as well-known as Snooker and you’ll all be tuning in to watch your favourite players vying to win matches on your TV. For now, we’re excited and energised by this unexpected Carrooka revolution and we hope you’ll want to try your hand at flicking! We hope you’ll visit our website www.carrooka.com and follow us for the latest news on all the usual social media platforms @carrooka
*This blog post is provided by the business owner featured – the views and opinions expressed on this blog are not our own.
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