Getting Tiddly in Cambridge

Tiddlywinks.

Probably the most British game ever.

And today marks an important date in the Tiddlywinks Calendar. This evening it's the National ETwA (English Tiddlywinks Association) Congress in Cambridge. And that's followed by a series of tournaments with competitors hoping the get their hands on the Silver Wink. 

Tiddlywinks began as a Victorian parlour game and bank clerk Joseph Assheton Fincher (1863–1900) is credited with its invention. Or, at least, he was the first to file a patent application for the game in 1888 and applied for the trademark Tiddledy-Winks in 1889. However, competition was quite fierce and several other games manufacturers came out with their own versions of the game with names such as Spoof, Flipperty Flop, Jumpkins, Golfette, Maro, Flutter, and many others.

But the name Tiddlywinks won - with a slightly variant spelling - and it became a hugely popular craze, played by adults and children alike. Sadly, however, it soon became more associated with children and adult interest in the game waned as we moved into the 20th century.

As you're doubtless aware, the game is played by pushing the edge of a large disc - a Squidger - down onto the edge of a smaller disc - the Wink - which causes the Wink to jump. The aim is to get your Winks into a Cup. The full rules of the game are surprisingly complicated and you can read all about them here. 

The birth of the modern game can be traced to 1955 and a group of Cambridge University undergraduates from Christ's College. Their aim was to devise a sport at which they could represent the university. They had already been informally playing other universities since 1946 but it wasn't long before Cambridge's main rival formed the University of Oxford Tiddlywinks Society. 

In 1957, an article appeared in The Spectator entitled 'Does Prince Philip cheat at tiddlywinks?' Sensing a good publicity opportunity the Cambridge University Tiddlywinks Club (CUTwC) challenged Prince Philip (later to become Chancellor of the University in 1976) to a tiddlywinks match to defend his honour. The Duke of Edinburgh appointed The Goons as his Royal champions and presented a trophy, the Silver Wink, for the British Universities Championship. The Silver Wink is still awarded to this day.

Then, in 1958, the English Tiddlywinks Association (ETwA) was founded with the Reverend Edgar 'Eggs' Ambrose Willis as its first Secretary-General.

Tiddlywinks by William Somerville Shanks 

It's claimed that the name 'Tiddlywinks' derives from British slang for an unlicensed public house - a 'Tiddly-wink' (Tiddly was slang for an alcoholic drink or to describe someone who is drunk). However,  the original name was Tiddledy-Winks, which smacks more of simply nonsense language like namby-pamby or diddly-squat. Another theory is that it's onomatopoeic and represents the sound of the Wink rattling as it lands in the Cup.  

Meanwhile there's a whole lexicon of jargon to learn including:

Blitz: an attempt to pot all six winks of a given player's colour early in the game. 

Bomb: to send a wink at a pile, usually from distance, in the hope of significantly disturbing it.

Boondock: to free a squopped wink by sending it a long way away, leaving the squopping wink free in the battle area. 

Bristol: a shot which moves a pile of two or more winks as a single unit; the shot is played by holding the squidger at a right angle to its normal plane. 

Penhaligon: potting a wink from the baseline (i.e., from 3 feet away). 

Cracker: a simultaneous knock-off and squop, i.e. a shot which knocks one wink off the top of another while simultaneously squopping it. 

Crud: a forceful shot whose purpose is to destroy a pile completely. 

Good shot: named after John Good. The shot consists of playing a flat wink (one not involved in a pile) through a nearby pile with the intent of destroying the pile. 

Gromp: an attempt to jump a pile onto another wink (usually with the squidger held in a conventional rather than a Bristol fashion). 

John Lennon memorial shot: a simultaneous boondock and squop. 

Lunch: to pot a squopped wink (usually belonging to an opponent). 

Scrunge: to bounce out of the pot. 

Squidger: the disc used to shoot a wink. 

Squop: to play a wink so that it comes to rest above another wink.

Tiddlies: points calculated when determining the finishing placement of winkers in a tiddlywinks game.

 

If you'd like to know more, visit the ETwA website here.

And enjoy your winking.