Tippit

Tippit is a Welsh game that dates back hundreds of years and similar games - including Up Jenkins - are played in parts of France, Iraq, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, and the USA.

The game is played using a small coin. Two teams of three face each other across a table and toss the coin to decide who goes first. The winning team put their hands under the table and move the coin unseen between the three pairs of hands. When ready, the centre player knocks three times on the underside of the table and all three pairs of clenched fists (one containing the coin) are placed on the table. The opposing team, who can confer, must then attempt to find the coin in the following manner.

The person who is trying to find the Tippit taps the hand of an opponent and says either:-

Games are usually played until one team reaches a score of 11.

There are minor regional variations in command words and game length but these rules remain essentially the same wherever the game is played.

The point of the game is that the team hiding the Tippit wants to make the opposing team guess the wrong fist. The game gets very tactical particularly in choosing in which hand to place the tippit and particularly skillful players play like good poker players, hiding their emotions or even trying to mislead their opponents using facial gestures, body language and verbal banter. The team guessing can often make an inexperienced player reveal the whereabouts by staring into their eyes or even visually examining hand positions.

A world championship is held in mid Wales each year. The game is still played in the pubs of mid Wales particularly around Rhayader, parts of Herefordshire / Gloucestershire and by adult leaders in some Wigan scout groups on jamboree weekends.

In 2006, Welsh television station S4C produced a gameshow of Tippit, called Tipit.

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