In March of 2020, when nobody really knew what COVID-19 was or how long schools and stores would be closed, one thing was perfectly clear to Jimmy and Chyann Suggs: They needed to break out the cribbage board.

More than 730 games and two years later, the South Portland couple is still playing.

“When everything shut down we figured we needed something to keep our minds occupied, there’s only so much TV you can watch,” said Chyann, 42, a massage therapist. “We tried to play one game every day, but if we missed a day we knew we’d catch up.”

Cribbage, a card and board game that dates back to 17th-century England, has long been popular in Maine, especially in social clubs and among older diehards who play in leagues and tournaments. But when the pandemic closed down bars, restaurants and just about every other entertaining venue in March 2020, some younger Mainers who were used to going out for fun took solace in playing cribbage at home.

The Suggses, for instance, knew how to play and had a board, but hadn’t used it in years. Marty Williams, 29, of Westbrook, had played some cribbage with his girlfriend’s family and others, but he didn’t love it. During the pandemic, however, he decided to give it another try. He and his girlfriend, Val Johnstone, ended up playing at least a couple times a week. And having fun.

“Before the pandemic, we had only played a handful of games, but having the time to get the hang of it made all the difference,” said Williams, a physical therapist who was furloughed at the pandemic’s start.

“We had been going out to restaurants and bars more, but then we started making our own dinner and spending more time at home, together,” said Johnstone, 28, who works in the Portland public health department.

Now that restrictions have eased, Williams and Johnstone, and others who played a lot of quarantine cribbage at home, are continuing to peg their way through evenings shouting “31” and “skunk.” But now they can do it in public if they want. Unwind, a cocktail lounge in Saco, began offering a cribbage night on Tuesdays a couple months ago, for people to just come in and play casually with each other. Other bars and restaurants are starting to see customers pull out the cribbage board during drinks or dinner.

From left, Annie Tselikis, Justin Hale and Jim Stefanilo play cribbage together at King’s Head Pub on the waterfront in Portland. The three are part of a group of friends who often get together and play. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

Local cribbage board makers and sellers say there’s been a noticeable spike in cribbage board sales the past couple of years. Board sales were up about 20 percent at the end of 2021 compared to early 2020, said Connor Thomas, manager of Diversions Puzzles and Games in South Portland. Adam Meyer, who makes cribbage boards under the name Crafted Downeast at his facility in Cutler, said this year he picked up 10 new retail outlets for his boards in southern Maine.

“It’s definitely picked up. Usually you don’t see a lot of people who already play cribbage buying boards because once you get a board, you’ll probably never need another one,” said Meyer.

Ben Breton, 23, of Windham had a board already. His grandmother had taught him to play around the holidays just before the pandemic. But he didn’t find much use for it, until the pandemic hit and he found himself stuck at home with his family – not only because of the shutdowns; early in the pandemic Breton, his parents and his sister all got COVID.

“So there really wasn’t much to do. Every night, we’d put the dinner dishes away and get out the cribbage board,” said Breton. “As an engineering major (in college), I think I like the math, adding up things in your head and trying to predict what happens. Plus, it’s different every game.”

Val Johnstone shuffles the deck during a game of cribbage at the Knitting Nook in South Portland. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

All board game sales increased in the first year or so of the pandemic, as people realized they’d be home with loved ones for a long time and would need to find ways to stay occupied. Around Christmas in 2020, Hasbro reported a 20 percent increase in sales in the third quarter, on the strength of iconic board games like Monopoly, Trouble, Sorry and The Game of Life.

At-home cribbage thrived during the past two years, as participation in public cribbage – weekly leagues and tournaments – went way down thanks to COVID restrictions, said David Aiken, a board member of the American Cribbage Congress and editor of the publication Cribbage World. Aiken said that during the pandemic, lots of clubs that hosted cribbage closed for at least a while, and the number of tournaments nationally went from about 175 to less than 50, though many are now returning.

“A lot of clubs closed their doors during the pandemic, and participation in the leagues went way down,” said Aiken. “Cribbage has been, for a long time, mostly an older person’s game. But I think in the last two years, a lot of other people have had free time to play new games and get new hobbies.”

There were opportunities to play cribbage online in the last couple of years, but Aiken, who lives in Michigan, thinks cribbage is better suited for in-person competition. People want to see and feel the board, have the satisfaction of pegging extra points, and feel the cards in their hand.

Jim Stefanilo and Annie Tselikis, both of South Portland, have always played cribbage, but found themselves bonding with friends over the game more during the pandemic. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

And they want to keep score. Chyann Suggs did. She says she “didn’t play that well” before the pandemic, so she prided herself on improvement. She and her husband dubbed their series Quarantine Cribbage and kept a tally in a notebook, along with comments like “Grrrrr” after a frustrating loss or “Is this over yet?” Chyann said that in 2022 her husband totaled 213 victories, and she had 152. In 2021, he won 199 to her 166. They’re still working on this year’s tally.

“We’re probably playing less now, but we’ll keep playing for sure,” said Jimmy Suggs, 42, a management consultant.

Cribbage takes some time to learn, and the pandemic gave people time. It’s a fairly complex game, with each round comprising multiple steps. A game can involve two to four players, each of whom is dealt a hand of cards, which they use to make combinations that add up to 15, as well as pairs, three of a kind, flushes and runs. Players keep score by moving a small peg along a track of holes on the board.

“It’s just a comforting game to play, maybe because it’s pretty much equally skill and luck,” said Taylor McCafferty, 29, of Portland. “I’ve gotten better, but the luck piece is still important.”

Annie Tselikis, Jim Stefanilo and Justin Hale play cribbage together at King’s Head Pub on the waterfront in Portland. The three are part of a group of friends who often get together and play. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

McCafferty learned to play cribbage shortly before the pandemic from her boyfriend, Dax Becker, 32. She was going to Nebraska to meet his family, and they’re all cribbage players, so Becker taught her. During the pandemic, she became such a fan of the game that when Becker didn’t want to play, she’d play on a cellphone app called Cribbage with Grandpas. (Several people interviewed for this story were taught cribbage by their actual grandpas, by the way.)

McCafferty and Becker are friends with Johnstone and Williams, and sometimes hang out and play cribbage at the Knitting Nook, a cafe in South Portland that attracts cribbage players, as well as knitters.

Annie Tselikis of South Portland grew up playing cribbage and, while working on Portland’s waterfront, has always had a lot of people to play with on boats or in waterfront bars. She played with deckhands when she worked on the ferries at the Casco Bay Lines, and she knows lots of fishermen and waterfront workers who play. Tselikis is the executive director of the Maine Lobster Dealers’ Association and handles marketing and education for Cousins Maine Lobster.

But early in the pandemic, the waterfront pubs were closed. So Tselikis and a handful of friends, all in their 30s, began playing cribbage regularly in each other’s homes, as part of a potluck dinner. They called it Family Dinner Cribbage Night.

Now that pandemic restrictions are easing, Tselikis is meeting friends for cribbage again at waterfront watering holes, like King’s Head Pub in Portland. But she says playing cribbage during the pandemic in friends’ homes was a great comfort and made her friendships that much stronger.

“This group of friends got a lot closer once we started these dinners,” said Tselikis, 39.  “It was really something we bonded over.”

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