Tiddledy Winks
BGG rank
BGG #31,485
BGG rating
4.1

Tiddledy Winks

1888Powered by BGG

Rules assistance for Tiddledy Winks

Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.

  • 10 min
  • 4+
  • Complexity 1.1/5

Rules assistant for Tiddledy Winks

What would you like to know?

Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.

Tiddledy Winks is a board game released in 1888 for 1–6 players, 10 minutes per game, and ages 4 and up. It was designed by Joseph Assheton Fincher and its main mechanics are Flicking.

Similar games

About the game

Tiddledy Winks varies based on publisher, but they all generally have a cup or other target. The object of the game is to flip small smooth disks (the "winks") into the cup or onto a target. This is accomplished by placing a wink on a piece of felt and then pressing down on the edge of the wink with a larger disk (the "tiddledy", or in modern terms, "squidger") so that the wink pops up into the air, and hopefully lands in the cup or other target. The highest points are awarded for winks that land in the cup, with winks landing in the target area scoring less. Players decide ahead of time to play a set number of rounds (in which case the winner is the person with the highest score at the end of the last round), or to play until someone reaches a certain score (in which case the winner is the first person to reach or exceed that score). Wikipedia notes that Joseph Assheton Fincher filed the original patent application for the game in 1888, applied for the trademark Tiddledy-Winks in 1889, and licensed John Jaques and Son as the exclusive distributors of the game. However, the intense popularity of the game prompted other publishers to churn out competitors under names like Spoof, Flipperty Flop, Jumpkins, Golfette, Maro, Flutter. As early as 1890, Jaques boxes included a label warning of "worthless imitations... issued by unscrupulous and jealous persons", and its rules threatened that "proceedings will be taken against any one infringing the Proprietors' Rights in this Game".

Mechanics

Publishers

  • (Unknown)
  • Parker Brothers
  • Schmidt Spiele
  • Hasbro
  • Alga
  • John Sands Pty Ltd
  • Carlit
  • Oy Fenno-Alga Ab

Questions and answers

Tiddledy Winks supports 1–6 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.