The grand winks cuppers tournament 2022

Registered teams

Squidgemmanuel (Emmanuel College)

Team captain: Linnea Roberts

The Sleepy Team

Team captain: Megan Vaughan

QWXCL

Team captain: Maja Seremak

Furchill College

Team captain: Anjalee Suthakaran

Forty Twinks (Newnham College)

Team captain: Bertie Politi

As of March 11^th, Squidgemmanuel had not completed a match, and forfeited twelve of sixteen games; in the interests of fairness to the other teams, their results have been voided.

QWXCL and Furchill were given a deadline extension to complete their remaining games and determine the second finalist. One of the two remaining games was played, but the extension period expired without the other, so that result was deemed 0-0 — meaning that QWXCL qualified for the final.

Final

The final of Cuppers was held in the Fisher Foyer of St John's from 7:30pm on Wednesday 15^th of June.

The Sleepy Team defeated QWXCL 13-11½.
Note: Singles games contribute half points, and in games of three, half the points of the singles player are transferred to their opponents, per the standing Cuppers rules.

Match report

Edward Brown

The Cuppers Final was a long time coming, having meant to be played at the end of Lent term; however due to the group matches requiring an extra week to complete, the final was postponed until Easter term. It then transpired that getting 8+ people in the same place during exam term, in a post-COVID era where few colleges are prepared to let us book a room, was incredibly difficult! In the end, the match was agreed to take place on Wednesday 15^th June, at the same time as the Relle, as a particularly enthusiastic President had booked the Fisher Foyer for that week despite knowing about the Relle. Due to the date being set, and immovable, both teams were disheartened to discover that they had a player each who could not attend the final, namely Joe from The Sleepy Team, and Alex from QWXCL. Both teams were instructed to find appropriate substitutes. On the night itself, 6 players and 2 umpires arrived excited to see which team would emerge victorious. The Sleepy Team had enlisted the services of Ex-President Drew to complete their team. QWXCL had less good fortune, and not only failed to find a substitute, but in fact managed to lose an additional player in the form of SJ. This left Maja and Alexei facing the near insurmountable task of winning despite either forfeiting two of the four games in the match or playing all four games as singles and hence losing half of their points from each game to their opponents. It was at this point that The Sleepy Team stepped up with all the spirit of Cuppers and CUTwC, and, not wanting to win such a hollow victory, donated their substitute Katherine Drew to QWXCL so that the match could be played as a 3v3. Such sportsmanship is wonderful to see, and warms this author's old and cynical heart. The games began with Edward Brown and Zach Bond umpiring a table each. Arguably, the umpires had the most to do in the first round of games, with more than half a dozen difficult calls needing to be made with the fate of their respective games in the balance; Zach even found time to polish the Cuppers Trophy in between decisions. The match eventually concluded a mere 45 minutes later than it was supposed to, much to the annoyance of those waiting for us at the Relle, and the Trophy was presented to The Sleepy Team along with a selection of prizes; two bottles of gin were awarded, along with some bonus chocolates for being such good sports. A consolation prize of chocolates was awarded to the runners up. Megan was warned that there will be consequences if she fails to return the Trophy next year.

Megan vs Katherine

A fast paced game with both players putting winks in the pot early. The score line arguably acts as a fair reflection of both players having to balance promoting their own potting threat while defending from their opponents. Neither player had a clear advantage at any stage. There were a lot of very marginal squops on which Zach had to pass judgement.

Chizzy and Fred vs Alexei and Maja

Not what one could call a conventional game of winks. Several winks were potted very early by both Chizzy and Fred, who then proceeded to not threaten a pot-out all game, instead opting to try and win a squoping game with fewer winks in play. Surprisingly, this worked, as their opponents were too distracted to pot winks before the game ended. Key piles changed hands multiple times. The score is perhaps not a fair reflection of what was ultimately a fairly balanced game, but the early potting never being countered was the downfall of QWXCL.

Megan vs Alexei and Maja

Another game where early potting did the damage. It pains me to report that an attempt at the Dave Taylor tactic led to a win (despite the fact that a pot-out was never achieved). However, I am here to report the events as they happened, so here they are. Megan attempted to rush the pot, and potted 4 of her green winks before stalling out and being squoped. The rest of the game was very open, with few sizable piles to speak of, particularly after the pile containing the squoped green was destroyed. At the conclusion of the game, there were only a handful of squoped winks, with most being flat singletons and some being in the pot. Ultimately, their late game potting cost QWXCL the chance to recover the win here.

Chizzy and Fred vs Katherine

A lesson in how to deal with a pot-out threat. Clearly brimming with confidence from her previous win, Kat won the squidge off, brought in very consistently around the pot, and then proceeded to pot several yellows while threatening the rest. Her opponents brought in less consistently, however they did manage to squop a single little yellow, after Kat foolishly decided it should be part of a pile in an attempt to rescue a green wink. Kat would have the last laugh though, as she detonated the pile to free her remaining yellows later in the game. What followed was most definitely a tactical learning experience for the Sleepy Team pairing. After Kat potted all but one of her yellow winks, the Sleepy Team pair proceeded to chase down the remaining greens while potting some winks of both of their colours but never committing to freeing sufficient winks of either colour to threaten a counter pot-out. Critically, the final yellow wink was completely ignored, which gave Kat the time she desperately needed, as the apparently cursed final wink sailed over the pot nearly a dozen times before eventually the pot-out was completed. The green winks were then potted competently. A lesson learned for next year.

Qualifying

Team sign-up

There is a sign-up fee of £10 per team. This fee covers tournament entry and provides all members of the team with a nominal membership to CUTwC for the entirety of Lent term (this allows members to turn up to CUTwC sessions throughout the term including Cuppers but does not entitle these members to vote on any Club issues unless they are also full members of CUTwC).

In order to form a team, all members of the team must be part of some common group, traditionally Cambridge colleges or departments. This group can be linked by something other than college/department, however it must be a reasonable link and what is considered reasonable is at the discretion of the tournament organiser. Collaborations are permitted (e.g. St John's and Trinity Colleges could form an unlikely partnership) but this should be acknowledged in the team's name where possible.

In order to enter the team the team captain must email the tournament organiser (Edward Brown) with:

• Their team name
• The team captain's name, college/department and contact details
• The name and college/department of at least one other member of the team (but preferably all three other members).

This must be done by the entry deadline, which is was 10:00pm Saturday 29^th January 2022.

Participants cannot change teams midway through the tournaments; however, substitutes for absent players are permitted at the tournament organisers' discretion. The tournament organiser must be informed of the name and college/department of all team members prior to their first involvement in a Cuppers match.

By entering the tournament, you acknowledge that you will have to pay the £10 entry fee for your team. This can be paid by either:

• Cheque payable to Cambridge University Tiddlywinks Club posted to Dr Stew Sage, Selwyn College, Cambridge, CB3 9DQ
• Bank transfer to "Cambridge University Tiddlywinks Club" using your team captain's CRSid as the reference; please contact the tournament organiser for account details
• Cash, payable to the Junior Treasurer during a Club meeting.

In the event that the tournament is cancelled due to COVID-related issues, then each team is entitled to a £5 refund.

Equipment

Each team member will be provided with a personalised squidger for participation, and mats and winks will be provided at Wednesday CUTwC meetings. If you need to rearrange matches then it is your responsibility to ensure that you a have a mat and a set of winks to use; these can be bought from the club or borrowed from other players.

If you have any specific requests for your team's squidgers, please contact the tournament organiser by Wednesday 2^nd of February — this relates to colour, team name, logo design if not a college crest, etc. The Club squidger smith may be able to accommodate requests where possible, but all squidgers made for the team must be identical.

The rules regarding the game and the tournament

A "Cuppers' Committee" consisting of Edward Brown, Zach Bond and Meghan Vaughan has been nominated to oversee the tournament. Any one of these may be considered "the tournament organiser" for the purposes of the below rulings, but any significant decisions will be discussed by all three.

The games themselves will be played using the standard ETwA rule set. A link to the simplified version of the rules (covering most aspects of play and being vaguely understandable for beginners!) as well as a link to the full rules are included below.

http://www.etwa.org/rules/simplerules.pdf

http://www.etwa.org/rules/rules2016.pdf

The rules and format of the tournament are to be as follows:

• The format will be an all-play-all, in which all five teams will play each other team once, followed by a Grand Final for the top two placed teams; the first stage will therefore consist of four matches per team.
• Matches must be completed by the end of the CUTwC meeting on Wednesday 9^th of March, and ideally before this time. If possible, the final will take place during the meeting on Wednesday 9^th of March 2022, otherwise it will have to be organised for a time between then and the end of the Lent Term.
• Matches will be organised by team captains, and announced via a Google Document accessible to all team captains. Once you have agreed when you will play your matches, please enter this into the Google Document so that other teams and the tournament organiser are aware. Ideally, please CC Edward Brown into all match organisation correspondences.
• Matches must be agreed upon in advance. Ideally, matches should be agreed upon at least 24 hours before the match start time.
• If a team cancels within 24 hours of the match start time, then the cancelling team will forfeit the match. It is much better to turn up missing one (or even two) players than to forfeit (see rules below).
• It is recommended that matches be played every week at CUTwC meetings; however, matches may be rearranged to an alternative date/time so long as both parties are in agreement (this includes the splitting of matches across multiple days/locations).
• It is strongly recommended that all teams aim to play all of their matches as soon as possible to avoid being unable to play matches due to positive COVID tests etc. — there are deliberately more weeks than you have matches to play in order to add some flexibility.
• Rearranging matches:
  • It is assumed that all matches will be played at Wednesday CUTwC meetings unless specified otherwise.
  • Rearranged matches do not require an umpire; however in the event of an in-game ruling being required, a third party may be enlisted to settle a dispute — any other disputes should be brought to the attention of the tournament organiser. The tournament organiser may need to be contacted to facilitate the borrowing of a mat/set of winks.
  • Every event should be made to rearrange matches if required by one team.
  • In the event of a walkover being claimed due to a match remaining unplayed, then the captain of the claiming team must submit satisfactory evidence to the tournament organiser that every effort was made to reschedule the match. Without evidence then the score of the match will be considered 0-0.
  • The points awarded for a successfully-claimed walkover are by default 20-0 (on the basis that five points from each of the four games in a match would be reasonable). However, this may be subject to adjustment following a decision by the Cuppers' Committee in order to be fair to all teams in the tournament.
• Matches consist of four games (2 × 2 simultaneous games with both pairs from each team of four playing both opposing pairs), each game taking approximately half an hour.
• Pair A and B may consist of different player combinations between matches (out of the four players in your team), but not within a single match.
• Missing players:
  • If one member of a pair cannot attend a match for any reason then the match can be played with only one member of a pair present.
  • In this event, the player playing singles will have half of their final points from each game transferred over to the opposing team.
  • If both pairs are missing a player, then all scores from the game are halved after being calculated to give the final game score.
  • The above rules are to ensure that it is always better to play a game singles than forfeit, but that it is always even better to have both members of a pair present.
• The score of each match is added together to create the final match score. E.g. a match with game scores 5-2, 3-4, 6-1, 6-1 would result in a final match score of 20-8.
• Should a match not be played by the deadline for any reason (except when a walkover is claimed successfully) then the score of that match shall be 0-0.
• Match scores should be emails to the tournament organiser as soon as they are available in full.
• In determining the order of the group, teams will be ranked firstly on points accumulated, then on match wins, and lastly on head-to-head.
• The Grand Final match will be the same as the group stage matches, but if the match would otherwise end in a draw, the teams will compete for a bonus point via a Peterhouse Pot-style game in which one player from each team is nominated to take part.

Any rule disputes should be brought to the attention of the tournament organiser immediately. The Cuppers' Committee's decision regarding any rule dispute is final.

The Cuppers' Committee reserves the right to alter or add rules to the tournament in order to prevent rule abuse.

For further information, please email the tournament organiser or see the CUTwC web site, https://cutwc.org.