Entries A to E

A

AGM · n (UK) Annual General Meeting

agt (rare/obscure) abbreviation for alt.games.tiddlywinks

Alleghany Airlines Book Club Presents (US) · n a publication by Sunshine in February 1976 describing tiddlywinks perversions. [From Allegheny (note "e" rather than "a") Airlines, an airline company (which became USAir and is now US Airways).]

Alliance · (US) a US team of the 1980s

alt.games.tiddlywinks · n name of the Usenet newsgroup for tiddlywinks on the Internet

amigos · n (UK) the act of swallowing a pint of whatever in one gulp [CUTwC, 1980s] See also sideways amigos

approach shot · n a shot with the objective of placing a wink at a particular position on the mat, sometimes near a target pile, without an intent to squop

area · part of the mat dominated by the winks of, or containing squops or piles chiefly controlled by one color or partnership, into which an opponent is usually reluctant to venture

autoboondock = (US) ²boondock

autosquop (UK) = sub (Cohen, 1977)

B

backstop · n a wink, pile, or the pot which is hit by a wink with the intention of slowing or stopping the motion of the wink being shot.

baseline · n a line near each corner of the mat behind which winks are placed at the beginning of a game. This line is perpendicular to the diagonal of the mat and is three feet from the center of the mat.

baseline pot (UK) · n variation of winks in which squopping the opponent is not allowed. If this happens accidentally, the winks are desquopped. = (US) potting game

Beady (UK) · nickname of British winker Geoff Myers

beaker (rare, obsolete) = n pot. (Hull Guildhall, 1962, in Winking World 4, page 11)

Betty's Boys · team formed by Stew Sage and Richard Moore, first appearing in the ETwA Teams of Four in 1988 (earlier known as "Sideways Amigos", q.v.)

big (US) · n a large wink

Big Six (US) · n six major championships: NATwA Singles, NATwA Pairs, ETwA Singles, ETwA Pairs, World Singles, World Pairs  (prior to ScotTwA's arrival on the scene with the Scottish Pairs in the early 1990s.)

birthday present (US) · n an opponent play which results in an unexpectedly easy shot for a gain.

BIT (US) · n Boston Invitational Tournament, or generically, a tournament with a varying format, e.g. a BIT-like tournament.

blitz · n an attempt to pot out when opponent winks are not under control, particularly before the time limit has been reached. Also vi.

blowup (US) · n a shot, usually forceful, which separates winks that are in a pile

blunt (US) · adj describing a round-edged squidger such as those that were provided in sets made by Marchant Games. Contrast with sharp squidger. [Daniel Sachs at 1994 Individual Pairs, Wheaton, Maryland.]

board (Relle) · table or mat ["off the ~"]

Bob-rookie strategy (US) · n a strategy of focusing solely on squopping the better player of an opponent partnership, while ignoring the weaker player, usually applied when the difference in skill is great. [Named after Bob Henninge, who often played with novice winkers in the 1970s.]

bomb · n a shot in which a wink is shot toward a target pile, usually from a distance, with the objective of knocking one or more winks out of the pile. Also vt.

Bombay Bowl (UK) · tournament between the four "home unions" in Britain (England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland) which has now lapsed [Started 1 May 1960; name was a play on "Calcutta Cup", an England-Scotland Rugby Football match]

Bonham recording system · n (obsolete) a method for transcribing the shots and results of a tiddlywinks game (Winking World 5; ETwA E2, 1964)

boon (US) =¹boondock [a clipped form of boondock]

¹boondock · n a shot in which a squopped wink is freed and comes to rest far from the center of action in a game, or is sent off the mat. Also vt. [circa 1971, US]

²boondock · n a perversion in which the goal is to pot all of a color's winks, and when a wink is squopped, it is returned to its baseline. See Alleghany Airlines Book Club Presents for the rules.

boondock and squop · n A shot which produces two results: a wink is boondocked, and the shooting wink comes to rest on another wink, squopping it.

bounce-in · n a wink that bounces on the mat before entering the pot.

bounce out · vi to shoot a wink that enters the pot but hits the interior of the pot or a wink inside the pot and comes out of the pot. Also n. (Winking World 1, page 4)

brace (Relle) vt = bridge. [First used by John Furlonger, 1961 or before] n (Relle) any two winks close together

bridge · vt to shoot a wink to squop two winks, neither of which are squopping the other. n a pile in which two winks are bridged. (Edwards, in Partridge, 1984)

bring-in · n a squidge-in or an approach shot from a distance.

bristol (also B-) n·  a gromp shot in which the face of the squidger is held perpendicular to the wink being played, and roughly parallel to the intended direction of the shot. Also vt. [from University of Bristol in England, where the shot originated.]

bristol good (also B-, G-) · n a shot in which the squidger is held as for a bristol, with an intended trajectory as in a Good shot. = (UK) Cambridge Good

bristollable (US) · a pile or squop in which the winks are positioned suitably for a bristol shot

bucket (UK) = n pot

butt · n a shot where a wink hits the edge of a target wink, usually with the objective of knocking the target wink off a pile. Also vt.

butt under · a shot, sometimes intentional, which rather than squopping the target wink nudges it under an existing pile

C

Cambridge blue · n a pale turquoise (also known as 'duck-egg green') colored wink or squidger that came in tiddlywinks sets from Marchant Games in the late 1960s; this color was used instead of blue, which was missing from these sets.

Cambridge Good (UK) = bristol good

Cambridge Open · British tournament, similar to an Individual Pairs but not so systematic; partners and opponents are drawn completely randomly each round. The player with the highest ppg after two days is the winner.

Cannonball · n nickname of Bill Renke in the early 1970s.

carno (also C-) (US) · n = carnovsky [a clipped form of carnovsky]

carnovsky (also C-) · vi, vt to pot a wink from a corner, usually a squidge-in of an unplayed wink. n a shot in which a wink was Carnovskied. [named after Steve Carnovsky, Harvard player in 1962, popularized in Life magazine.]

Carpenter's Fan Club (UK) · name used by WETS when competing in the ETwA Teams of Four; 1989-90 holders of the trophy

carve out (UK) = piddle

Catford Invitation · exclusive invitation tournament held at the home of, and under the influence of the cider of, Charles Relle

Chickens Courageous · n a US team formed from the TKOs.

Chickenhearts · n a US team combining Chickens Courageous and the Hearts of Oak (Coeurs de Chêne).

chip (UK) = piddle

Christmas pile · n a pile consisting of only green and red winks.

Christmas present = birthday present

circular squop · n (US; obsolete in UK) a pile in which all winks are squopped; sometimes, a pile of two winks with this property. In the UK, known as Thorpe's ring.

click off · n a shot in which a wink is removed from on top of another wink, where the squidger stroke stops abruptly by clicking on this other wink. Also vt.

click shot · n a shot played on a wink which is squopping another wink. The squidger's stroke on the played wink stops abruptly on this other wink, causing a sharp click sound. The other wink typically is intended to be left unmoved by this shot.

climb up (US) · vi to shoot a wink that bounces off the exterior side of the pot on its trajectory which leads into the pot.

Closet of Fame (US) · n a repository of tiddlywinks memorabilia in Bill Renke's house.

¹color order · n the prescribed official order of play of winks during a game: the cycle blue, green, red, and yellow (the alphabetical order of the colors in the English language)

²color order · n the tactical recognition of the importance of dealing with one color rather than another because of the ramifications of the order in which those colors play

color preference · n the desire of a partnership to play the winks of one color partnership (typically red and blue) rather than the other a query made prior to the commencement of a game to determine whether a partnership has a color preference

comb · vt to remove loose fluff from the mat with a comb

concave up · adj until the 1980s, nearly all winks had a slightly concave side and a slightly convex side. Concave side up was considered preferable by many winkers for most shots.

Congress · n Annual meeting of NATwA or ETwA members

constipated · adj a tactical situation in which all winks of a color (or a partnership, or all players) are busy squopping other winks and sometimes busy protecting piles.

Continentals · n (US) the NATwA team championship tournament that was traditionally held in February and first held in 1967. [Referring to the North American continent, the domain of NATwA.]

Cornell · n a US team from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.

corner · n the area behind a baseline on the mat.

counter (obsolete) = n wink (Hull Guildhall, 1962, in Winking World 4, page 11)

counterblitz · n an attempt to blitz by an opponent of a player that already has begun to blitz

Crown & Centipede · n a US team formed by Severin Drix

crud · n, vt (UK) = blowup. See also megacrud. (Winking World 5, page 5)

cuddle (US) · v to shoot a wink close to a pile, generally within a wink's diameter

Cullingham squop (UK) · Two winks both leaning against the pot but not touching. The top wink is a big wink, the bottom wink is a small one.

cup = n pot

CUTwC · n \CUT wuck\ Cambridge University Tiddlywinks Club, formed in 1955 and still active.

D

dance (US) · n the movements of a wink that is twirling around in the pot or on the mat before coming to rest.

Dave Taylor (UK) = Gottesman [after Dave Taylor, former CUTwC winker]

DB (US) = double boondock

DC5 (US) · n five NATwA winkers residing in the Washington DC metropolitan area: Dave Lockwood, Larry Kahn, Jim Marlin, Brad Schaefer, and Rick Tucker. [after the Dave Clark Five musical group of the 1960s; usage dates from the late 1980s to 1994, when Brad moved to Connecticut]

dead (US) · adj said of a mat with inadequate resilience

Debby Boone (US) = double boondock [Debby Boone, American singer.]

Delrin · n a plastic material sometimes used to make squidgers, generally black or white. First used by Rick Tucker. [Trademark of duPont]

denurdle · vi, vt to remove a wink from proximity to the pot, either by shooting that wink or by knocking it away with another wink

desquop (UK) · vi to manually free a wink, e.g. after a potout, failure-to-free (under the pre-1992 ETwA rules), or illegal shot (Winking World 1, page 2)

dock (UK) = boondock. (Devlin, 1985)

Dr. Fatty (UK) · nickname of British winker Nick Inglis

Dr. Superfatty (UK) · nickname of British winker Stew Sage

dominant corners · the pair of diagonally-opposite corners of a mat that are considered more desirable than the other pair of corners. When a player is standing behind a dominant corner, his right side is near the long (6 foot) side of the mat, and his left side is near the short (3 foot) side of the mat. [1990s]

double (US) · n a pile in which two winks are squopped by one wink. vt shoot to create a double

double blitz · simultaneous blitz attempts by both colors of a partnership

double boondock · n a boondock which sends two (opponent) winks far away

double-pot · n a game strategy in which both players of a partnership attempt to pot out. Such a strategy rarely succeeds in modern winks.

¹double-squop · n a game strategy in which both players of a partnership attempt to control their opponents by squopping, without intending to pot their own winks until control is obtained. (Winking World 4, page 8)

²double squop (rare) · a shot which sends two friendly winks towards two different target winks, often in different directions

doubleton (UK) = n double. [Originated by Relle; derived from term in the game of bridge]

drag off · vi, vt to knock a wink off another wink, leaving it nearby

Dragon Cup (US) · n a tournament sponsored by Dave Lockwood in 1979. Later, a challenge singles match (best score in five games), starting in 1989, patterned after ETwA's Jubilee Singles. [Dragon, nickname of Dave Lockwood]

drop-kick · vi (obsolete) [To be provided.]

drunken wink · n a wink which rolls and slides along the mat in an unexpectedly meandering fashion

DuPont, send it to (US, rare) · boondock with considerable force, with the intention of sending the boondocked wink off the table [Originally used by Dave Pinckney to Fred Shapiro, referring to sending the wink in the direction of the DuPont gymnasium, a building adjacent to the MIT Student Center; late 1970s. However, Fred thought he heard "send it to the pot"]

E

eat = (US) vt squop

egg cup = (rare) n pot

Eggs · n nickname of E. A. Willis

ETwA, Etwa · n English Tiddlywinks Association, founded in 1958

ETwAn · n a member of ETwA

On to F to J or up to the Index