#11 AJ Nicholls
From Hawaii to Reykjavik, from the North Highlands to the Isle of Wight (in the same weekend?!). He was at your last comp and he’ll be at your next comp. That’s right folks, for our latest ‘meet the cuber’ it’s time to hear a bit more about AJ Nicholls!
What keeps you motivated to come to so many comps?
I think I just enjoy seeing people being happy. Competitions are such a positive environment where I have seen people mature and many people have had wonderful moments of success that I have enjoyed being in the same room for!
My friend Peter Hugosson-Miller from Sweden once remarked to me that cubers are “[his] sort of people” and I agree with this sentiment. The UK community may be spread out in different corners of our country, but we are all united with an enjoyment of our shared hobby. Competitions are somewhere we can meet and speak the same jargon and get to log a few official times. Sometimes I even get good solving times myself!
What would you say is you biggest cubing achievement?
I’m always rather happy when at the end of a competition that I contributed to in either a Delegate or Organiser role, someone comes to me and expresses genuine thanks for how glad they were to turn up and compete. This is especially true with newcomers or the parents of them. It’s a wonderful feeling to know that I have contributed even in a small way to someone having a satisfying experience.
In terms of results, I enjoy keeping track of the unofficial Senior Cuber Rankings and I’m happy to have held 40+ UK records in 5x5, 6x6, 7x7, Clock and (very unexpectedly) Square-1.
More recently I’m still in disbelief over getting a 4BLD Mean at Irish Championships 2024. That’s essentially a full WCA profile for me. A 5BLD Mean isn’t an ambition right now.
If you could change something about competitions (events/format/something else) what would it be and why?
I’ve been impressed by some of the experimentation with competition formats and themes that Nev and Eleanor have been doing in their areas of the UK. Admittedly this works best with smaller comps, but the truth is that smaller comps are what I prefer. They’re easier to find venues for and in general I find competitors to be more helpful in such a setting. Thankfully the WCA is global and we can look at what worked and didn’t work in other countries and then think about how best to adapt ideas to make them work well for us.
What are your aspirations for the future?
No results aspirations anymore. Qualifying for events I care about at major championships is too much of an uphill struggle to battle against whilst balancing my other pursuits; and there are too many other talented UK Senior Cubers now for me to maintain a foothold in any events for much longer. I’m happy to pass the torch there. Really my main focus is to support the UKCA with helping the community have more competitions and to improve my own experience and knowledge as a Delegate in the process. There’s a lot of hard work that goes into the UKCA and - as not everyone realises this - we are all just volunteers, looking to popularise and benefit the hobby we all love.
What do you get up to outside of cubing?
Outside of cubing, I enjoy watching films and movies (there’s a difference, sort of at least) - in fact I’ve seen 5864 at the time of writing. I also enjoy hiking and have climbed all 214 of the Wainwright peaks in the Lake District at least twice each, as well as 112 out of 136 Welsh Hewitts and 182 out of 282 Scottish Munros. I’m also working my way through visiting all of the Football League stadiums and support Ipswich Town FC. I love stupidly hot curries and oversized fry-up breakfasts. I play guitar and keyboard (both fairly poorly). I have also competed in 50+ tournaments of a 1980’s board game called Blood Bowl where - much unlike cubing - I’ve been sponsored!
Finally, a fun fact?
A few weeks ago, I had competed with a total of exactly 11,111 unique competitors!
Thank you for your answers AJ! As such a key figure in the cubing community we always cherish your presence at competitions, and we look forward to seeing you at many more!