For most, seven hours in a pub would result in little more than an empty wallet and a sore head. But Patrick Barrie's recent gruelling session was rather more fulfilling – as he won the tiddlywinks world title for a 12th time.
The Cambridge university professor retained the title on Thursday by seeing off an American challenger nicknamed the Dragon, also known as 11-times world champion Dave Lockwood.
The venue for this clash of tiddlywinks titans? The Castle Inn pub in Cambridge. No spectators went to the 2025 final and it is thought there was a similar attendance this time around.
Professor Barrie, 61, who is part of Cambridge's Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, compared the format to a boxing world title, with the reigning winner of the World Singles Tiddlywinks Championships only able to be challenged by national title winners.
Of his latest title – a hard-fought 26-23 victory – he added: 'It's a curious mixture of elation and relief. I'm very pleased.'
Tiddlywinks is a game in which players try to get small plastic discs into a cup by pressing one piece against another to make it fly through the air.
It can be traced back to late Victorian times but the birth of the modern game stems from a group of Cambridge undergraduates meeting in Christ's College in 1955, the English Tiddlywinks Association said.
Reigning champion Patrick Barrie from Cambridge takes part in the 2026 World Singles Tiddlywinks Championship, at the Castle Inn pub in Cambridge
The trophy on display during the 2026 World Singles Tiddlywinks Championship
Patrick Barrie from Cambridge (left) and challenger David Lockwood from USA in the gruelling seven-hour fixture
Mr Barrie added: 'It was close, hard-fought. The relief is because I was favourite to win and expected to win, which puts you under a different type of pressure.
'I know Dave, I've known him a long time, and he's a formidable opponent on his day.
'I had to do my best to make sure it wasn't his day.'
He said that the pair 'have a rivalry' and he was 'glad to come out on top' and win the trophy.
Mr Lockwood, 73, has won 11 titles – including nine in a row from 1978 to 1982 when more than one title match took place each year.
He revealed he had surgery for a bleed on his brain this year and that while he was 'at least 99 if not 100 per cent recovered", his plan was to 'probably greatly reduce my winking activity after 56 years of doing it after this series of matches'.
Professor Barrie said tiddlywinks is 'a nice mixture of physical skill, but with some intellectual thinking'.
'You've got to think about strategy and tactics, you have to control your nerves,' he said. It doesn't take long to become good at all the shots.
Tiddlywinks is a game in which players try to get small plastic discs into a cup by pressing one piece against another to make it fly through the air
Umpire Harley Jones uses a torch to check whether 'winks' are touching during the 2026 World Singles Tiddlywinks Championship
The world-champion described his fixture against the American as 'like a boxing world title' in its challenger format
'If you practice the shots a lot you become good at the shots fairly quickly, within six months or so. But knowing when to play the shots is what takes quite a lot of years to develop.
'When I was young I took up lots and lots of hobbies and I little thought the only one I would still be doing decades later would be playing tiddlywinks, and competitively.'
Harley Jones, who is chairman of the English Tiddlywinks Association, was the umpire of the championships.
The 34-year-old, of Ely, Cambridgeshire, said tiddlywinks was 'like chess if you could miss' and Thursday's game was 'really nail-biting'.
He said there are just two national singles championships, the English and the American and there are 'about 120 people in the world ratings which is the number of people who've played in a tournament in the last year'.
Mr Jones said it was a 'privilege' to umpire and 'observe this high level of play', adding: 'It's a game that really rewards the time you put in and the thought you put in, the training and practice.'
Titleholder Professor Barrie said he has a challenge booked against Tim Hunt, 'the current British champion – I only came second last year'.
He said the pair will meet this weekend to discuss arrangements for the next World Singles Tiddlywinks Championships, possibly to be held in the spring.
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