Tiddlywinks, Anyone?

Is tiddlywinks going to make an Olympic appearance as a demonstration sport?

After reading this article in the Houston Chronicle about a family of tiddlywinks players, I am going to keep my eyes peeled for any available opportunity to observe the game live. And, as the article points out, this game is not just some Milton Bradley creation.

When most Americans think of tiddlywinks, they probably envision a brightly colored Milton Bradley set procured from the local drugstore.

[Former world champion Dave "the Dragon"] Lockwood said real tiddlywinks, which involves two or four people, is played on a 6-by-3-foot felt mat. Winks come in two sizes: two large winks and four small ones. And there's a pot, generally a red cup, in the middle. The winks are shot using a squidger (a disk that is one to two inches in diameter). Players earn points for the number of winks they land into a tiny red plastic cup.

But to Lockwood, the game is much more than just shooting plastic disks into a cup. He wants to take tiddlywinks to the next step.

... Lockwood is hoping to persuade Prince Philip, reportedly a tiddlywinks aficionado, to suggest that tiddlywinks be a demonstration sport during the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London.

I got curious and found this FAQ, which states that "[t]he rules are too long and tedious to put here". They are available, as a PDF file, from this site, however.

-- CAV