Tribunal · Case ICA-T-2026-014

Tribunal Opens Inquiry into Equine Participation in Sanctioned Play

Allegations Regarding Matches Contested Against Non-Human Opponents to Be Examined under the Association's Standing Prohibitions

From the Secretariat · 15 February MMXXVI · The Hague

THE HAGUE — The International Cribbage Association announced Friday that its Tribunal has formally opened an inquiry into reports of equine participation in sanctioned and unsanctioned matches conducted over the preceding decade, citing the Association's standing prohibition on non-human opponents as the basis for the proceeding.

The inquiry, which carries the case number ICA-T-2026-014, arises from a confidential report submitted by field observers of the World International Cribbage Championship Council (WICC) in December last. The report describes a pattern of unsanctioned exhibitions, said to have been conducted in several jurisdictions over a period beginning in or about 2019, in which two of the Association's senior officers contested matches against equine opponents.

A horse, in evidently incapacitated condition, beside a cribbage board and a partial hand of cards. — *Exhibit 014-A.* Photographic evidence drawn from the confidential file submitted by field observers of the WICC, reproduced here at the Tribunal’s direction. The full series is catalogued in the Tribunal Exhibits register.

The Secretariat declined to identify the officers by name in its initial statement, but confirmed that the principal parties have been served with formal notice of the proceeding under bylaw 16.174.22.3 § 7.b. In response to questions from the international press, the Office of the Executive Director confirmed that Mr. Tony Cullen and Ms. Alicia Lake are the principal parties named in the case.

“The Association takes the most serious view of any conduct that brings the integrity of the sanctioned game into question,” Executive Director Pat Thornenberg said in a written statement issued through the Secretariat. “The Tribunal's processes are deliberate and they are thorough. The Association will say no more upon the matter until the Tribunal has reached its determination.”

The Association's Veterinary Linguistics Annex, prepared in advance of the proceeding, has been admitted to the Tribunal's working file. The Annex is understood to establish, on the basis of expert testimony, the formal grounds on which the Association considers equine and other non-human participants ineligible for sanctioned play.

The proceeding is expected to require several months. The Tribunal will sit in closed session in the Director's antechamber at Suckling House, with determinations published in the Annual Bulletin and posted at the present register in the ordinary course.

Neither Mr. Cullen nor Ms. Lake has issued a public statement.

Mr. D. Ronne (Pi Level, 3.14) remains the lowest-ranked individual ever inducted into the Association and has not progressed since the 2025 sector resolution at which the rank was conferred.

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