Tiddlywinks
A Victorian parlour game revived as a strategic competitive sport.
Tiddlywinks is a competitive game played on a flat felt mat with sets of small discs called winks, a pot that serves as the target, and squidgers, which are also discs. Players use a squidger, now typically made of plastic, to flick a wink into the air by sliding the squidger across the top of the wink and then over its edge. The offensive goal is to score points by sending one’s own winks into the pot, while the defensive objective is to prevent opponents from potting their winks by squopping them—shooting one’s own winks to land on top of an opponent’s wink. Strategic play often involves squopping opponents’ winks and building, maintaining, or breaking up large piles of winks. Although sometimes dismissed as a simple children’s game, the modern competitive version made a strong comeback at the University of Cambridge in 1955, featuring far more complex rules and consistent high-grade equipment. The game involves four colours of winks—blue, green, red, and yellow—with red and blue always partnering against green and yellow. Each colour has six winks, starting in the corners of a felt mat six feet by three feet, with the pot placed at its centre. Play can be in pairs, with four players each controlling one colour, or singles, where each player controls two colours in alternation. Players take turns, aiming to squop opponent winks or pot their own. Potting a wink of one’s own colour earns an extra shot, allowing a skilled player to pot all winks in one turn. A squopped wink, even partially covered, cannot be played by its owner, though the top wink can be played. The game ends when all winks of one colour are potted, or after a time limit, usually twenty-five minutes, after which each colour gets five more turns, followed by scoring based on potted and unsquopped winks. The game uniquely combines physical skill, like that in snooker or golf, with the strategic depth of chess, requiring anticipation of opponents’ moves and adaptation to missed shots. Equipment is standardized by the English Tiddlywinks Association, with plastic pots, winks made by slicing extruded cylinders, thick felt mats, and custom squidgers, often plastic, filed to a sharp edge.
- origin
- Victorian England
- equipment
- winks, pot, squidgers, felt mat (6 ft × 3 ft)
- game_end
- pot-out or time limit (usually 25 minutes plus five turns per colour)
Lore & Background
Tiddlywinks is played on a flat felt mat, typically six feet by three feet, placed on a table. At the centre of the mat sits a small plastic pot, the target. The game uses sets of small discs called winks, and players employ a larger disc known as a squidger, now usually made of plastic, to flick a wink into the air by sliding the squidger across the top of the wink and over its edge. The winks used in competitive play are standardised, made by slicing an extruded cylinder and smoothing the edges in a tumbler, which produces a smoother rim than cheap moulded versions. Pots are also moulded plastic with specified dimensions. The mat is thick felt, and its characteristics vary between suppliers, requiring tournament players to adapt. Squidgers are often custom-made, with top players carrying up to twenty different ones, filed or sanded to a sharp edge and polished; antique squidgers were made from bone or vegetable ivory, while modern ones are predominantly plastic. The game involves four colours of winks—blue, green, red, and yellow—with six winks of each colour starting in the corners of the mat. The offensive aim is to pot one’s own winks, while the defensive aim is to squop, or cover, an opponent’s wink by landing a wink on top of it, preventing the owner from playing it until freed.
Reader's Guide
Tiddlywinks is significant for its unique combination of physical skill and strategic depth, often compared to snooker or golf in manual dexterity and to chess in strategy. The key defensive tactic of squopping—covering an opponent's wink to prevent its play—distinguishes the competitive game from the child's version and adds layers of tactical planning. The game is governed by national associations (ETwA and NATwA) and an international federation (IFTwA). Its legacy includes a rich terminology (e.g., blitz, bomb, Bristol, Carnovsky) and a dedicated tournament scene, though team competition that dominated from the 1950s to the 2000s has given way to singles and pairs play. The requirement to anticipate opponents' moves and the continuum of possible shot outcomes make strategy less rigid than in chess, preventing planning more than seven or eight shots ahead.
Did You Know?
- The word 'tiddlywinks' derives from British rhyming slang for an unlicensed public house or small inn.
- A player may use up to twenty different squidgers, selecting an appropriate one for each shot.
- The game ends either when all winks of one colour are potted (a pot-out) or after a 25-minute time limit plus five turns per colour.
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