Being the best in B.C. has earned Fred Maniak another trip to the nationals.
The Comox Legion member will be hoping to improve on last year's third-place finish in Chomedey, Que. when he attends the 2012 championships April 27-30 at Innisfail, Alta.
The long road to the nationals began back in December, 2011 when Maniak won the Comox Legion men's singles title. That advanced him to the zone finals in Port Alberni in mid-January, where another victory qualified him for the provincial championships in early March in Clearwater.
"In provincials, out of 17 zones in British Columbia, 13 were present, so you played 12 rounds," said Maniak, adding that the winner is the one with most total points at the end of the round-robin.
"I was about third going into my final two games and the top fellow at that time was one point ahead of me. Ironically, I played him, and all he had to do was win one game and he would have won. Maybe due to overconfidence, he slipped up and I capitalized on it and won the (first) game. In the final game I skunked him. He wasn't too happy," Maniak recalled.
There will be 10 players competing in singles at the nationals, where the same round-robin format will be in effect. Representing B.C. at the nationals for the second straight year is quite an accomplishment for the 76-year-old Maniak, who has been playing crib for 60 years.
While all that experience stands him in good stead, Maniak acknowledges the secret of successful pegging is a combination of luck and skill. "If you're a poor player against a good player, you're going to lose. But you're not going to lose all the time.
"Due to the way the cards come up, the player that knows the game has a slight advantage," Maniak said. Concentration and stamina are also important, he noted.
"You play two games against each person with half an hour to complete your games. (In Clearwater) with 14 teams that was seven hours of playing. By the time you have a lunch break, it's a long day. People seem to get careless at the end, like the guy I beat at the B.C.s. He got kind of careless."
There is no B.C. team (the provincial doubles winners are from Vernon) so Maniak will be most likely travelling to the nationals alone. His kids are in Calgary, he notes, which may allow for some family time away from the pressure of tournament play.