The grand winks cuppers tournament 2024

Cambridge University Tiddlywinks Club Cuppers 2024 was a tiddlywinks tournament for teams of four consisting of an all-play-all stage, from which the top two teams will be placed into a final match for the title (TBC). This year there was no separate final stage. This competition was open to anyone who is a current undergraduate or postgraduate at either the University of Cambridge or Anglia Ruskin University.

As usual, no prior experience was required; training will be available. The winners received the Cuppers Trophy and “an undefined but extremely prestigious and valuable reward”.

In other terms, CUTwC has played the Nick Ashley ladder tournament.

For the 2023 Cuppers competition, see the 2023 Cuppers tournament.

See also the 2022 Cuppers, 2020 Cuppers and 2018 Cuppers tournaments — the 2019 tournament, while theoretically happening, seems to have been hypothetical.

Tournament Results

Congratulations to Carnovsky Cats, who won with a game and a half in hand (Team Inexperienced did not appear for the final round).


Game results
March 6th
Byron’s Bears16½-11½Medwinks
-
3-4
6-1
2-5
Newnham Irises12&frac;12-15½Splendiferous Winkers
5-2
-
2-5
4-3
February 28th
Byron’s Bears10½-17½Newnham Irises
6-1
1-6
2-5
-
Carnovsky Cats20-8Splendiferous Winkers
4-3
7*-0*
4-3
5-2
Medwinks2-5Team Inexperienced
2-5
February 21st and earlier
Byron’s Bears11-17Splendiferous Winkers
1-6
1-6
6-1
3-4
Newnham Irises19½-Team Inexperienced
6-1
6-1
3-4
-
Medwinks7-21Carnovsky Cats
1-6
1-6
1-6
4-3
Byron’s Bears3-11Carnovsky Cats
1-6
2-5
Medwinks14⅓-13⅔Newnham Irises
4-3
2-5
2⅓-4⅔
6-1
Splendiferous Winkers16-12Team Inexperienced
-
-
6-1
3-4
Newnham Irises6-22Carnovsky Cats
0*-7*
1-6
3-4
2-5
Medwinks14-14Team Inexperienced
6-1
3-4
1-6
4-3

Teams

The following teams have registered for Cuppers:

Team names and provided details
TeamCollege(s)Captain
Byron’s Bearsunknownunknown
Carnovsky Catsunknownunknown
Medwinksunknownunknown
Newnham Irisesunknownunknown
Splendiferous Winkersunknownunknown
Team Inexperiencedunknownunknown

Team sign-up

Please note that the deadline for signing up has now passed.

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 organisers. 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.

Participants cannot change teams midway through the tournaments; however, substitutes for absent players are permitted at the Tournament Organiser’s 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.

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 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 as soon as possible — 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

Sam Dernie has been nominated as “the Tournament Organiser” for the purpose of the below rulings.

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 six 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 five matches per team.
  • Matches must be completed by the start of the CUTwC meeting on Wednesday 13th of March, and ideally before this time. If possible, the final will take place during the meeting on Wednesday 13th of March 2024, otherwise it will have to be organised for a time between then and the end of the Lent Term.
  • There will no longer be a final play-off, so the Founders’ Cup will be presented on Wednesday 6th of March, decided by the all-play-all position.
  • 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 the Tournament Organiser 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.
  • 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 Tournament Organiser 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.
    • Substitutes are preferred over playing singles.
  • 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 emailed to the Tournament Organiser and web site maintainer 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 Tournament Organiser’s decision regarding any rule dispute is final.

The Tournament Organiser 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.