Having broken the writer’s block a little, time for some more games. For all of my caveat that I didn’t much enjoy games as a child, there were some that I did.
Ways to like games (when you don’t)
If you are the Sore Loser at home, it can help to go somewhere else to play games. Somewhere where there are different games, where you can reinvent your player status, perhaps.
One of these places was going to my grandparents in Edinburgh. Â We weren’t there very often, the games weren’t the same as the ones at home, and somehow I got over the gameplaying grumps, and enjoyed some of it.
Find what you’re good at – and play that
If you don’t like games, maybe it’s worth thinking about what you’re good at, and seeing if there’s a game based on that. Â It might be counting, it might be spotting patterns – it might even be keeping a straight face. Work on that.
One thing I can manage a certain amount of is sleight of hand (for want of a better description). Think Jenga (separate post to come there), and, in this case, pick-up-sticks.
I have a feeling that it may also be known as Spillikins, but for me, it’s pick-up-sticks.
Pick-up-sticks
On to the game in hand. Pick-up-sticks is a bit like a handful of double-ended chopsticks. They are wooden, come in different colours, and usually the ends are sharpened to points. (Invoke enough adults to play at this point, if the description makes you nervous).
The sticks are kept in a tin, a long thin canister. (Part of the interest, for the Sore Loser, is the vintage tin – one I now own, in fact.) It’s best to have a flat surface to play on, something like a tray or a table top.
Tip the sticks out of the tin, and let them fall on the flat surface. Â The trick is now to acquire as many sticks as you can, taking it in turns to…pick up sticks.
Strategy
The easy ones are any that have rolled to the side, and can be picked up without disturbing other sticks. (If you move an additional stick, when trying to pick up the one you’re aiming for, you’re out.)
Here’s where the sleight of hand comes in. Â Once you have a couple of sticks in your possession, you can use them to help get others.
The best way of doing this is to use the point of one to press down on another stick, so that it slowly flips up, and you can pick it up without disturbing other sticks.
You can also see if you can carefully get a stick under another one which is propped, as a way of levering it out.
Scoring
The main aim is to have as many sticks as possible. However, there is also an element of scoring if you need it.
Without the tin to hand, I can’t remember all the scores, but suffice to say that the ones you have most of (orange?) score lowest. Â There is only one black one – so that scores the highest. Â I think the other colours are white and yellow.
Satisfaction
As a child, it can be hard to get into games if you can’t do the mental work fast enough, whether that’s strategy, spelling, or whatever else. Â But you CAN lift up one stick when a grownup has tried and failed…and that is often enough.
I dare say you could make your own set fairly easily, if you had some dowelling rods. I have also seen sets which are plastic, though those don’t have as much weight – an element of weight is helpful (particularly when your opponent is trying to lever out a stick, and a number roll on top. Satisfyingly.).
Part of the fun is also the visual of the colours, the explosive shape of the sticks spreading out in different directions, and the sense of defying gravity – just a little – when you make your sticks move away from the rest of the bunch.
I may even go as far as trying to take a photo of the set I’ve got, just to show them off.
Which goes to indicate that, sometimes, Sore Losers just need to find what they can win at. And if the game is good to look at too? Bonus.