"Does Prince Philip cheat at tiddlywinks?"

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In response to the article. Off went an official challenge to Buckingham Palace, this time it was accepted! But the Prince would need a team ­ and this time the Goons responded to his request. Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe, Peter Sellers would be there and together with BBC announcer Wallace Greenslade, Graham Stark, Max Geldray and writers Alan Simpson and Ray Galton would join Prince Philip on the mat against the might of the C.U.Tw.CIn late February 1958 the eyes of the world were trained on Cambridge Guildhall where the battle of the winks would be fought. The Cambridge University team practiced, training on Babycham. The Royalists trained on Guinness supplied by the team leader. Quite what liquid refreshment was taken by the umpires, John Snagge of the BBC and Chris Brasher of Cambridge University, has not been passed down to history.

Then came tragedy; just before the match came the news of a royal injury. John Snagge read a message from the Palace: "Unfortunately while practising secretly I pulled an important muscle in the second or tiddly joint of my winking finger". It continued in suitably diplomatic terms. "Please give my best wishes to the two teams taking part in the great contest" . . . but then Snagge was urged: "but try, if you can, to do it in such a way that you convey that I wish the Cambridge team to lose and my incomparable champions to win a resounding and stereoscopic victory". It concluded: "Wink up; fiddle the game and may the Goons' side win. Philip"

But without the presence of HRH the battle was doomed to defeat. From the moment Chris Brasher fired the squidge-off the university lead player, Peter Downs, swept into action.

In a brilliant opening session he succeeded in establishing an All-England record for the most points scored in the Cambridge Guildhall on a rainy Saturday by cupping all five of his winks without any of them being squopted first by the visiting players. In fact it was this element of the game that was to prove the Goons' downfall; only once in the match did they succeed in this vital strategy, and that was when Mr Harold Secombe managed to cover captain Spike Milligan's wink. The resultant language would have made even a royal prince blush.

During the half-time interval for refreshments of leeks, sticks of rhubarb and glasses of champagne perry, the Goons were noticed to be perspiring badly.

Knowledgeable exponents of the finer points of the game agreed that their team uniform of voluminous yellow surplices, orange, yellow and black striped caps and grey ties bearing the insignia of the Royal Tiddlywinks Club was not helping.

Falling increasingly further behind, the visitors tried various diversionary tactics. A riot almost broke out when "Slugger" Secombe was accused of bellying Blue winks away from the cup every time he bent down ­ but the umpire ruled that his stomach extended beyond the three-mile limit and so he had no jurisdiction over it.

Then Peter Sellers stopped the proceedings by invoking Bluebottle but to no avail. The Goons were massacred by a massive 1201Ž2 to 501Ž2.

Prizes were awarded by the Mayoress of Cambridge and the tournament ended with an inspired rendering of the Tiddlywinks Anthem to the tune of Men of Harlech before the Royal champions slumped off, roundly defeated.

The reaction from the Palace was not recorded, but it was to be many years before members of the Goons received royal honours ­ and it was Prince Charles, not his father, who presented Spike Milligan with his honorary knighthood!

But Prince Philip's involvement with the Cambridge University Tiddlywink Club had not finished.

In 1961 he awarded a Silver Wink, which still bears his name, to be competed in an annual contest between the University of Cambridge team and another ­ only in the absence of the Goons it is now the University of Oxford!