Friends, Romans and Tiddlers, send me your beers!
For those of you who don’t know, Tiddlywinks was invented in the 1880s and became one of the most popular games played by adults and children alike.
A part of the Tiddlywinks story involves Prince Philip (of course he was Patron of Round Table Britain & Ireland for many years) who, in the 1950s, appointed the Goons as his “Royal champions” and presented the Prince Philip “Silver Wink” trophy, first played for in 1961, at the British Universities Championship.
So what are we on about?
Our story starts on 30th March 1968 when John Williams from Bedworth invited sundry Tablers along to the first Hi Tiddle in Wales where they scaled dizzy heights to play the great game at the summit of Mount Snowdon.
This first Tiddle turned into an annual Round Table (Area 45 Midland Shires) event and over the years, each organising committee have adopted some traditions from previous years and adapted others. We have stayed reasonably true to the initial “Rules For Match”, although these days, the “standard “Spears” pot and target” has been replaced with a rather natty “Tiddle Board” featuring the Round Table Rondel (winks landing on the King naturally meriting the highest score).
Each Table’s total is then added up and the Table with the highest average is the winner.
Oh, by the way, before you can “Tiddle”, you still have to climb a mountain– hence Hi Tiddle.
Hi Tiddle 2023
This year’s Hi Tiddle weekend was organised by Market Harborough Round Table and 41 Club in the beautiful town of Caerleon located just outside Newport on the scenic River Usk.
Caerleon was originally founded as a Roman fortress and still has a Roman amphitheatre and a fine range of pubs and restaurants which Tiddlers enjoyed on the night before our Tiddle walk.
Oh… and we were joined by some Roman soldiers all the way from Rugby Round Table.
Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny and over 100 hardy (or was it foolhardy) Tablers and 41ers made their way from the hotel to Abergavenny to join in a leisurely stroll starting from Abergavenny Cricket Club to the top of The Sugar Loaf.
Leisurely is, of course, a relative concept.
Thankfully the weather stayed bright although as you can see it was a bit windy at the top.
The Tiddle hats from a previous year’s Tiddle were put to good use to prevent “fly away” hair (at least for 2 Tiddlers).
Once everybody had Tiddled at the Tiddle Point – a tent set up close to the top of The Sugar Loaf, they then wound their way down the mountain and back to Abergavenny Cricket Club.
What could be better than a few beers and fellowship in the spring sunshine amongst “like minded” friends?
And so, to the Saturday night formal dinner where we were entertained by the fabulous Mynyddislwyn (try getting that through predictive text) Male Voice Choir and our Guest Speaker, Rugby League and Union international and British & Irish Lion, John Bentley.
And of course, the awards……….
The Tiddle Tendence for the Highest Attendance at Tiddle was won by Nuneaton.
The Too Tiddled To Tiddle Award goes to whoever was too drunk on the Friday to make it on the Saturday Tiddle
The Tiddle K**b Award with our photographs showing the winner of the award both at the dinner and undertaking a Health & Safety assessment during the Tiddle walk. Let’s just say that it isn’t strictly true that nothing is worn under a kilt. Ouch!
And finally, the winners of the Hi Tiddle competition and organisers of next year’s event…………. Kenilworth
And then we came to the Sunday departure.
Like every Tiddle Committee that has gone before, the team from Harborough worked extremely hard this year to deliver a great event for a very wide age range.
Whatever approach the incoming team from Kenilworth take in 2024 we know that, like Nuneaton last year and Harborough this year, they will do their best in service of an event that we all love. We wish them all the best.
May the fun and fellowship of this very special event continue long into the future! And if you haven’t Tiddled yet, why not?
Market Harborough 41 Club and Market Harborough Round Table