Patrick S Doobrey Flips

RULES PROPOSALS for Rules Meeting on 28 April 2012

Proposal 1: threesomes

The rules do not currently allow 3 people to play a game of tiddlywinks (singles against pairs), notwithstanding the fact that this is common practice in tournaments. The rules sub-committee proposes that this should be permitted, with a time limit of 22½ minutes before rounds.

Replace:

1. Tiddlywinks is a partnership game for four people. Each person controls one of the four colours. The person playing blue partners the person playing red, while the person playing green partners the person playing yellow.

2. Tiddlywinks can also be played as a singles contest between two people. In a singles contest, each player controls both colours of his or her partnership.

By:

1. Tiddlywinks is a game for 2-4 people involving playing pieces of four different colours.

1.1 When four people play, it is a partnership game with each person controlling one of the four colours. The person playing blue partners the person playing red, while the person playing green partners the person playing yellow. This version of the game is called pairs.

1.2 When two people play, each person controls both colours of a partnership. One player controls blue and red, while the other player controls green and yellow. This version of the game is called singles.

1.3 When three people play, one person controls both colours of a partnership (i.e. plays singles), while the other two people each controls one colour (i.e. plays pairs).

Renumber rules as necessary.

Add:

“and 22½ minutes for games involving three players” to current rule 22 which starts “The ‘timed period’ of the game…”

Proposal 2: squidgers

The rule defining a squidger is not ideal. It is not obvious from the current rules that lens-shaped squidgers, or flexible squidgers, are permitted even though these are accepted as legal in tournaments. Also, it is not clear how the edge is defined at which the thickness is limited in the current rules. The rules sub-committee proposes the following.

Replace:

3.2 Squidgers: the discs that are used to play the winks.

3.2.1 In a game, though not for a single shot, a player may use more than one squidger. A squidger must be between 25 mm and 51 mm in diameter, and no thicker than 5 mm at its edge. A squidger must not damage winks when used.

By:

3.2 Squidgers: the discs that are used to play the winks.

3.2.1 A squidger must be between 25 mm and 51 mm in diameter, and no thicker than 5 mm at any point.

3.2.2 A squidger is permitted to have variable thickness: for instance, it may be thicker in the middle than at the edge.

3.2.2 A squidger is permitted to contain a hole provided that the hole is not large enough for any wink to pass through it.

3.2.3 A squidger is permitted to bend while playing a shot due to the pressure applied against a wink, but must return to its original shape on its own once the shot has been completed.

Proposal 3: repeated foul shots

Currently a player can repeatedly play foul shots without penalty – if the shot is not accepted, then the player can simply try again. There has been an instance of a player attempting a difficult pile shot in a tournament, and the shot being judged a “foul shot” on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and higher attempts. The game went on a very long time. It is proposed that the shot be forfeited if three successive foul shots are played in a turn. Advantages: puts a limit on the number of foul shots played; encourages people to play legal shots. Disadvantage: may slow down tournaments by leading to more cries of “shot judge”.

The rules sub-committee proposes the following.

Add to current Rule 28:

28.2.1 If a person plays three successive foul shots whose outcomes are not accepted (i.e option (i) is invoked three times in succession in a single turn), then the further shot to be played by that person is forfeited.

Proposal 4: minor re-wordings and re-organisation

The current version of the rules is based on the major revision approved in 2004 that completely changed the structure of the written rules. Since then, the rules sub-committee have identified some sentences that could be worded better, and some cases where the ordering of the rules could be improved. The rules-sub-committee offer the following proposal as a “job lot”. In these cases (unlike the changes proposed above), there is no intention to change the way the game is, only to make the rules slightly easier for beginners to understand.

The Official Rules of Tiddlywinks

As approved by the English Tiddlywinks Association and sanctioned for use by the North American Tiddlywinks Association and the International Federation of Tiddlywinks Associations.

These rules are © Copyright the English Tiddlywinks Association. The English Tiddlywinks Association permits copying of the rules provided that (1) this copyright notice is retained together with attribution to the English Tiddlywinks Association; (2) copying is only for non-commercial purposes; (3) no derivative works are based on these rules.
Information on the English Tiddlywinks Association can be found on the web site www.etwa.org.
This version of rules will be considered at the ETwA Rules Meeting in April 2012.

Introduction

1. Tiddlywinks is a game for 2-4 people involving playing pieces of four different colours.

1.1 When four people play, it is a partnership game with each person controlling one of the four colours. The person playing blue partners the person playing red, while the person playing green partners the person playing yellow. This version of the game is called pairs.

1.2 When two people play, each person controls both colours of a partnership. One player controls blue and red, while the other player controls green and yellow. This version of the game is called singles.

1.3 When three people play, one person controls both colours of a partnership (i.e. plays singles), while the other two people each controls one colour (i.e. plays pairs).

Equipment

2. The following equipment is used in a game of tiddlywinks.

2.1 Winks: the coloured plastic discs that are used as playing pieces.

2.1.1 Four colours of winks are used: blue, green, red and yellow. There are six winks of each colour, two being 22mm in diameter and four being 16 mm in diameter. All winks should be approximately 1.5 mm in thickness.

2.2 Squidgers: the discs that are used to play the winks.

2.2.1 A squidger must be between 25 mm and 51 mm in diameter, and no thicker than 5 mm at any point.
2.2.2 A squidger is permitted to have variable thickness: for instance, it may be thicker in the middle than at the edge.
2.2.2 A squidger is permitted to contain a hole provided that the hole is not large enough for any wink to pass through it.
2.2.3 A squidger is permitted to bend while playing a shot due to the pressure applied against a wink, but must return to its original shape on its own once the shot has been completed.
2.2.4 A squidger must not damage winks when used.
2.2.5 In a game, though not for a single shot, a player may use more than one squidger.

2.3 The mat: the playing surface on which the game takes place.

2.3.1 Games should be played on rectangular mats measuring 6 feet by 3 feet. Mats should be made of a felt-like non-pile material. At each corner of the mat there should be straight lines termed baselines drawn at right angles to the mat’s diagonals at points 3 feet from the centre of the mat. The mat should be placed on a hard smooth horizontal surface so that the whole of the mat’s surface is itself horizontal. If there is no such surface available, the players may agree to play on a less satisfactory surface (See Note A).

2.4 The pot: the container into which winks may be played.

3.4.1 The pot should be a concave-sided cup 38 mm high with an external diameter of 48 mm at the top and 38mm at the base.

2.5 Winks, mats and pots approved by National Associations should be used wherever possible.

3. The field of play is the playable surface, namely that part of the mat vertically above the underlying surface, excluding the area behind the baselines.

4. The playing volume is the volume vertically above the field of play. The playing volume includes the pot and its contents, but does not include the ceiling or other structural features of a room if the game is being played indoors.

The Squidge-Off

5. The squidge-off takes place as follows.

5.1 The pot is placed in the centre of the mat.

5.2 The winks are placed behind the baselines so that each corner of the mat contains winks of only one colour. The arrangement of colours in a clockwise direction should correspond to their alphabetical order in the English language (i.e. blue–green–red–yellow).

5.3 It is then decided who is playing which colour(s).

5.3.1 This may be by mutual agreement, by allocating the colours randomly, or by obeying the tournament organiser; bear in mind that blue always partners red and green always partners yellow.

5.4 One wink of each colour is played from behind the baseline towards the pot. The colour of the wink that ends up nearest the pot is deemed to have won the squidge-off.

5.4.1 Nearness is measured from the nearest edge of the wink. For the purposes of this rule, all winks that end up in the pot are deemed equally near the pot and nearer than any unpotted wink. Any winks that go off the matleave the playing volume are deemed to be equally far from the pot, and further from it than any wink that has not gone off the matleft the playing volume.
5.4.2 If two or more winks are equally near to the pot and nearer than any other wink, replace all winks behind the baselines. Repeat the process described in Rule 5.4 to determine which colour wins the squidge-off, but using only those colours that were closest to the pot.

5.5 Once the squidge-off winner has been determined, the winks are replaced behind the baselines before the start of the game.

The Game

6. Play begins starting with the colour that won the squidge-off.

6.1 A record should be kept of the time elapsing from the moment when the first wink is played (e.g. by use of a stopwatch or count-down timer).Start a stopwatch to time the game from the moment when the first wink is played.

7. Play proceeds with the colours having turns in sequence. The sequence should correspond to alphabetical order of the colours in the English language.

7.1 This means that green’s turn starts immediately after blue’s turn comes to an end; red’s turn starts immediately after green’s turn comes to an end; yellow’s turn starts immediately after red’s turn comes to an end; blue’s turn starts immediately after yellow’s turn comes to an end.

8. During the course of a game, winks fall into the following categories.

8.1 A wink may come to rest inside the pot. Such a wink is referred to as a potted wink.

8.1.1 Potted winks may not subsequently be played.

8.1.2 Any wink coming to rest on the top rim of the pot is treated as a potted wink and is immediately moved manually to a position inside the pot.

8.1.3 If a potted wink is knocked out of the pot by the action of another wink, it is immediately replaced inside the pot. Any unpottted winks disturbed by it are manually restored to their positions prior to the disturbance.

8.2. An unpotted wink may come to rest in a position where it is vertically above all or part of another unpotted wink. In this situation, the upper wink is referred to as a squopping wink and the lower wink as a squopped wink.

8.2.1 A wink may be squopping another even if they are not touching.

8.2.2 The A pile consists of a collection of all thetwo or more winks connected either directly or indirectly to a particular winkeach other is called a pile. For the purposes of this rule, two winks are considered to be directly connected if either one is squopping the other. Two winks are considered to be indirectly connected if they are linked to each other via a chain of direct connections. For instance, if wink A is squopping wink B, and wink B is squopping wink C, then winks A and C are indirectly connected, and the three winks are part of the same pile.

8.2.3 In a pile, it is possible for a wink to be both squopping (above one or more winks) and squopped (below one or more winks) at the same time.

8.3. A wink that is both unpotted and unsquoppedneither potted nor squopped is referred to as a free wink.

9. A shot consists of a player exerting downward pressure of squidger on wink.

9.1 In order for a shot to be played, either the squidger must cause irreversible movement of at least one wink or the player must be attempting to cause irreversible movement of at least one wink.

9.1.1 For the purposes of this rule, a movement is irreversible if, when the squidger ceases contact with the wink, any wink does not return to the position it occupied before contact with the squidger began.

9.1.2 Touching a wink with a squidger is not a shot if the wink does not move irreversibly and there was no intention for the wink to move.

9.1.3 If winks are moved without the player exerting downward pressure of squidger on wink, then this does not constitute a shot but is deemed to be interference with winks (Rule 24). For instance, this applies when a person drops a squidger onto a wink or moves a wink with his or her finger while pointing to it.

9.2 A shot ends when contact between squidger and winks ceases and all winks have come to rest.