The sport of Tiddlywinks

The North American Tiddlywinks Association (NATwA), founded in 1966, is an organization which sponsors tiddlywinks tournaments, distributes winks equipment, recruits new players, and promotes the game in general.

NATwA publishes an informal newsletter, Newswink, to keep winkers informed of recent events. NATwA maintains close ties with ETwA, the English Tiddlywinks Association, and ScotTwA, the Scottish Tiddlywinks Association.

One of the most fascinating aspect of this sport is the various terms used to describe situations! Scrabble players, take note: the game begins with each player performing a squidge. If a wink is covered by that of an opponent's, it is squopped.

Those are some serious Scrabble points!

I also learned that the game is not simply flipping winks into a pot. In fact, the strategy and tactics involved are more similar to chess than the children's game you may think of when you hear the word tiddlywinks.

The sport of tiddlywinks was first patented in 1888. However, the strategy-loaded modern-day version goes back to a group of Cambridge (the British one, not ours) undergrads meeting in January, 1958. Three years later Oxford challenged Cambridge's position as tiddlywinks champion, and the competition was on.

Learn all the details about this fascinating four-person game at today's FamilyFirst site. And remember to use squop in Scrabble!http://www.tiddlywinks.org

games, tiddlywinks, families