4 Steps for Adults to Playing Tiddlywinks

When you think of Tiddlywinks, you probably think it’s a game for kids but it's just as much fun for adults. These steps will help you become a Tiddlywinks master.

Like all table games, Tiddlywinks has its own special kit. You need:

• Six "winks". These are four small and two large counters of each colour - red, yellow, blue and green – used in the game.
• A felt mat measuring one metre x 80 centimetres x 90 centimetres.
• A pot and small circular discs known as “squidgers”.

The basic aim is to flip all your winks into the pot. This is called “potting out”.

• You have one shot per turn and can play your winks in any order.
• If you pot a wink you get another turn. This means you can manage to pot all six in one go.
• If your wink lands off the mat, you return it to the edge and you miss a go.
• If you “squop” someone else's wink, it means you overlap it. Another player can do the same to one of your winks too. The player can’t play the “squopped” wink until the covering wink is flipped away.
• There is a 25-minute limit to each game when you add scores up.

Put the mat on a hard surface such as a table or wooden floor.

• Four players form two pairs. Blue partners red; green partners yellow.
• Place the pot at the centre of the mat. Each colour takes a corner of the mat in the order red, yellow, blue and green.
• You use a squidger to press down on the edge of a wink and ping it towards the centre.
• The wink nearest to the pot gets to start and, once players have collected all of their winks from the mat, play proceeds clockwise.

Scoring in Tiddlywinks is very simple. If nobody pots out in 25 minutes, you add the scores up as follows to figure out who has won:

• You get three points for every potted wink.
• You win one point for each uncovered wink.
• You get zero points for squopped and unplayed winks.

Tiddlywinks is not just for children but an entertaining game for adults too. It’s simple but you need strategy and skill to win.