Tiddlywinks
The game of Tiddlywinks - sometimes written Tiddly Winks - has something of a poor reputation as an activity suited only to kids. Many people are surprised to discover that it is played very seriously by adults and can be a game of great skill.There have been various games played under the tiddlywinks banner over the years. The game was first invented towards the end of the 19th century when it was called Tiddledy Winks and became very popular parlour game. The history of the game might have ended soon after when the craze passed.
Fortunately for Tiddlywinks fans, the 1950s saw the introduction of competitive Tiddlywinks. This was invented at Cambridge University and although versions of the game were popular as far back as 1947, the origin of the modern game is usually placed at 1954. 1955 saw the first Oxford vs Cambridge Tiddlywinks contest. The Oxbridge Varsity Match continues to this day although it has yet to reach the popularity of the annual boat race.
It has to be admitted that many begin begin playing Tiddlywinks as something of a joke and are then surprised to discover that it's actually a good game.
How to Play Tiddlywinks
The basic objective of competitive Tiddlywinks is the same as in the nursery game: players use a large round counter (their squidger) to propel other smaller counters (the winks) into a pot.Competitive Tddlywinks is usually played with four people acting as teams of two, each player having their own colour. In the singles game each player takes two colours.
At the start of the game the pot is placed in the middle of the playing mat and six winks of the same colour placed behind each corner. Each player now takes turns to flip one wink attempting to get it into the pot. Potted winks are out of play. If a player pots a wink of their colour then they get an extra turn. The game continues until either one colour has potted out or a set period of time has elapsed (usually 20 or 25 minutes) followed by a set number of extra rounds (usually 5).
What adds spice to competitive Tiddlywinks is the concept of squopped winks. Any wink which is wholly or partially covered by another wink is said to be squopped and cannot be played until the covering wink is removed. Thus the game is not just about potting winks but also about squopping the opponent and protecting your own options.
One basic strategy is for a team to use one colour for potting and the other for squopping. This was common in the early years of the game, however today more sophisticated strategies have arisen.
If all six winks of one colour are potted then the controlling team wins the game. Otherwise at the end of the game each team scores three points for each potted wink of their colour plus one point for each free (unsquopped) wink on the playfield.
Tournament Tiddlywinks uses a more complicated scoring system with points being accumulated between games. However the basic gameplay is the same.