For the last two weeks I have been writing about crokinole, and this week I want to end my look at this great Canadian game by discussing it with reigning world champion Brian Cook.
Now I’ll preface this with the comment that as a journalist, as well as a board gamer, it is a thrill to interview anyone who can point to being a world champion. Cook, 45, grew up in Owen Sound, ON. but has lived in Toronto for years.
As for his start in crokinole, he said he has no particular recollection of a first time at a board.
“I don’t remember starting to play the game, it was always around even when I was a little kid,” he said.
And, like many of us who love the game, it was family who started Cook in crokinole.
“My father and his brothers were into sports and games like crokinole, chess and checkers,” he said. “I was always pretty good at the game. Unlike chess and checkers, I could do pretty well against my father and uncles.”
But why did Cook stay with the game and become competitive?
“It’s a fun and challenging game,” he said. “There’s a good mix of board game and sport-like features. It’s not an exclusively mental activity like chess (which I don’t have the patience for), and has a bit of a physical component but minimal enough that anyone can play at any age.
“Certainly the experience that most people have playing it as a social pastime it’s just a game. When the small number of us competitive players get together for our regular tournaments it can get intense and stressful. And to be honest, at big tournaments like the World Crokinole Championship, after having to focus intensely on 600-plus shots over many hours, I feel pretty worn out, even more than after hitting the weights at the gym. But that doesn’t make it a sport.”
“Concentration and consistency; the game requires repeated short bouts of concentration to perform a simple flicking task,” he offered. “To play well, especially in tournaments, you really need to focus intensely on each shot. And in big tournaments, you might need to make hundreds and hundreds of shots throughout the day, with the margin for error being less and less as the tournament goes on.
“Players are always looking for better consistency. That flows from concentration and confidence. I’ve also found that it’s essential to have a short memory. Lots of players make a bad shot and that leads to a second bad shot. They can’t stop thinking about the bad shot and before they know it they’ve lost the game and then another.“The biggest challenge of my consistency is when I end up facing an opponent that’s really got their 20’s shooting in a groove,” he said. “That happens a lot in the playoff rounds at the World Championship. Then I really have to take my time and focus on matching their 20s. If I can’t do that, there’s no chance of beating them. I do a similar mental trick. In my mind I’m really pulling for my opponent to make their 20-shot, and every time they do I imagine it pulling a lever that doubles my powers of concentration and my relaxation. I used to hope my opponent missed but that just focused my mind on negativity, making it much harder for my next shot when they succeeded.”
While Cook loves the game, as do I, and it has Canadian roots, the world champion admits the game does not have the mass following it deserves.
“Unfortunately even though it has lots of roots in Canada I find that 80 per cent of the people I come across, especially in the big city, have never heard of the game,” he said. “Some acquaintances have even been confused and thought I was the world croquet champion.
Last year there were 240 players at the world event with Cook capturing his fourth competitive singles title.
Again if anyone in interested in playing locally please email [email protected]
