GETTING STARTED WITH TIDDLYWINKS
[For a shorter introduction to Tiddlywinks, click here.] **
This pamphlet has been written by Charles Relle. Much of the letterpress, and all the diagrams, are taken from ‘An Introduction to Tiddlywinks’ by Andy Purvis, Charles Relle and Jon Mapley. This was published in 1989 by the English Tiddlywinks Association. The copyright rests with the authors and with the English Tiddlywinks Association.
The author vests the copyright of this work with the persons mentioned above and with the English Tiddlywinks Association. He reserves the right to make alterations in the text and diagrams.
This revised version has benefited from Brian Paxton’s helpful criticisms.
Charles Relle, 9th July 1999, and 2nd February 2005.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN
Why did most people start playing tiddlywinks, not the children's game, but what has developed into Tournament Tiddlywinks? Probably as a joke: they would try something unusual that no-one could take seriously. The more important question is ‘Why did they go on?’. Here are some reasons.
• It is a good game. Since the rest of this pamphlet tries to convince you of this, we will move on to the other reasons!
• It is fun. Some games are taken so seriously these days that the fun seems to have gone out of them. The fun is still in Tiddlywinks. Many Tiddlywinks players also play games like chess and bridge, and find tiddlywinks more relaxing.
• There are no post mortems. At the end of a game, players do not endlessly discuss what might have happened. They just go on to enjoy the next game.
• It is companionable. At clubs and tournaments, people make each other welcome; they do not huddle away in little groups.
If a friend has given you this pamphlet, go over it together. Your friend may have played before and be better than you; do not be discouraged by this. Practice makes a big difference, especially at the beginning. If you have encountered this pamphlet, perhaps on the Internet, try to get a friend to play too. It is more fun. Find someone open-minded!
HOW MUCH OF THIS DO YOU HAVE TO READ?
The author would like you to read all of it! Before your first game, try to read to the end of the section on scoring. Then read the ‘Simplified Rules’ section at the end.
SETTING UP
In Tiddlywinks there are winks (plastic discs; good quality counters) of four colours, blue, green, red and yellow. It is a partnership game; blue and red always play against green and yellow. You can play singles or doubles. In singles, each player uses two colours; in doubles, one. Each colour has six winks, two large (22 mm in diameter) and four small (16mm in diameter). All winks are used in the same way and do not score differently; the two sizes add an extra element of skill. You play the winks with a larger disc, called a squidger, 25 to 51 mm across. The mat is six feet by three, but you can play on a slightly smaller area. Put the mat on a table if possible; otherwise you can use the floor. You need a rectangular playing area, and must put your own and your partner's winks in opposite corners at the start. Make sure the colours are arranged alphabetically in clockwise order; it is part of the rules and helps you to keep track of the game. The pot (shaped something like an egg-cup) is 48mm high, 38mm in diameter at the base and 48 at the top. It is placed in the middle of the mat. A look at the example diagram will help.
THE OBJECT OF THE GAME
The object of the game is to outscore your opponents. You can do this by potting all your winks (all of one colour will do). You can also squop them to prevent them from scoring, in which case you may need to pot only a few of your winks, if any. To squop is to land one wink on one or more others. How this affects the game is explained in detail later.
GETTING STARTED: BASICS
You may want to start straight away. Try, as suggested above, to read about the scoring system first, and how a game starts and ends. You will get a better game. However, if you are really impatient, remember five basic rules:
• You play in turns clockwise.
• You bring in a wink from the corner with your first turn. Try to get the wink near the pot. With your next turn, you can play that wink again, or one of the others, and so on.
• If you pot one of your own winks (you are, say, Blue and pot a blue), you have another shot with the same colour.
• If you send one of you own winks off the mat (Blue sends off a blue), you lose your next shot with that colour.
• If any wink is covered, however slightly, by any other wink, it is said to be squopped, and cannot be played. You are allowed to squop deliberately. You will discover that squopping is an important part of the game's strategy.
TO START A GAME
Set the mat up as in the diagram above. Now everybody squidges one wink as near to the pot as possible. This is called the squidge-off. The nearest colour starts the game. You all take the winks back, and the game starts. Do not forget who started.
THE END OF THE GAME
You play for 25 minutes in doubles and 20 minutes in singles, so you will find it useful to have a watch to time the game. After this, play continues up to and including the player who won the squidge-off, and continues for five more complete rounds. You probably need an example. Say Blue won the squidge-off, and the time limit comes after Red's turn. Now Yellow has a turn, then Blue, and there are five more complete rounds, ending with Blue. So if you start, you finish. However, if someone pots all six winks, even in rounds, all squopped winks are uncovered by hand, there is no more squopping (winks squopped accidentally are uncovered too), and the game continues until both colours of one side have been potted out.
IF YOU ARE SHORT OF TIME
You may like to set the time limit at 10 or 15 minutes, and play with fewer winks, say one large and three small for each colour, or one large and two small. Try, too, a smaller playing surface. The game will be less challenging, but you will learn the shots and possibly be less frustrated at the beginning. All games can be frustrating until you learn the basic techniques.
SCORING
You may find the scoring system a bit complicated, but you need to know how to win, so skim through it, and keep this section handy when you play your first few games. After that, it will be easy. Even if you use a shorter time limit than standard, or fewer winks, keep to the scoring system.
In every game, the players share seven points. First place scores 4, second 2 and third 1. Fourth does not score. How do you arrive at these scores?
Suppose that no-one pots all six winks. Now winks that have not been played at all do not count, nor do winks that are squopped.
• Every free (uncovered) wink counts 1 tiddly (we had to find a place for them).
• Every potted wink counts 3 tiddlies.
These tiddlies are added up for each colour. The player with the most scores 4 points, the second 2, and the third 1. Partners add their points (not the tiddlies) together. Here are a couple of examples:
1. Blue has 3 potted winks and 2 free = 9 +2. Total 11
Green has no potted winks and 4 free. Total 4
Red has 1 potted wink and none free. Total 3
Yellow has 4 potted winks and 1 free. Total 13
Yellow scores 4 points, Blue 2, Green 1. Yellow and Green win the game 5 - 2.
2. Blue has 1 potted wink and 2 free. Total 5
Green has no potted winks and 1 free. Total 1
Red has 3 potted winks and none free. Total 9
Yellow has no potted winks and 5 free. Total 5
Red gets the 4 points, and Blue and Yellow are equal second, so they share the points for second and third getting 1 1/2 each. Red and Blue win 5 1/2 - 1 1/2.
In a match, scoring is by actual points, not by games won, so even fractions of a point are important.
Suppose someone pots all six winks. Now we do not have to count tiddlies. That player gets the 4 points, and play goes on until both colours of one partnership have been potted. Second place scores 2 points and third 1. Then one point is transferred from the losing side to the winning side. So potting out first and second gives you a 7 - 0 win.
BASIC IDEAS
Let us now go back to the start of the game. All the winks are at the edge and the pot is in the middle. What are you trying to do? You can win by potting all your winks, and so can the opponents. The better potters will eventually win. The more skilful you are, the quicker the game will be. But it will be a dull game if it involves no tactics. It would be fine for a children’s party, but no good for anything else.
What is the difference between tournament tiddlywinks and the nursery game? It is the squop rule. We mentioned it at the beginning, but here it is again. If any wink is covered, however slightly, by any other wink, it is said to be squopped, and cannot be played. You are, as noted before, allowed to squop deliberately.
This is simple but very important. You would like to pot your own winks, but you would like to stop the opponents from potting theirs. They will be having the same thoughts about you. You can stop them, and they can stop you.
A LOOK AT STRATEGY
In all good games, defence and attack both play a part. It is the same in Tiddlywinks. Let us look at this a bit more closely.
First place wins the game. If you pot out, all the other colours are more or less on a level, depending on how many winks they have already potted. So, at the start of the game, you need use only one colour for potting. You can use the other colour to squop the opponents. In effect, one colour is used for defence, and the other for attack. To try to pot with both colours is clearly wrong.
This is a simple strategy. Among good players, it needs very accurate placing of the winks to start with. You need to put the winks near the pot and not near enemy winks, and you have to be able to do this from three feet. A few inches out, and you will be squopped.
In the early years of Tiddlywinks, most games were played like this. One partner was the ‘potter’, the other the ‘squopper’.
Then came several thoughts. If you brought both colours in without making it clear to the opponents which was the potter, they would not know which one to squop. Also, you had two colours with which to squop them. If they went for the pot with one colour, you could squop them with either colour or both.
There was another thought. Every wink in the pot improves your count of tiddlies, but it reduces the size of your army on the field of play. It must be best to keep your army as large as possible for as long as possible. To see what might otherwise happen, take an extreme but quite likely case.
You pot five winks, but fail with the sixth, and the opponents squop it. They have not potted any. Now their side has twelve winks to play with and yours has seven. Worse still, they have two turns for every one of yours. Soon they will squop all your winks. They will possibly be able to get two winks of your side under one of theirs, and maybe all under one colour. If they can do this, the other colour will have a clear run for the pot.
IMPORTANT THOUGHTS
You want your army as big as possible. You want to score well. You want to stop the opponents from potting. Therefore you want to squop them, and to pot well, but probably late in the game. You may even decide that the best way to win is to squop all the opponent winks. You do not, however, want to be tied to one strategy, as a pot-out attempt, early in the game before the opponents have their winks grouped, can succeed simply because it is unexpected.
It is now time to think about shot making, because no strategy can succeed if it is badly executed.
BRINGING IN
Always, on every shot, aim for a precise spot. To begin with, you may not get it, but it is a good habit to form. This is especially important when bringing in winks from the corner at the start of the game. The nearer the winks are to the pot, and the better they support each other, the greater the threat to the opponents. Again, squops are often made early in the game, and if you can bring winks in accurately to the scene of action, you are at a great advantage.
If you make a squop early in the game, try to bring a wink in from the corner close to it, so as to guard the position. Be very careful not to knock off your squopping wink and undo your good work. Conversely, if the opponents have squopped one of your winks, you may be able to knock it off from the edge. If you try this, make sure that your likely landing spot is clear of enemy winks. You do not want to lose another wink.
Some players bring in pot-style and some squop-style (see the diagrams below under Potting and Squopping). Pot-style is easier to start with; squop-style can be more accurate, but to begin with is less easy to control. Use both hands if it is comfortable.
POTTING
Take a firm but relaxed grip on the squidger, fairly high up so as to keep your fingers clear of the shot. Then rest the edge of the squidger on the middle of the wink. It needs to be at 45 to 60 degrees to the wink. Have a look at the diagram.
Stroke the squidger away from the pot along the line joining the centres of wink and pot. Release the wink cleanly, and don't apply too much downward pressure. Your squidger gives direction: let the springiness of the mat give the lift. If the wink is within 5 cm or so of the pot, hold the squidger almost vertically, press a little harder and play with more flick. You choice of stance is your own but, to begin with, most people find it easiest to pot by playing the wink towards themselves. Don't be discouraged if things go wrong to start with: practice helps with this and indeed with all shots.
SQUOPPING
You need to be able to squop as well as pot. You can squop pot-style, and may find it easier at first, but it is less accurate than the style described below. For squop-style, angle the squidger towards the target wink, like this:
Place the squidger on the centre of the wink, and gently draw it backwards in a line crossing the centres of your wink and the target wink. Remember to keep your fingers out of the way. This is a much less vigorous shot than potting. You may find that your wink overshoots its target, or even spurts out sideways. Do not be discouraged; this has happened to all of us. Try to get in line with the shot. You can play either towards or away from yourself. Do what is most comfortable.
SQUIDGERS
If you go to a tournament, you will notice that very few players use standard squidgers. Squidgers are very much a matter of personal preference, but most people sandpaper them down so that they have a more or less sharp edge.
A larger squidger is often used for bringing in, and small squidgers can help for delicate shots, or where the pot would obstruct a larger squidger. To conform to the rules, squidgers have to be round, between 25 mm and 51 mm across, not thicker than 5 mm and must not damage the winks when used. You can carry as many squidgers as you like, but can obviously only use one at a time.
It may take you some time to work out what kind of squidger suits you best, but some possibilities are shown below.
KEEPING TO THE RULES
Most of the rules are easy to understand, but there are some complicated situations in the game, and rules have to be written to cope with them. A simplified version is at the end of this pamphlet, and it will guide you most of the way. Here is a reminder of what a legal shot is. There is no problem when the wink you are playing is flat on the mat, but it can be tricky if it is on top or one or more other winks. In this situation (a) your squidger must first play the upper surface of your unsquopped wink (that includes the top half of the edge); (b) only winks which are vertically below the wink you first touch can subsequently be hit by the squidger, and (c) the shot must be short and continuous from start to finish. This last clause means that, though you can rest your squidger on a pile at the start of a shot, you are committed to a short and continuous action once any wink starts to move irreversibly; so don't rest your squidger on an unstable pile. You must not squeeze a wink out from below a wink you want to play, and then play it. Do not worry too much about the technicalities here; common sense and experience help. Again, more experienced players will guide you. Defining a legal shot is usually trickier than playing one. If you play an illegal shot, your opponents can either accept the result or replace the winks and ask you to play again (you can try a different shot if you prefer).
MORE IDEAS ON STRATEGY AND TACTICS
Think about the paragraphs above on strategy and shot-making. You can see that Tiddlywinks is a game of the mind and the hand. You must decide where you want to put the winks, and have the skill to carry out the shot. There are very few games like this, which fact is part of its attraction.
If you pot six winks of one colour, you win. All tactics and strategy depend on this. Of course, what matters is the threat to pot six, not necessarily an attempt to do so. Therefore, from the start, you must bring your winks in near the pot. If they are near to the pot, they will be near to each other, and that is a good thing. In fact, you should aim for your winks to support each other, and partners should support each other too. It is also good strategy to bring all your winks into the action as soon as you can. At this point, it is worth repeating advice given earlier: always aim for a precise spot, right from the start.
MAKING AN AREA
If you have, or threaten to have, six winks near the pot, the opponents will try to squop you. If your winks are close together, it will be easier for you to resquop the opponents and perhaps rescue your own winks, or just keep the enemy squopped. If your side can make an area its own, the opponents will have to attack a position in which they are outnumbered. This means they are more likely to lose their winks, as you will have winks on hand to squop them. Again, they will be playing the longer, more difficult shots, and will therefore be more likely to make mistakes. You will have the better position, and an advantage in tempo.
KEEPING YOUR EYES OPEN
You must never forget that the opponents have the same aims as you do. You may have to squop them. Sometimes a game becomes a battle of nerves: can we risk their potting out, or can we beat them to the pot? The question often resolves itself when one side tries for a squop on the other, or when a player brings a wink in inaccurately, allowing the opponents an easy squop.
If you have to attack the opponents, do it from a solid base. Try to group two or three winks near a wink you propose to squop, so that if the first squop fails, you can counter-attack. This goes with the idea, mentioned earlier, of making an area. Alternatively, if one colour is a threat, attack it in two places, using each colour of your own. Pick isolated winks to attack if you can. The opponents can play only one shot at each turn, except by potting, and may well have to surrender a wink.
ASSETS
In your first few games, you will find that few winks are squopped, and that someone pots out, especially if you start by playing a ‘mini-game’ with three or four winks a colour. As you gain experience, you will realise that if you squop an enemy wink, you have an asset that you wish to keep. You can try to do this by putting another wink next to the squop. This makes it more difficult for the opponents to attack the position.
If you have two squops close together, you may be able to amalgamate them. This gives you a much bigger asset. The same is true if the opponents land a wink next to a squop, and you can cover two winks with one of yours. It is very important to guard piles like these, because the opponents will do their utmost to free them.
LIABILITIES
If the opponents squop one of your winks, it is a liability. You can reduce the liability by squopping the opponent in turn. Be careful not to give them another easy squop. An approach shot, followed by an attack, is often the safest plan. If the opponents have a squop well guarded, think of an attack in another part of the mat. You may be able to offset your liabilities by establishing assets elsewhere. You may even be able to force the opponents to abandon their own assets.
KEEPING UP THE PRESSURE
Halfway through a typical game, you would see no winks in the pot, some winks of each colour squopping or squopped, and other winks in guarding or attacking positions. How do you make the most of the rest of the game?
You should always have a good idea of what is going on. Keep a count of the scoring potential of each colour. How many winks does it have free? How many can it pot? Which colour is ahead? If it is ours, how can we secure the advantage? If it is the opponents’, how can we reduce it? Is it better to squop their leading colour, or try to free more of our own winks? Every game is different, which is part of its delight, but thinking on these lines will help you.
Sometimes you are unsure where to play a wink. If so, think whether you can block the opponents’ intentions. They may want to guard a pile, but it is your turn. Put a wink next to the pile. You have an attacker, and they can less easily guard the pile because you can squop their wink.
They may have one wink guarding two piles. That wink is overworked, and may be a good point to attack.
How solid are the opponents’ squops? You can cover a wink completely, or you may just catch its edge. If the opponents have a squop like this, or wink balanced precariously on top of a pile, you may be able to knock it off, even from a distance.
Colour order is very important. Suppose the opponents are Blue and Red. Red squops a green, and you knock the red off with yellow. Now Green plays before Red and can squop him. Suppose next that you, as Yellow, have a choice between squopping Blue and Red. Other things being equal, you should squop Blue, because Blue goes next.
SQUOPPING UP
Sometimes the game seems to ‘run’ in your direction, or you are much more skilful than the opponents, and you mange to squop all their winks. They are then ‘squopped up’, and cannot play at all. However, you cannot go on playing for ever without freeing them. Your team has a number of free turns equal to the number of its winks which are neither squopping nor squopped. Potted winks and winks which have never been brought in do not count here. You and your partner play the free turns in normal rotation and, when these turns are over, your team must free at least one enemy wink with its next shot. The opponents must be allowed to play before you squop them up again this is true even if you free a wink early by mistake. You may, if you wish, free before you have to. If you do this, then the free turns cease immediately and the game carries on as normal.
If you do squop your opponents up, you have the chance to move piles together, and to try to get all their winks under one colour. You then have a better chance of potting out.
Squopping the opponents up implies a high level of skill, so we will now look at some specialist shots. The Bristol shot enables you to move a two wink pile so as to squop a third wink. This is played with the squidger held vertically. First, rest the squidger gently on the centre of the top wink, with the squidger edge pointing towards the target. You should apply a little downward pressure and gradually slide the squidger backwards. If you play the shot correctly, the pile should jump onto the enemy wink.
The Bristol works best if your wink is just overhanging the back edge of the bottom wink. If the top wink is nearer than the bottom one to the target, you can instead use the gromp shot, illustrated below. Here, you play the very edge of both winks in a single quick stroke, as shown. Neither this nor the Bristol is easy. These shots are rare but useful.
IN AND OUT OF TROUBLE
If you squop the opponents up, it is fine. But what if they hold the advantage? Suppose that, early in the game, the opponents squop two of your winks with one of theirs. Try to free your winks before the opponents can guard the pile.
If you are a little behind, look for unguarded positions or isolated winks, especially at the edge of the area held by the opponents, and make them the focus of your attack. This can be a good way to turn a game round.
Sometimes you have a wink which is near a pile, but it is already squopping. You decide it is more important to attack the pile than to hold the squopped wink. Here another specialised shot comes in useful. It is called the boondock, and is illustrated next.
You must touch your own wink (the top one), but all you want to do is graze its edge. You play the shot vigorously, so as to send the squopped wink to the edge of the mat. This shot needs practice: you do not want to send the wrong wink away!
If a game goes really badly, and you are in danger of being sqopped up, try to attack the biggest pile. The more winks there are in a pile, the less stable it becomes. Sometimes a ‘bomb’ shot, played pot-style onto a pile, will free several winks. Often, however, it loses another wink.
If you are squopped up, attacking the biggest pile is again a good choice. If the opponents have to free a wink from a big pile, it is more difficult, and they may make a mistake that lets you back into the game.
Sometimes the opponents get many of your winks into a pile, and you get on top. Now is the time to break the pile, usually with some force. This is called the crud shot. Before unleashing a mighty blow (you are allowed to hold the squidger only 5 cm above the wink you are playing), think in what direction the winks in the pile will go. Above all, do not hit the pile so hard that one of your winks goes off the mat. You will then lose your next shot, and your effort may be wasted.
TOWARDS THE END
As the time limit approaches, you will be aware that you (and the opponents) have a limited number of shots. You must make the most of these. Remember to keep a count of the scoring potential of each colour. Think what each colour can realistically do in the turns up to the time limit, and in the five rounds after that. Have clear aims, but be prepared to change them if something unexpected happens.
Try to keep your leading colour out of trouble, and do not use it for squops except to squop the opponents’ leading colour. At the beginning of rounds, think about potting winks of your leading colour. This puts more pressure on the opponents. Sometimes, in their endeavours to catch up, they will give your second colour a chance to improve its count of tiddlies, and you will get a 6-1 win. Do not let this happen to you if the opponents are in the lead. Remember that, in a match, the actual score goes on the sheet. It may be better to resign yourself to a 3-4 loss than pursue an unlikely win and go down 1-6.
If you judge that your leading colour cannot be overtaken, use its remaining winks to promote your second colour by freeing it or squopping the opponents.
Remember, in rounds, how many turns each colour has left. Try not to be in a position where you have more things to do than turns left. Try not to leave yourself with a sequence of difficult shots. Try to force this kind of situation on the opponents.
In rounds, the boondock, illustrated earlier, is sometimes useful. It can give you an easily pottable wink while sending an opponent wink away from the scene of action.
After a few games, you will realise how important it is to win the squidge-off. The opponents cannot reply to your last shot, but you can respond to every shot of theirs.
Much of the excitement of Tiddlywinks lies in the endgame. Manual skill and mental alertness combine to squeeze points out of apparently even positions.
ASSORTED GOOD ADVICE
• When given an easy shot (such as a stray enemy wink landing next to one of yours), take it.
• When in doubt, bring a wink into the battle area - it's bound to come in useful later.
• Uninvolved winks are more mobile than those on piles. So if you want to reduce your opponents' options, squop uninvolved winks in preference to those on piles.
• It is easier to squop onto a pile if you can slide up the back of it than from the other side.
• For knock-offs, the reverse is true.
• It is easier to pot or squop off the back of another wink than off the front.
• The further on top of an opponent wink you are, the more mobile that pile is. But, should you want to squop off, leaving the bottom wink where it is, then the less well on you are the better.
• Try not to rely on a possible miss by anopponent.
• Don't become so engrossed in the action as to miss the fact that one colour has six winks free. If it's you or your partner, and the six are all in range, why not go for it? A good rule of thumb in these circumstances is to attempt the most difficult shot first. If it misses, or even if the second does, you've lost very little.
• If an opponent sends his wink off the mat, your partnership has four turns before he can reply. This could mean two separate opportunities to approach and squop.
• Try to keep your options open: you would rather not HAVE to do something.
The possibilities are almost infinite, from a sudden pot-out to a game with a 24 wink pile, with anything and everything in between. Even the best in the world can throw a game away with an inspired piece of recklessness. It is that blend of technical skill and strategic sense, with a dash of outrageous luck thrown in, that makes Tiddlywinks such a compelling game.
Above all, enjoy the game, and make sure everyone else enjoys it too. It is fun; it is played for fun, and because no-one can take it too seriously.
Below is a simplified version of the rules of the game. Some of it repeats material found earlier in this pamphlet, but it may be helpful to have it together. If you want to read the full rules, which attempt to cover all situations, go to the Web site www.etwa.org (English Tiddlywinks Association). This has plenty of information about the game, and links to other sites.
SIMPLIFIED RULES OF TIDDLYWINKS
• Tiddlywinks is a partnership game for four colours of winks. In singles, each player has two colours. In pairs, each player has one colour.
The colours are Blue, Green, Red and Yellow. Each colour has four small winks, 16 mm in diameter, and two large winks, 22 mm in diameter.
Blue always partners Red and Green always partners Yellow. At the start of the game, each colour is placed at a corner of the mat so that Blue is opposite Red and Green is opposite Yellow. The colours must be arranged so that alphabetical order runs clockwise. This makes it easier to remember whose turn it is.
The pot is placed in the middle of the mat.
To play the winks you have a squidger, a counter from 25 to 51 mm in diameter.
• To decide who starts, one wink of each colour is played towards the pot. This is called the squidge-off. The colour nearest the pot wins the start. All winks are then taken back to the corners and play begins. Play goes clockwise.
Say Green wins the start. Green begins the game, then Red plays, then Yellow, then Blue, then Green again, and so on.
You can play your winks in any order.
• You have one shot per turn, with an extra shot for each wink of your own colour that you pot. If a wink balances on the rim of the pot, it is counted as potted and is put in the pot.
If you send one (or more!) of your own winks off the mat, you lose your next shot. This means that if you are Blue and send a blue wink off the mat, you lose the next Blue shot. The wink is put back on the mat where it went off, but must be 10cm from any other wink. If you send off a red wink (the partner colour), or an opponent wink, nobody loses a shot.
• Squopping: A wink is squopped if it is covered, even very slightly, by another wink. Sometimes you need to get an umpire to decide this. A squopped wink cannot be played. But you can play the top wink of any pile, provided it is yours, and follow through to any wink directly underneath it. Look at this diagram:
Red cannot play the red wink, and Green cannot play the green wink. Blue can play the blue wink. Blue can also hit the green wink in the follow through from playing blue. Blue must not hit red because the blue wink is not over the red. Now imagine that the top wink is a red rather than a blue. Red can play the top red wink, and follow through to the green one. But Red cannot touch the bottom red wink.
• Free turns. If your colour is squopped up (all its winks squopped), you cannot play. If this happens to you and your partner, the opponents cannot go on having turns for ever. They are allowed as many free turns as they have winks on the mat not covering or covered. This does not include winks that have not been played at all or potted winks. During or at the end of the free turns, they must free at least one wink of your side, and let it have a turn. Not until after that can they squop it again.
• If a player pots out (all winks in the pot), all squopped (covered) winks are desquopped, and squopping ceases. Everyone goes only for the pot (still in turn). If a wink is accidentally squopped, the squopping wink is moved clear by hand.
• Scoring: Suppose one colour has been potted out (all winks in the pot). That colour scores 4 points, the second 2 points and the third 1 point. Fourth place gets zero. If a colour is potted out, the game is always played to a finish (all 12 winks of one side potted). Then one point is transferred from the losing side to the winning side. Here is an example: Green pots out, then Red, then Yellow.
Green gets 4
Reds gets 2
Yellow gets 1
Blue gets 0
One point is transferred from Blue/Red to Green/Yellow, so they beat Blue/Red 6 - 1.
BUT there is a time limit, 25 minutes for pairs games and 20 minutes for singles. After the time limit, play continues up to and including the colour that won the squidge-off (the right to start). Then five complete rounds of turns are played and the game stops with the last turn of the colour that started. So if you start, you finish.
If nobody has potted out by the end of round 5, the scoring is as follows: Each wink in the pot counts 3 Tiddlies (they had to come in somewhere), and each free (uncovered) wink on the mat counts 1 Tiddly. If a wink is squopped, it does not count. If a wink has not been played at all, it does not count. You probably need an example to help.
Blue has 2 winks in the pot and 1 free, making 7 Tiddlies.
Green has none in the pot and 5 free, making 5 Tiddlies.
Red has 1 wink in the pot and none free, making 3 Tiddlies.
Yellow has 4 in the pot and 1 free making 13 Tiddlies.
That is not the score, which has to be on the 4 - 2 - 1 scale outlined above. So the colour with the most tiddlies gets 4 points, the second 2 and the third 1. Fourth place gets zero. Look at the example again.
Yellow (13) is first with 4 points
Blue (7) is second with 2 points
Green (5) is third with 1 point
Red (3) does not score
Yellow/Green beat Blue/Red 5 - 2.
Because two or three way ties are possible for first and second places, and a two way tie for third, the following scores are possible: 7 - 0, 6 - 1, 5 1/2 - 1 1/2, 5 - 2, 4 2/3 - 2 1/3, 4 1/2 - 2 1/2, 4 - 3, 3 1/2 - 3 1/2. Work out how!
In a match, winning is decided not by games won, but by points scored. Suppose Catherine de Medici plays Diane de Poitiers and the scores (Catherine first) are, 6 - 1, 3 - 4, 5 - 2, 3 - 4, 2 1/2 - 4 1/2. Catherine wins by 19 1/2 to 15 1/2, even though she won two games to Diane’s three.
Again, if William plays Harold and the scores (William first) are 7 - 0, 3 - 4, 3 - 4, 2 - 5, William is William the Conqueror by 15 points to 13, not William the Loser by 3 games to 1.
The real rules of Tiddlywinks, which you can download from the English Tiddlywinks Association’s web site at www.etwa.org., attempt to cover every situation in detail, and are quite complicated in places. But you can use these as a guide.
If you are interested in buying a set, contact the English Tiddlywinks Association, at www.etwa.org. Ask for winks, a pot and squidgers. Mats are also available. Prices are shown on the site.