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What is Tiddlywinks?

Though it's generally known as a children's game, tiddlywinks can be played and enjoyed by people of all ages. Children have fun just trying to land a wink in the cup, but at its most competitive levels, tiddlywinks requires physical agility, skill and strategy.

History
- The game was invented in the late 1880s by Joseph Assheton Fincher in England. Its popularity quickly spread in England, and to Europe and the U.S.
Method of Play
- The goal is to get the disks, or winks, into the plastic cup. The player presses on the edge of a small disk with a larger one, causing it to spring into the air.
Competitive Play
- In the middle of the 20th century, tiddlywinks became a game of intercollegiate competition at a few schools in the U.S. and England. There are adult competitions as well.
Terminology
- Tiddlywinks has evolved its own terminology: The player is the winker, the disk that presses the wink is the squidger and the cup is the pot. Additional terminology includes words such as boondock, gromp and squop.
Warning
- Take care to keep the winks out of the mouths of small children.
Famous Ties
- Prince Philip of Britain established a British Universities Championship in 1961.

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