Having a similar format to the Olympics, the Commonwealth Games began life in 1930 as the British Empire Games and went through a few name changes until the current style was adopted in 1978. The Games, nicknamed ‘the Friendly Games’, take place every four years in one of the Commonwealth member countries. Wales has hosted it once, Scotland thrice and England twice, with a third English event scheduled for 2022.

The constituent nations and dependencies of the United Kingdom send separate teams, so, for example, the Isle of Man has sent its own athletes since 1958 and hosted the Commonwealth Youth Games in 2011.

Also in 1958, when the Games were held in Cardiff, there started the tradition of the Queen’s Baton Relay whereby a message from the Leader of the Commonwealth of Nations ~ formerly Queen Elizabeth II ~ sends a message inside a baton to arrive at the Games’ Opening Ceremony. In 1998 in Kuala Lumpur, the baton arrived outside the stadium atop an elephant!

The host nation helps to choose which sports are included and the variety has gradually increased over the years. Sports such as cricket, netball, lawn bowls, hockey and archery have all made an appearance. Australia has been the most successful participant overall.

(Top image of 2010 badminton team medallists: Doma-w at Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0)

Hampshire-born John Assheton Fincher (1863-1900) was a London bank clerk who tried his hand at a few inventions, one of which was the board game ‘Tiddlywinks‘. The patent was registered in 1889, as was its original name, ‘Tiddledy-Winks’. It was taken up by the John Jaques & Son company and quickly became popular as a simple, light-hearted contest for all ages, the aim being to propel your winks (counters) into the central pot by pushing down on the wink edge with your squidger (big counter), thereby scoring tiddlies (points).

With jargon such as this (see the whole list provided by the English Tiddlywinks Association), it inevitably found its way into universities. In 1958 students at Cambridge even challenged HRH Prince Philip (1921-2021) to a tiddlywinks match! He accepted but put The Goons in as his team. They lost. From 1961 onwards, the Prince presented the prize to the winners of the university Silver Wink tournament. That decade saw the highest number of universities participating in tiddlywinks, with the mainstay of Cambridge enduring to this day.

Aside from this, tiddlywinks is more usually known as a children’s game, sold either on its own or as part of a games compendium with a multi-purpose board, cup and counters.

(Image of a Tiddledy-Winks boxed game sold in the USA in 1897: Miami University Libraries at Flickr.com / Public domain)