EP0766980A1

EP0766980A1 - Apparatus for playing a board game

Info

Publication number: EP0766980A1
Application number: EP95307013A
Authority: EP
Inventors: James Graham Brightmore
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1995-10-03
Filing date: 1995-10-03
Publication date: 1997-04-09

Abstract

Apparatus for playing a game which simulates snooker or pool, which apparatus comprises: a board or table marked or configured to simulate a snooker or pool table; flicking means which may comprise a tiddlywink; and a plurality of tiddlywinks, and a set of rules which dictate game play, said rules dictating that suitably coloured or otherwise identified tiddlywinks respectively represent black or coloured snooker or pool balls which are flicked, during game play by said flicking means to jump and thereby to be displaced into that part of the board or table simulating the pocket of a snooker or pool table.

Description

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to apparatus for playing a board game and, more particularly, to a board game which simulates snooker or pool.

Background to the Invention

Snooker and pool are very popular games which are widely enjoyed by television viewers and by those participants who can access a table in a public house or other public forum or who can afford to have a table in their own home. Notwithstanding the cost of the equipment, however, the space which a snooker or pool table occupies is prohibitive to many acquiring the apparatus for their own homes.
It is a general objective of the present invention to provide a board game which simulates snooker or pool but which does not require the expensive and voluminous equipment for those games.

Summary of the Invention

According to the present invention there is provided apparatus for playing a game which simulates snooker or pool, which apparatus comprises: a board or table marked to simulate a snooker or pool table; hand held flicking means which may comprise a tiddly wink; and a plurality of tiddly winks, and a set of rules which dictate game play, said rules dictating that suitably coloured tiddly winks respectively represent black or coloured snooker or pool balls which are flicked, during game play by said flicking means to jump and thereby be displaced into a simulated snooker or pool table pocket on said board or table.
For those who are unfamiliar with the term, a tiddly-wink is a disc that is used or usable in the popular long-standing English game of tiddly-winks. In the game one disc is used to flick another by transiently compressing the edge of the second disc against a surface causing the second disc to rebound jumping up and away from its rest place. The disc (see Figure 2) is commonly formed of a slightly resiliently flexible plastics material and with at least one face cambered to assist the flicking action.
The game of the present invention combines the fun of playing with tiddly-winks, causing them to jump from one location to another, with the environment of a snooker or pool game, greatly enhancing user enjoyment and enabling a game which would otherwise be played with more than a dozen balls to be played with a corresponding number of playing pieces, namely tiddly-winks, on a relatively compact surface. With playing pieces other than tiddly-winks such a compact game is not readily achievable.
Suitably the pockets are demarcated by printed lines marked upon the board at positions on the periphery of the board which simulate the respective positions of the pockets of a snooker or pool table. Alternatively or additionally, receptacle means such as, for example, egg cups may be provided at the locations on the board which represent the positions of the pockets.
Preferably the flicking means is used directly to flick one of the coloured or black ball representing tiddly-winks without intermediary of a cue ball-representing tiddly-wink.
The rules which dictate game play may alternatively dictate that firstly a tiddly wink which simulates the cue ball is flicked to land upon one of said coloured/black ball-representing tiddly winks and that then the latter tiddly winks are flicked to attempt to land them in a respective said pocket.
The order of landing upon or flicking respective coloured or black ball representing tiddly winks is suitably the same as is dictated by the normal rules for playing of snooker or pool.
Similarly, the rules for game play are effectively the same as those for snooker or pool in that scoring is achieved by flicking the ball-denoting tiddly wink into a pocket and if the player misses, the turn passes to the other participant in the game.

Brief Description of the Drawings

A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be more particularly described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a plan view of a board layout suitable for playing the game and illustrating the positions of the tiddly-winks corresponding to the balls of the game; and
Figure 2 is a side elevation view of a tiddly-wink.

Description of the Preferred Embodiment

Referring to Figure 1, around the periphery of the board there is a margin 2 which if a tiddly-wink is flicked to land therein or therebeyond constitutes flicking of the tiddly-wink out of play and as with genuine snooker or pool is equivalent to hitting the ball from the table.
The pockets 1 around the periphery of the board within the margin are located at the ends and intermediate region in relative positions just as they are in the genuine table. They do not, however, comprise holes with nets. Instead, they may simply comprise holes or may comprise line marked zones to represent holes or may comprise receptacles such as for example egg cups placed at the respective positions.
Any tiddly wink landing outside on a line or outside of the playing area is placed back in the triangle or on the correct colour spots marked on the board.
The score of the game may be kept by using a score board or clip board.
The initial positions of the tiddly winks representing the balls are marked upon the board in the conventional positions, viz (for snooker): a triangle of red ball-indicating tiddly winks 3 with pink 4 and black 5 ball-indicating tiddly winks respectively forward and behind the triangle of reds 3. The blue ball-indicating tiddly wink 6 being positioned forward of the pink 4 and the yellow 7, brown 8 and green 9 representing tiddly winks being positioned along the line at the opposing end of the board.
Following the rules of the game, firstly it is decided who will initiate game play by, for example, tossing a coin or dice. The opening player then selects any red tiddly-wink 3 in the triangle and flicks it from the triangle using his or her flicking means, which is normally an over-sized tiddly-wink.
The object is to flick the red tiddly-wink in one jump into one of the pockets 1. If the opening player fails to flick the tiddly-wink in that single move into the pocket 1 the turn moves on to the other player. If the red tiddly-wink 3 not only misses falling into a pocket 1 but also goes out of play (i.e off the playing surface) the other player/opponent can replace the red tiddly-wink 3 on its starting position within the triangle.
Scoring in the game is suitably evaluated on the following basis: potting of a red tiddly-wink scores one point, a yellow tiddly-wink two points, a green tiddly-wink three points, a brown tiddly-wink four points, a blue tiddly-wink five points, pink tiddly-wink six points and black tiddly-wink seven points. Conversely, when the player flicks one of the tiddly-winks out of play the following range of penalty points are awarded against him: four points for a red, yellow, green or brown and five, six and seven points, respectively, for blue, pink or black.
Provided that the player succeeds in landing the flicked tiddly-wink into a pocket 1 he can then proceed to continue flicking successively the ball-representing tiddly-winks until he misses. Once the player misses the turn automatically moves to the other player.
In the instance that a red tiddly-wink goes out of play the opponent can have it replaced on any of the available spots within the triangle that they choose to their advantage. The remaining colours 4-9 are to be replaced on their respective spots on the board.
Accidentally touching or moving of tiddly-winks other than the appropriate selected tiddly-wink will lead to an award of penalty points.
The winner of the game is the one who, upon completion of the game, attains the highest overall score once penalty points have been deducted.
In the pool variant of the game, as with conventional pool, each player attempts to pot, i.e jump a tiddly-wink into a pocket, the tiddly-wink of his chosen colour and if he succeeds first is obliged to play that colour until the end of that game whilst the other player must play the alternative colour.
The game is concluded when the player who pots all of their colour of tiddly-winks first has finally potted the black tiddly-wink.
Penalty points are awarded against a player if his/her tiddly-wink goes out of play. In this case the penalty is that the opponent has two shots instead. If a player accidentally knocks the black tiddly-wink into a pocket then the game is won by the opponent automatically.
If a player knocks his opponent's tiddly-wink into a pocket a two shot penalty is awarded to the opponent.
Where one tiddly-wink lands on another it may be replaced on a spot in the triangle without penalty.
In an alternative embodiment of the invention the board is a table which may, for example, be a miniaturised snooker or pool table or may be a table that doubles as a general purpose table as well as being a snooker or pool table for the purposes of the invention. The pockets may comprise recesses, apertures or any other receptacle means in or on the board or table.

Claims

Apparatus for playing a game which simulates snooker or pool, which apparatus comprises: a board or table marked or configured to simulate a snooker or pool table; hand-held flicking means which may comprise a tiddlywink; and a plurality of tiddlywinks, and a set of rules which dictate game play, said rules dictating that suitably coloured or otherwise identified tiddlywinks respectively represent black or coloured snooker or pool balls which are flicked, during game play by said flicking means to jump and thereby be displaced into that part of the board or table simulating the pocket of the snooker or pool table.
Apparatus as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2, wherein the apparatus is apparatus for playing a board game and comprises a board marked to simulate a snooker or pool table.
Apparatus as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the playing surface of the board or table is marked with the starting positions for each tiddlywink representing a respective black or coloured snooker or pool ball.
Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the rules dictate that when a black or coloured snooker or pool ball - representing tiddly wink is flicked out of play by a player it is replaced on its starting position for the benefit of the player's opponent.
Apparatus as claimed in Claim 1, 2, 3 or 4 wherein the rules dictate that the coloured or black ball-representing tiddlywinks are flicked directly by the flicking means to attempt to jump them into a respective said pocket.
Apparatus as claimed in any preceding Claim 4, wherein the order of flicking respective coloured or black ball-representing tiddlywinks is the same as is dictated by the normal rules for playing of snooker or pool.
Apparatus as claimed in any preceding Claim 1, wherein scoring is achieved by flicking the ball-denoting tiddlywink into a pocket and if the player misses the turn passes to the other participant(s) in the game.
Apparatus as claimed in any preceding Claim, wherein the tiddlywinks are numbered or otherwise marked to alter the manner in which scoring is calculated.