Internet Info 1997 December/Internet_Info_CD-ROM_Walnut_Creek_December_1997.iso/faqs/alt/answers/games/tiddlywinks

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Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!faqserv
From: "P.J. Barrie" <[e-mail]>
Newsgroups: alt.games.tiddlywinks,alt.answers,news.answers
Subject: alt.games.tiddlywinks FAQ (monthly)
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Date: 18 Oct 1997 10:12:29 GMT
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Summary: answers to common questions about tiddlywinks
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Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu alt.games.tiddlywinks:1485 alt.answers:29703 news.answers:114801

URL: http://www.cheng.cam.ac.uk/~pjb10/winks/FAQ.html
Archive-name: games/tiddlywinks
Version: 2.02
Last-modified: May 1997

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               ALT.GAMES.TIDDLYWINKS FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS


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  Compiled by Patrick Barrie ([e-mail]).

   All suggestions for improvement are welcome.

   The current version of this FAQ is available on the World Wide Web at:
   http://www.cheng.cam.ac.uk/~pjb10/winks/FAQ.html and various archiving
   sites throughout the world. Some other tiddlywinks pages on the WWW
   are listed at the end of this FAQ.


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Subject: 1. Table of contents

   This FAQ contains the following sections in an attempt to provide
   brief answers to some of the more frequently asked questions about
   tiddlywinks:

   1. Table of contents
   2. Is tiddlywinks a serious game?
   3. What are the rules?
   4. What is the history of the adult game?
   5. What do all these silly words mean?
   6. How can I find out more?


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Subject: 2. Is tiddlywinks a serious game?

   The short answer is yes, but it's great fun as well. The first thing
   to state is that it's not just about flicking counters into a cup. It
   is in fact a complex game of strategy and tactics, which involves a
   fascinating mixture of manual dexterity and intellectual activity as
   well. It's a bit like chess in a way, but on an infinitely squared
   board, and you have the added difficulty of actually playing a piece
   to where you want it to go. Oh, it's also got an added dimension-
   height. In tiddlywinks you can capture enemy counters (winks) by
   covering them up with one of your own. Thus winks often get stacked on
   top of one another to form 'piles' during a game. There's no sport
   quite like it in this respect (you try stacking snooker/pool balls on
   top of each other!).

   Anyway, tiddlywinks is taken seriously by all those who play the adult
   game. There are regular tournaments in Britain and the USA and even a
   world title. Enthusiasts have been known to practise endlessly before
   an important event. Others just play in the tournaments and thoroughly
   enjoy themselves no matter whether they win or lose.


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Subject: 3. What are the rules?

   The rules are too long and tedious to put here. Copies are available
   from me on request, or from
   http://www.cheng.cam.ac.uk/~pjb10/winks/rules.html. Here, however, is
   a summary:

   Tiddlywinks is a game for four players who play in two pairs. In
   Singles matches each player operates two sets of coloured counters
   (winks) rather than one. There are 6 winks (4 small and 2 large) of
   each colour (blue, green, red and yellow). The winks are played by
   using a 'squidger'; this is any circular disc between 1 and 2 inches
   in diameter. Players use different squidgers for different shots (like
   selecting a club in golf). The game is played on a six foot by three
   felt mat, with a pot placed in the centre. Play is time limited. Pairs
   matches last for 25 minutes and Singles matches last for 20, after
   which each colour has a further five rounds, ending with the colour
   that started.

   The aim of the game is to secure the highest number of table points
   ('tiddlies'). Three tiddlies are scored for each wink in the pot and
   one for each wink which remains uncovered by other winks on the mat.
   The player who scores most tiddlies gets 4 game points, the player who
   comes second gets two points, and the player who comes third gets one
   point. In pairs, partners add their points together. Thus there are
   always seven points in every game. In matches and tournaments points
   are usually added, so that the margin by which games are won, rather
   than just the number of games won, is important.

   If one player gets all his/her six winks into the pot he/she is deemed
   to have won by "potting out". Any winks covered are then released and
   two more colours must also get all their winks into the pot to
   distribute the seven points. The side which potted out is rewarded by
   the transfer of one point from their opponents to their own score.

   Although potting out potentially provides the best score for the
   winners, pot-outs are rarer than might be expected. The reason is that
   if any wink is covered by another, the lower wink is said to be
   "squopped" and cannot be played. It must be rescued by another wink of
   that partnership. A shot which starts on the top wink of a pile may
   continue through underlying winks and thus squopped winks may be
   rescued in this way. Why not risk the pot-out? The answer is simple.
   If the player attempting to pot-out misses one shot at the pot, his
   wink may be captured by the opponents. If several of his winks are
   already in the pot, he and his partner have far fewer winks on the mat
   with which to fight their opponents. The chances of rescuing the
   squopped wink are low, and the probability that the opposition will be
   able to manoeuvre themselves into a winning position is high.

   Hence true winks is a game of strategy. A pair must capture and guard
   their opponents' winks whilst preserving their own. The basic skills
   of the game can be learnt in days, but the tactical knowledge of
   players takes years to acquire and can always be improved. Complex
   tactical games can develop with lots of small piles and the choice of
   where to attack; alternatively you may find yourself in a game in
   which all winks end up in a huge pile, or one of your opponents takes
   the calculated gamble of trying to pot-out...


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Subject: 4. What is the history of the adult game?

   The game of tiddlywinks can be traced back to late Victorian times,
   and the earliest patent application (for 'tiddledywinks') was filed by
   Joseph Fincher in 1888. However, the birth of the modern game can be
   traced to a group of Cambridge (UK) undergraduates meeting in Christ's
   College on January 16th 1955. Their aim was to devise a sport at which
   they could represent the university. Within three years Oxford had
   taken up the challenge, and the popularity spread from then on. During
   the sixties as many as 37 Universities were playing the game in
   Britain. A British Universities Championship was established by HRH
   Prince Philip in 1961 (the Silver Wink) which is still competed for to
   this day.

   Prince Philip himself had became involved in winks at the time of the
   Royal Charity Match of 1958. This match played an important part in
   establishing recognition for the game in its early days. The match
   resulted in a challenge to the Duke from the Cambridge club after a
   press article posed the question "Does Prince Philip Cheat at
   Tiddlywinks?". The Duke nominated the Goons as Royal Champions and
   massive publicity surrounded the ensuing match. The match was easily
   won by the university, but not without more than a little controversy.

   The game spread across the Atlantic in 1961 when Oxford undertook a
   tiddlywinks tour of the United States under the sponsorship of
   Guinness. The game took particularly strong root at the Massachusetts
   Institute of Technology, and the early development of most American
   players can still be traced to MIT today.

   While the basic elements of the adult game were devised by Cambridge
   University Tiddlywinks Club in its early years, the rules have
   continued to be modified under the auspices of the various national
   tiddlywinks associations. The English Tiddlywinks Association (ETwA)
   was formed in 1958. ETwA coordinated the game throughout the boom
   period of the sixties when winks flourished on both sides of the
   Atlantic. A decline in interest in 1969-70 led to the establishment of
   the three national competitions which have been contested to date,
   namely the National Singles, National Pairs and the Teams of Four.
   There are also annual Open Competitions, notably in Oxford, Cambridge,
   St. Andrews and London. In 1992 the Scottish Tiddlywinks Association
   (ScotTwA) was reborn, and it now hosts a Scottish Pairs tournament
   annually.

   The first serious trans-Atlantic contact was established in 1972, when
   a team from MIT toured the UK. The success of the Americans shocked
   complacent Britons. Competition started at the highest level, the
   World Singles, in 1973. A challenge system was agreed between ETwA and
   the corresponding North American equivalent (NATwA). The supreme
   ruling body in world contests is the International Federation of
   Tiddlywinks Associations (IFTwA). To challenge at world level, a
   player must win one of the national titles, or finish as the highest
   placed home player behind a foreign winner. There have been 45 World
   Singles contests to date. The Americans dominated all the early
   matches, and it was not until the 22nd contest when a Briton won for
   the first time. Since then the top Britons and Americans have been
   closely matched. After the establishment of the World Singles, a World
   Pairs event followed, and there have now been 17 World Pairs contests.
   International matches have been played occasionally since 1972, while
   tiddlywinks tours across the Atlantic are now fairly common.

   During its brief history, winks has enjoyed variable levels of
   interest. Today the game seems on a very firm footing. New clubs are
   forming in Britain to boost the strongholds at Cambridge, Oxford and
   St. Andrews. National competitions are now better attended than ever
   before, with a group of enthusiastic young players joining the stock
   of experienced British players who have now proved themselves at the
   highest level in world competition. America still has many of the top
   players, though with rather less strength in depth and certainly less
   new blood than Britain. As for the rest of the world, I don't know
   what they're waiting for...


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Subject: 5. What do all these silly words mean?

   Winks has a very colourful vocabulary. Here is a glossary of some of
   the most common terms that are in use:

   BLITZ: an attempt to pot all six of your own colour early in the game
   (generally before many squops have been taken).
   BOMB: to send a wink at a pile, usually from distance, in the hope of
   significantly disturbing it.
   BOONDOCK: to play a squopped wink a long way away, usually while
   keeping your own wink(s) in the battle area.
   BRING-IN: An approach shot.
   BRISTOL: a shot which attempts to jump a pile onto another wink; the
   shot is played by holding the squidger at right angles to its normal
   plane.
   CARNOVSKY: a successful pot from the baseline (i.e. from 3 feet away).
   CRUD: a physically hard shot whose purpose is to destroy a pile
   completely.
   CUTwC: Cambridge University Tiddlywinks Club (UK).
   DOUBLETON: a pile in which two winks are covered up by a single enemy
   wink.
   ETwA: The English Tiddlywinks Association.
   FREE TURNS (and FAILURE TO FREE): far too complicated to go into here.
   GOOD SHOT: named after John Good. The shot consists of playing a flat
   wink through a nearby pile in the hope of destroying it.
   GROMP: an attempt to jump a pile onto another wink (usually with the
   squidger held in a conventional rather than Bristol fashion).
   JOHN LENNON MEMORIAL SHOT: a simultaneous boondock and squop.
   KNOCK-OFF: to knock the squopping wink off a pile.
   LUNCH: to pot a squopped wink (usually belonging to an opponent).
   NATwA: North American Tiddlywinks Association.
   NEWSWINK: The NATwA magazine. Published roughly once a year.
   OUTS: Oxford University Tiddlywinks Society.
   PILE: a group of winks connected directly or indirectly by squops.
   POT: (noun) the cup that is placed in the centre of the mat; (verb) to
   play a wink into the pot.
   ScotTwA: Scottish Tiddlywinks Association.
   SCRUNGE: to bounce out of the pot.
   SQUIDGER: the circular disk used to propel winks.
   SQUOP: to play a wink so that it comes to rest above another wink.
   SQUOP-UP: the situation that occurs when all winks of a partnership
   have been squopped. Free turns result (q.v.).
   StATS: St Andrews Tiddlywinks Society.
   SUB: to play a wink so that it ends up under another wink.
   WINKS: the circular counters used in the game.
   WINKING WORLD: the official journal of ETwA. Published twice a year.
   WP: abbreviation for World Pairs.
   WS: abbreviation for World Singles.


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Subject: 6. How can I find out more?

   The easiest method is to post to alt.games.tiddlywinks and wait for
   someone knowledgeable to answer. You can also contact any relevant
   national organisation, and they'll be able to tell you about
   equipment, tournaments etc. Useful addresses are:
   NATwA:Larry Kahn ([e-mail]) Rick Tucker
   ([e-mail])
   ETwA: Patrick Barrie ([e-mail])
   ScotTwA: Graham Turnbull ([e-mail])

   Elsewhere on the net, you can find lots of tiddlywinks stuff at:
   Patrick Barrie's ETwA page, http://www.cheng.cam.ac.uk/~pjb10/winks
   Ben Soares' ScotTwA page,
   http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~ben/tiddlywinks
   Rick Tucker's NATwA page,
   http://cpcug.org/user/rwtucker/tiddlywinks.html,
   and Sly's CUTwC page,
   http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~ayoung/CUTwC/index.html>.


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