North American Tiddlywinks Association

NATwA founded • 27 February 1966


NATwA Winker • Rick Tucker

During their first week at MIT, Freshmen are temporarily assigned to a living group and then they scout out dormitories and fraternities to decide which ones they are interested in bidding on. On his first day as a Freshman at MIT, in August 1972, Rick was temporarily assigned to MacGregor House’s B-Entry living group. On that same first day at MIT, Rick witnessed two students flicking winks on the carpet and down the stairs (but that’s not how the game is really played!)

As it turns out, at the time B-Entry was the center of winking at MIT, having been the home for Bill Renke, Craig Schweinhart, Ross Callon, and Jay Wollenberg. Winker Tim Schiller had been in A-Entry the year before. MIT had sent a team of 8 winkers to England in the Spring of 1972, where they astounded the Brits by winning all but one match. Rick bid on B-Entry as his desired living group, and the B-Entry barons opted to select him.

Soon the upperclassmen arrived in B-Entry, and while Bill had left MIT (in fact, earlier in 1972), Craig, Ross, and Jay remained. They all lived in the “Zoo”, a self-named section of B-Entry with 5 dorm rooms on the lower floor of B-Entry. Rick lived in B-Entry on the middle floor. A winks table was always present on that floor at the bottom of the stairs. B-Entry, by the way, occupied three floors of MacGregor House: the 11th through 13th floors.

Other MIT winkers joining the world of winkdom along with Rick in the Fall of 1972 included Charles Frankston, Owen Knox, and Derek Rogoff.

Rick considers Ross to be his winks mentor, as they often played practice games on a dedicated winks table that was always present in the lobby of the Zoo floor on the lower level of MacGregor House’s B-Entry.

In his early winking days, Rick was given a choice to join either the Zoo team or the MIT team when playing in the 1972 Eastern Regionals and 1973 Continentals. He chose to play for Zoo. Later, he opted to play for MIT.

Rick’s early winks games were losses. Then, in the 1972 Eastern Regionals, he achieved his first non-win, a tie in a game with Don Fox and Mex (Rich Davis) vs. Rick and Lewis Stein. That game ended with each color having 1 time-limit point (nowadays called a tiddly), and a very big pile. A hard-fought battle, ending in a clever tie. Ya gotta lose to learn how to win.

With Dave York in the 1973 Continentals B Division.

Rick borrowed paper tournament scoresheets from Sunshine and photocopied them around 1978. Rick was instrumental in digitizing NATwA tournament scores starting in 1978 and wrote statistical analysis software using the MacLisp programming language on the MIT-ML (Mathlab) PDP-10 computer. Joe Sachs and Charles Frankston assisted in digitizing NATwA tournament scores. In later years, starting around 2010 and thereabouts, NATwA tournament scores were converted to use the MariaDB database and software written in PHP (and HTML/CSS) to generate reports from that database. 

Rick started researching the history and origins of tiddlywinks with Fred Shapiro in 1978. He established the Tiddlywinks Reference Bibliography in 1978, and has maintained it in various forms for many years thereafter.

He won 2 NATwA Pairs tournaments and subsequently competed in and lost one World Pairs challenge.

Rick edited Newswink, the official NATwA publication, for its editions numbered 10 through 29, dating from 1980 to 1997.

Rick started collecting tiddlywinks games in 1981, and as of 2022, owned nearly 2000 tiddlywinks games. 

Rick established an early tiddlywinks online presence in 1994 on a personal website and then maintained Tiddlywinks.org starting in 1997. He then set up iftwa.org in 2018, following his appointment as IFTwA Secretary-General.


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Attributes

  • full title • Tiddledy-Winks at Sea – A Game of “Counter” Attack
  • by • J. Jaques & Son Ld. of London, England
  • earliest known date • 1913
  • earliest date source • listing in: Gamage’s Christmas Bazaar 1913, being a facsimile reprint of the 1913 Christmas catalogue of A.W. Gamage Ltd of Holborn, London, with some pages from the 1911 General Catalogue, edited by Alison Adburgham, Alison, 1974, page 222
  • latest known date • 1919
  • latest date source • newspaper advertisement in Star, Christchurch, New Zealand, 28 June 1919, page 3
  • illustrator • the cover illustration includes the text “B. C. d.” in the lower right corner. This identifies B. C. as the artist, which is indicated by “d.” (“delineavit“)
  • cardboard box dimensions • 13 1/8″ wide, 5″ high, 2″ deep
  • rules • sheet (2 printed sides)
  • keywords • military – Navy – battleship – Dreadnought – sea – ocean – explosion – tiddlywinks
  • AGPI Game ID • G-29866
  • GARD ID • 15793
  • Tucker Tw ID • JAQ-01

Images

title • Tiddledy-Winks at Sea ♦ by • J. Jaques & Son Ld. ♦ item • game cover ♦ photograph by • Rick Tucker ♦ source • Tucker Tiddlywinks Collection ♦ license to use • CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 ♦ AGPI ID • G-29866 ♦ Tucker Tw ID • JAQ-01c1
The cover illustration depicts a British Dreadnought type of battleship, as identified in the rules.
title • Tiddledy-Winks at Sea ♦ by • J. Jaques & Son Ld. ♦ item • cover close-up, upper left ♦ photograph by • Rick Tucker ♦ source • Tucker Tiddlywinks Collection ♦ license to use • CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 ♦ AGPI ID • G-29866 ♦ Tucker Tw ID • JAQ-01c1
title • Tiddledy-Winks at Sea ♦ by • J. Jaques & Son Ld. ♦ item • cover close-up, lower left ♦ photograph by • Rick Tucker ♦ source • Tucker Tiddlywinks Collection ♦ license to use • CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 ♦ AGPI ID • G-29866 ♦ Tucker Tw ID • JAQ-01c1
title • Tiddledy-Winks at Sea ♦ by • J. Jaques & Son Ld. ♦ item • cover close-up, lower right ♦ photograph by • Rick Tucker ♦ source • Tucker Tiddlywinks Collection ♦ license to use • CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 ♦ AGPI ID • G-29866 ♦ Tucker Tw ID • JAQ-01c1
title • Tiddledy-Winks at Sea ♦ by • J. Jaques & Son Ld. ♦ item • cover and contents ♦ photograph by • Rick Tucker ♦ source • Tucker Tiddlywinks Collection ♦ license to use • CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 ♦ AGPI ID • G-29866 ♦ Tucker Tw ID • JAQ-01c1
title • Tiddledy-Winks at Sea ♦ by • J. Jaques & Son Ld. ♦ item • assembled ship target (with funnels incorrectly upside-down), cup, squidger, winks, green spinner, etc. ♦ photograph by • Rick Tucker ♦ source • Tucker Tiddlywinks Collection ♦ license to use • CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 ♦ AGPI ID • G-29866 ♦ Tucker Tw ID • JAQ-01c1
title • Tiddledy-Winks at Sea ♦ by • J. Jaques & Son Ld. ♦ item • assembled ship target (with funnels incorrectly upside-down), cup, squidger, winks, green spinner, etc., and cover ♦ photograph by • Rick Tucker ♦ source • Tucker Tiddlywinks Collection ♦ license to use • CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 ♦ AGPI ID • G-29866 ♦ Tucker Tw ID • JAQ-01c1

Rules

title • Tiddledy-Winks-at-Sea ♦ by • John Jaques & Son, Ltd. ♦ item • rules, side 1 ♦ source • Bristol Museums, UK ♦ AGPI ID • G-29866 ♦ Tucker Tw ID • JAQ-01
title • Tiddledy-Winks-at-Sea ♦ by • John Jaques & Son, Ltd. ♦ item • rules, side 2 ♦ source • Bristol Museums, UK ♦ AGPI ID • G-29866 ♦ Tucker Tw ID • JAQ-01
Text produced by • Apple Photos OCR, 26 April 2024
Proofread • 26 April 2024
Start of rules side 1, unnumbered
TIDDLEDY-WINKS-AT-SEA A “COUNTER” ATTACK. RULES AND DIRECTIONS. THIS game is a fascinating elaboration of the popular game of Tiddledy-Winks. A model of a battleship is substituted for the little wooden cup used in the original game of Tiddledy Winks. The counters are projected against the battleship in the same way as in the game of Tiddledy-Winks, and are aimed so that they fall either on the deck, which causes but slight damage, or pass through one of the three apertures on deck, causing slightly more damage to the vessel, while the greatest damage is caused by counters penetrating the vessel by passing throgh either of the funnels. These five vulnerable points provide means by which a player can score points as follows:— For every counter resting on any part of the deck counts … … 1 point For passing through either of the apertures in the lower deck … 2 points For passing through the aperture in the upper deck … … … 3 points For every counter falling in either of the two funnels … 4 points The winner of the game is the player who makes the largest number of points. Before the game commences the model of the battleship is put together by drawing the two sides of the hull sufficiently far apart to allow the ellipse-shaped deck being placed in position. The hull is then complete. The upper deck is placed on the main deck amidships. The funnels and masts are added, and the vessel is now fully equipped, and is placed in the centre of the table. Players take their seats on each side of the table, providing themselves with an equal number of small and one large counter all of the same colour.
Start of rules side 2, unnumbered
The small counters are laid in a row at the edge of the table in front of each player, and the game is to commence upon a given signal, “Fire!” It is not necessary to play in turn. The players shoot their counters as fast as they can at the Dreadnought, first firing off all their counters from the starting-line, and afterwards from where they come to rest on the table top, provided they rest on the player’s own half of the table, an imaginary line being drawn through the middle of the Dreadnought. A counter falling on the table on the opposite side of the ship is a prisoner, and can only be regained by exchange. An exchange can be made at any time by command provided there is a capture on both sides. If an exchange cannot be brought about the counter remains a prisoner. In exchanging a prisoner the counters must be flicked across by each player to their respective owner, and it is obvious that it is an advantage to flick them as far away from the battleship as possible. In the event of a counter being flicked in exchange comes to rest on or in the battleship, it remains there, and counts as if it had been played by its owner. If a prisoner after being flicked back comes to rest on the floor it can be placed by the owner at any spot in his own boundary most advantageous to him, and flicked from that position. The attack is not firished until one or other of the players have deposited all their counters into or on the ship. Prisoners must be recaptured by exchange and then flicked on to the vessel in the usual way. As soon as a player has deposited the whole of his counters in the vessel he must call ” Cease Fire!” and all further play ceases. When “Cease Fire!” has been called one of the players should collect all counters on the decks, sort them up in their respective colours, counting and noting the number of each colour on a slip of paper. Then the upper deck must be removed and any counters which have penetrated it must be credited to the owners. Lastly the funnels can be lifted out and the counters in them credited to the owners according to the respective colours. PUBLISHED BY JOHN JAQUES & SON, Ltd., 20 & 21, KIRBY ST., HATTON GARDEN, E.C.

Trade Catalog Entries

Tucker Tw ID • JAQ-01 — AGPI ID • G-29866 — publisher • John Jaques & Son (London) — title • TIDDLEDY-WINKS AT SEA — notes • John Jaques & Son - trade catalog advertisement
title • Tiddledy-Winks at Sea ♦ by • J. Jaques & Son Ld. ♦ item • Jaques trade catalog entry (date to be determined) ♦ photograph by • Rick Tucker ♦ original in • Richard Ballam Collection ♦ license to use • CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 ♦ AGPI ID • G-29866 ♦ Tucker Tw ID • JAQ-01
title • Tiddledy-Winks at Sea ♦ by • J. Jaques & Son Ld. ♦ item • game listing in A. W. Gamage's 1913 trade catalog ♦ source • Gamage's Christmas Bazaar 1913, being a facsimile reprint of the 1913 Christmas catalogue of A.W. Gamage Ltd of Holborn, London, with some pages from the 1911 General Catalogue, by Alison Adburgham, 1974, page 222  ♦ copyright status • public domain ♦ AGPI ID • G-29866 ♦ Tucker Tw ID • JAQ-01

Articles

title • Tiddledy-Winks at Sea ♦ by • J. Jaques & Son ♦ item • article, Parlour Games for Christmas ♦ source • The Queen, 6 December 1913, page 1061, column 3 ♦ AGPI ID • G-29866 ♦ Tucker Tw ID • JAQ-01

Advertisements

title • Tiddledy-Winks at Sea ♦ by • J. Jaques & Son Ld. ♦ item • advertisement insert from a Jaques' Tiddledy Winks game ♦ credit • Michael Thomson, Scotland ♦ AGPI ID • G-29866 ♦ Tucker Tw ID • JAQ-01
title • Tiddledy-Winks at Sea ♦ by • J. Jaques & Son ♦ item • newspaper advertisement by Dyke's Fancy Bazaar, Frome, Somerset, England ♦ source • Somerset Standard (UK), 15 October 1915, page 5, column 1 ♦ repository • British Newspaper Archive ♦ copyright status • public domain ♦ AGPI ID • G-29866 ♦ Tucker Tw ID • JAQ-01
title • Tiddledy-Winks at Sea ♦ by • J. Jaques & Son ♦ item • advertisement by Whitcombe & Tombs, Ltd. ♦ repository • Star, Christchurch, New Zealand, 28 June 1919, page 3 • from Papers Past, National Library, Government of New Zealand ♦ copyright status • public domain ♦ AGPI ID • G-29866 ♦ Tucker Tw ID • JAQ-01

Collections

Tiddledy-Winks at Sea is included in the collections of the Bristol Museums in England.