In last week’s final of the Cambridge University Tiddlywinks Society annual cuppers, The Excelleg [sic] Esteemed Association Croquet Society of the King’s College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge Elite Tiddlywinks Squadron First Team had a narrow victory over the Cambridge Univeristy Gilbert and Sullivan Society, winning the Cuppers Trophy by 14½ points to 13½. Louis McBride was awarded player of the match, for ‘fine potting under pressure’ – the third time he has taken home the title in this tournament.

This four-match playoff was the culmination of a Cuppers tournament that has been running over the past term. From squidge-off to eventual pot-out, CU G&S society’s team members Ed Green, Harley Jones (Capt.), Jonatan Rostén and Ronit Wineman put up strong opposition to Conor Bacon, Louis McBride, Cameron McCormack (Capt.) and Sam Trueman from King's.

While the games get underway, World Singles Champion Patrick Barrie, who has been playing ’winks since he was a fresher in 1982, gives me a lesson in the basics of the sport. Each player has a ‘squidger’, a large plastic counter, which is used to flick smaller counters – the eponymous ‘’winks’ – about a table. There is a cup in the centre, but the aim is not merely to flick all of one’s ’winks into this – instead, the game is vastly more complex, with players intercepting other players’ ’winks by covering them, a bit like taking someone in draughts. This is where the interesting moves come in: to ‘squop’ is to cover a ’wink, to ‘piddle’ is to free a covered ’wink, to ‘nerdle’ is to move an enemy ’wink so close to the pot that it’s inconvenient, while to ‘brundle’ is simply to move about the table without covering other ’winks. Barrie demonstrates a variety of trick shots, including the Bristol shot, which is nicknamed the John O’Groat’s shot if it fails, ‘since that is as far as you can get from Bristol’. I am encouraged to have a go and, although initially reticent, I soon find myself brundling about the table quite happily.

While friendly matches take place to the side, players in competing teams circle the central table, strategising out loud and responding with great zeal to their opponents’ moves. “It may not look like it, but it’s a battle area,” explains Barrie, who has competed internationally and refers to the ’winks as ‘forces’ while he explains tactics. “You can get some extreme emotions.”

From Dr Sage, Senior Treasurer and CUTwC President in 1984/5, I learn about the history of the club, which was established in 1955. A lengthy constitution and exhaustive list of the society’s games and traditions, ’wink-related and otherwise, are to be found on their website. We discuss competitions and Sage describes to me the Silver Wink, a national trophy currently held by CUTwC, which was presented by HRH Prince Philip in 1961.

“It doesn’t matter if you’ve got a Y-chromosome so long as you can pot or squop.”

The club was previously much larger than it is now, with over 200 members and an infamous freshers’ squash. Prior to his undergraduate arrival, Sage had been told that everyone at Queens’ played ’winks. As to why numbers have dwindled so dramatically in recent years – “students take themselves more seriously now than they used to.” It seems a pity. Yet the society today is far from a joyless affair; Club Secretary Elinor Mcnab tells me that the most ‘Cambridge’ thing she’s ever done was play winks on a punt in May Week.

Although club members seem to tend towards being male and scientific, the atmosphere is friendly and open, with many competitors new to the game. As Mcnab puts it: “It doesn’t matter if you’ve got a Y-chromosome so long as you can pot or squop.”

Rogue Sport of The Week: Steeplechase with Priya Crosby

I am told that in most languages, the game’s name is also the word for fleas, since it is with a similar hopping motion that the ’winks are vaulted across the table. On the uncertain etymology of ‘tiddlywink’, it is suggested that the word has its roots in unlicensed drinking establishments, known as ‘tiddle de winks’, although the OED offers instead the explanation that ‘tiddlywink’ is rhyming slang for ‘drink’. The Cuppers were sponsored by Chase Distillery, with a large bottle of Williams Gin being awarded to each member of the winning team – although it seems that the games themselves were played sober, if not soberly. This encourages me to ask President Zach Bond about the rumours in circulation that CUTwC is merely a cover for a notorious and riotous drinking society. Perhaps having anticipated my question, he’s quick to respond, “It isn’t. We actually enjoy the game.”

“Or if it is a cover, it hasn’t worked,” he adds, “because we’ve got too interested in it.”

CUTwC usually meets at 7:30pm on Wednesdays in The Walters Room, Selwyn College. All members of the University and other educational establishments in Cambridge are welcome to attend