The English Tiddlywinks Association ref. E1.
TIDDLYWINKS STRATEGY
A brief introduction to the principal strategies of tiddlywinks in the mid-sixties, for those new to the game. It is assumed that the reader is familiar with, or can refer to, the International Rules.
Queensberry Rules
This, the earliest form of the game, is now used only for potting practice. Normally the four winkers play individually and not as pairs, the intention being merely to be first to pot all one’s winks. When a wink is accidentally covered, the covering wink is moved aside.
Pot-Squop
The development of squopping (covering the opponents’ winks) and desquopping led to the pot-squop game, the earlier of the two standard strategies for 4 players playing as 2 pairs. The strategy arises from the scoring system: 4 points to the first player to pot all his 6 winks, 2 points to the second, one to the third, and none to the fourth. It is thus all-important to be first in the pot, since this yields more points than the second and third places combined. So the potter spends all his energy on getting into the pot and of course avoiding squoppage. It is the squopper’s job to obstruct the opponents (principally by squopping the opposing potter, but also by attacking the squopper) and to free his own partner when he becomes squopped.
This apparently simple strategy often leads to a very interesting game. In the preliminary stages play centres on the fortunes of the potters, but very often a stage is reached where some of each potter’s winks are potted and the rest squopped; the squoppers now dominate the theatre of battle, and the struggles between them, to free their own partners and to prevent the freeing of the opposing potters, can be crucial and exciting.
Double-Squop
In pot-squop, one player tries to hold the opposition at bay while his partner races for the pot; in contrast, the essential aim of both partners in double-squop is to concentrate from the first squidges on squopping-up the opponents, and only when this has been done does one player manoeuvre his winks into a position to pot them.
Normally double-squop will defeat pot-squop; the former’s combined squopping force of 12 winks is generally able to squop one or more of the potter’s 6 fleeing winks and at the same time resist the squopper’s 6 winks. Even after employing several winks to detain some of the potter’s winks, the double-squopping pair usually have a sufficient numerical superiority to squop up the opposing squopper. Having thus immobilised the opponents they manoeuvre their winks so that all 6 of one colour are in a position to pot unhindered.
Frequently there is a time-limit of about half an hour on each game, which renders the double-squoppers short of time for these elaborate operations, so that they must often risk potting before they have fully immobilised the pot-squoppers. At the time-limit, the game is adjudicated partly according to the number of winks in the pot, hence the need for a certain amount of potting.
In practice double-squop is normally countered with double-squop. It is a complicated strategy with many ramifications, and beginners are advised to master the techniques of pot-squop before attempting double-squop!
An ETwA publication · 1964