Tiddlywinks is a partnership game of four colours of winks (plastic discs). In singles, each player has two colours. In pairs, each player has one colour.
The colours are Blue, Green, Red and Yellow. Each colour has four small winks and two large winks.
Blue always partners Red and Green always partners Yellow. At the start of the game, each colour is placed at a corner of a mat so that Blue is opposite Red and Green is opposite Yellow. A pot or dish is placed in the middle of the mat. The colours must be arranged so that alphabetical order runs clockwise. This makes it easier to remember whose turn it is.
To play the winks you have a squidger, a counter from 1 inch to 2 inches in diameter which you use to flick your wink by pressing firmly down on a winks edge. This will cause the wink to flick up into the air away from the side you pressed down on.
To decide who starts, one wink of each colour is played towards the pot. This is called the squidge-off. The colour nearest the pot wins the start. All winks are then taken back to the corners and play begins. Play goes clockwise.
You have one shot each turn, with an extra shot for each wink of your own colour that you pot. If a wink balances on the rim of the pot, it is counted as potted and is put in the pot.
If you send one (or more!) of your own winks off the mat, you lose your next shot. This means that if you are Blue and send a blue wink off the mat, you lose the next Blue shot. The wink is put back on the table where it went off.
Squopping: If a wink is covered by another wink it cannot be played. But you can play the top wink.
The winner is the first player to get all their winks into the pot.
