A Beginner’s Guide for Playing Tiddlywinks

• Players: 2, 3, or 4 (in teams of 2)
• Equipment: Tiddlywinks set with 6 discs each in blue, green, red, and yellow; 3 ft × 6 ft (0.91 m × 1.83 m) game mat
• Objective: Shoot discs of your color into the center cup to earn points. Land all of your discs in the cup or earn more points within the game’s time limit to win.

Objective

The goal of Tiddlywinks is to propel as many winks into the pot as you can. The verb “to squidge” means you propel or flick the smaller plastic discs toward (and hopefully into) the pot using the squidger. The way you squidge a wink is by putting your squidger on a wink. Apply pressure to it, and it should pop the wink forward. It can be difficult to squidge a wink when someone else’s wink is on it. The wink below another wink is said to be “squopped.” You must only touch the top wink in your color sequence. If all the winks are squopped, the game is over.

Setup

Lay out a game mat with the pot in the middle. Choose a flat play surface, like a table or floor, and spread out your 3 ft × 6 ft (0.91 m × 1.83 m) game mat. Take the shallow pot or cup that came with the Tiddlywinks set and place it in the center of the game mat. If the Tiddlywinks set didn’t come with a pot, then use a cup that’s 1 ⁄2 inches (38 mm) tall with a diameter of 2 inches (5.1 cm).

Separate the discs by color and place them in the corners of the mat. A Tiddlywinks set comes with blue, green, red, and yellow discs called winks, with 2 large and 4 small of each color. Organize the winks by color and place them behind the baselines in the corner of the mat. Place the winks in the corners so the clockwise order goes blue, green, red, and yellow. If the game mat doesn’t have baselines printed on it, lay a straightedge from the center of the table toward each corner. Measure 3 feet (0.91 m) from the center along the straight edge, and mark a perpendicular line extending to the edges of the mat to mark the baseline in each corner.

Split the players into teams. If you’re playing with 2 players, one player uses the blue and red winks and the other player uses the green and yellow. When you play a 4-player game, each player takes 1 color, but the teams are still blue/red and green/yellow. If you have 3 players, 2 people play in a team and the remaining player plays both remaining colors. Sit near the winks of your color so they’re within reach. When players are split into teams, they’re playing a “doubles” game. When a single player controls 2 colors of winks, they’re playing a “singles” game.

Try shooting a wink closest to the pot to determine the first player. Start with the blue winks and take turns clockwise around the table. Position a wink behind the corner’s baseline. Then, take a squidger, a 1–2 in (2.5–5.1 cm) disc used for shooting, and press the edge on the top side of the wink. Slide the squidger toward the back of the wink to pop it up and shoot it toward the pot. Have each player shoot 1 disc, and whoever lands closest to the pot in the middle of the table gets to go first. This initial shootout is called a squidge-off. After the squidge-off, collect the discs and place them back behind the baseline. Hold the squidger with a firm but relaxed grip, and position your fingers high up so they don’t get in the way of your shot.

Playing a Round

Start a timer for 20–25 minutes. Typically, rounds last 20 minutes for a singles game and 25 minutes for playing doubles. Right before the starting player takes their first turn, set and start your timer. If you’re playing with 3 players, then set the timer for 22 ½ minutes instead.

Shoot a wink toward the pot on your turn. On the first turn, players must shoot 1 wink from behind the baseline in their corner. The player chooses a wink of their color, and presses the edge of the squidger down in the center. Slide the squidger toward the back of the wink while applying pressure to pop it off the table toward the pot. Take turns clockwise around the table. On future turns, players may shoot a wink of their color that’s behind the baseline or a free wink in the play area, which means it’s not covered by or underneath another piece. If a player shoots a wink and it goes off of the game mat, place it back on the mat as close as you can to where it went off. Then, skip the next turn for that color. For the best shooting technique, try holding the squidger at a 45-degree angle to pop the wink into the pot. If the wink is within about 2 inches (5.1 cm) from the pot, then hold the squidger vertically.

Take another turn for getting a wink inside the pot. If a player successfully gets a wink into the pot during their turn, they immediately can go again shooting a different wink of their color. Players can continue taking turns until one of their shots lands outside of the pot. It’s possible for an experienced player to sink all 6 of their winks in the pot during the same turn.

Block an opponent’s piece by landing a wink on top of it. Hold the squidger so it’s angled toward the wink you want to cover. If a player shoots a wink and it covers any portion of another one below it, the lowest wink is considered squopped. Squopped pieces cannot be played until the top wink is removed or shot again. Players may shoot their winks toward the squopped pieces to knock off the one on top instead of aiming for the pot on their turn. If you notice your opponent has almost shot all of their winks into the pot, then try to squop their remaining pieces on the play mat. Players may still shoot a wink of their color if it’s on top of a pile and not covered by any other piece. Try doing a boondock if your wink partially covers the one below it. Press down on the wink of your color on top of a pile. Your wink will stay in place while your opponent’s piece below it will shoot away from the pot.

Winning and Scoring

Win the game when all 6 winks of a color are in the pot. As soon as a player lands all of the winks of their color into the pot, the game immediately ends. For a singles game, a player only needs to pot all of a single color. In a doubles game, only 1 player needs to get their winks in the pot for both team members to win.

Count scores for potted and free winks if you reach the time limit. If the timer goes off before anyone pots all of their winks, then take 5 more turns per player. After that, count the winks in the pot and award 3 points to the player with the matching color. Then, count 1 point for each wink on the game mat as long as it’s in front of the baseline and not squopped. Whoever earns the most points wins the game! If you’re playing multiple rounds, add extra points at the game for whoever scored the most. The team with the highest score earns an additional 4 points and the next team earns 2 points.