Sherds adopts a very broad definition of ‘heritage’, so no apologies for beginning this month’s column by drawing attention to the 70th anniversary of the establishment of tiddlywinks as a competitive university-based sport.
The three Christ’s College alumni who founded the Cambridge University Tiddlywinks Club (known as CUTwC, pronounced ‘cutwick’) in January 1955 returned to the university recently to reminisce. Bill Steen (now 91) remembered that ‘we were hopeless as athletes, and we were discussing our dismal chances of obtaining a blue – the award earned by Cambridge athletes competing at the highest level – against Oxford, due to our lack of talent. We decided our best chance was to invent our own sport – and preferably write the rules too!’
Peter Downes (now 86) remembered that ‘in those days, the sportsmen were kings, the real stars at university, and it was so competitive. So I think part of the idea behind it was to send this up – the idea of sportsmen being big and strong and beefy.’
Greater London: Excavating the CA archive