Forget the Olympics, Carbonear’s World Cup of Tiddly is this weekend
By Olivia Bradbury / Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Tiddly, also known in some places as Piddly, is a game that has been played in various communities in Newfoundland for generations. According to Tiddly enthusiast Judy Cameron, the game is believed to have been brought to Newfoundland from England or Ireland during the Elizabethan era.
Research by Edward Lake cited Argentia as the place the game first surfaced on the island. Other towns where residents have been known to play Tiddly include Fogo, White Bay, Springdale, Bay Du Nord, Pilley’s Island, various parts of Trinity Bay, Placentia Bay and the Southern Shore, and parts of St. John’s.
Newfoundlanders have even encountered what seem to be variations of the game played abroad. However, the community that perhaps has the strongest history of Tiddly is Carbonear, where it remains a facet of the town’s culture today. Every summer, Carbonear hosts the World Cup of Tiddly. The 15th Annual World Cup of Tiddly will be held this weekend.
Among the players will be Jane Dwyer, a 47-year-old English teacher who grew up in Carbonear. She considers herself more artistic than athletic, but about 14 years ago her aunts asked if she would play Tiddly with them. Her aunts had played in the World Cup of Tiddly Tournament the year before. Dwyer, on the other hand, had never played sports. Her aunts taught her how to play the game and gave her some background on it. When they were younger, her aunts and their peers would play Tiddly in a place called Davis’ Garden, which was a field in Carbonear.
Dwyer’s father came from a family of 13 children and, with so many mouths to feed, they did not have money to spend on sports equipment such basketballs or baseball gloves. Tiddly, however, was accessible to most youths because the materials needed were easy to acquire: rock or bricks, and sticks. The game dropped off in popularity in the 1960s as prosperity and television introduced other sports and entertainments for young people. People were also better able to afford the equipment required for other sports. However, in 2008, the game was brought back in Carbonear thanks to Judy Cameron, who established the World Cup of Tiddly.
“She’s the heart and soul. She’s the person who’s trying to keep it alive,” said Dwyer.
In Tiddly, there are five or six players on each team. There are two sticks — one long and one short — as well as a pair of bricks placed parallel to each other. Much like in baseball, there’s an infield and an outfield. To decide which team is “in” and which is in the outfield, the team captains toss the long stick back and forth to each other three times. The last one to catch it tries to do so as close to the top as possible. Afterwards, the captains go hand over hand, and the team of whichever captain whose hand ends up closest to the top gets to be “in.”
The first element of a turn is the Hook Off, which involves balancing the short stick across the bricks and a player hooking it off with the long stick, sending it into the outfield. If someone on the opposite team catches the stick in mid-air, the player is out. If the stick is not caught, the long stick is laid across the bricks and the opposite team has to try to hit it by throwing the short stick back from where it landed. If they succeed, the player is out, but if they do not, the player gets to move onto the second phase, called the Bat Out.
This involves holding or tossing up the short stick and hitting it into the outfield with the long stick. If the short stick is caught, the player is out. If the short stick is not caught, then from the spot where it lands, the opposing team will throw it back as close to the bricks as possible. After that, the long stick is used to measure the distance between the short stick and the bricks. For each long stick length, the batter’s team gets a point.
The final phase is the Tiddly. In this phase, the short stick is placed upright against one of the bricks so that the top of the stick extends above it. With the long stick, the batter then hits the short stick so that it spins up in the air, and then they bat it into the outfield. If the opposing team does not catch the stick, points are again tallied for the batter’s team based on the distance the stick landed from the bricks.
In the World Cup, men and women play in separate matches, a team of each sex being named Tiddly champions at the end of the tournament. Players must be at least 16 years of age to participate in the tournament. This year, Dwyer’s daughter, Sophia, who has watched her mother play Tiddly since she was a toddler, is finally old enough to participate. Dwyer said the age restriction is for safety reasons. While the sport is low impact, requiring no running, it can result in injuries — Dwyer has broken a finger twice playing the game. Equipment often consists of gardening gloves, which helps in holding the stick, and goggles or, more often, heavy sunglasses. Dwyer sids the tournaments are round-robins, with each game lasting a half hour.
In the World Cup of Tiddly, team names must have a historical significance to Carbonear. Dwyer’s a member of Knox’s Nuggets, as is her sister, Laura Haraga. Knox’s Nuggets are five-time winners of the World Cup of Tiddly. The name comes from Dwyer’s great-great grandfather who lived by Knox’s Hole, a popular swimming spot in Carbonear. He eventually left the town to work in the mines, hence the name Knox’s Nuggets. Other team names include the Harbour Rock Hillbillies, Skipper’s Boys, Crocker’s Cove Crackies, D’Iberville Raiders, and so on.
“If I were to tell people anything about this, it’s a good way to keep history alive,” said Dwyer of the game. She said reading or having someone tell you about the game is good, but not the same as experiencing it yourself. More young people have been getting involved in the sport —with a number of teenagers competing at this year’s tournament, some of them constituting an entire team. “Once they get out and they start to play these games, it then becomes part of who they are,” Dwyer said.
The 15th Annual World Cup of Tiddly was supposed to take place in Carbonear last weekend, but was delayed due to weather conditions. Weather permitting, it will go ahead at the Carbonear Recreation Complex on Saturday August 10 starting at 2 p.m.