British pair retain World Tiddlywinks Championships
Friday early evening in the historic university town of Cambridge is usually a night of partying, but around a table, at Selwyn College, four men were locked in a fierce battle.
They were trying to decide who will be the new World Pairs Tiddlywinks champions. Defending Champions British pair Patrick Barrie and Harley Jones were up against the American duo Larry Kahn & Dave Lockwood. This was the first championship since 2019 due to the pandemic.
Tiddlywinks’ origins go back to the 19th century and were first patented in England in 1888 by Joseph Fincher. Back then it was played as a simple children’s game. That was until some university students made things competitive nearly 60 years ago.
The quirky sport combines strategy and manual dexterity. Players use plastic discs called squidgers to shoot smaller discs, the winks, into a pot. The game is played on a rectangular mat measuring 6 feet by 3 feet. Players take it, in turn, to take shots at the pot using their squidger. In a pairs match, each player can be seen discussing strategy with their partner before each shot, similar to pairs in snooker.
The way the game is played at the highest level competitors attempt to score as many points as possible by either getting all of their “winks” into the pot or by squopping - playing a wink on top of an opponent’s wink.
All of this has to be done within 25 minutes after which players are allowed five extra turns each before the match is scored.
Tournament play usually involves seven matches to decide a tie and they can run anywhere up to seven or eight hours long. The tight moves and the contest’s long length mean that tiddlywinks is both a physical and mental game.
After over six hours of play, it came down to the last game, with defending Champions Professor Patrick Barrie and fellow brit Harley Jones edging ahead to retain the World title.
Final Points score: 25 to 24