Tomorrow is ANZAC Day here in Australia, one of the few days of the year you are legally allowed to play Two-Up in parts of Australia. (Australian War Memorial. How to play.)
Two Up is a game that was played by throwing two coins high into the air (preferably two old-fashioned pennies) and betting on the outcome. It was played in the trenches and on the troop ships, back at home and was pretty much a national sport.
Judging by the huge number of “two-up school raided” articles I have found a lot of men spent their spare time furtively throwing coins up into the air and hoping for the best.
Goulburn Evening Penny Post 17 Apr 1923 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article102875176
I think these men caught 1923 could have found a better place to play though, don’t you? Having an illegal two-up school behind Adelaide Gaol was probably not their smartest moment 🙂
Apparently it is still illegal here in Victoria but a blind eye is turned tomorrow because of its historical significance.
I am amazed that it is still illegal, after all they have relaxed the rules on gambling so much in recent years that you can bet on pretty much anything else, and those hugely annoying betting commercials are on during every sporting event aren’t they?
Sunday Times 8 Oct 1944 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59324039
Buried words and Bushwa. 
Can you explain why it’s referred to as a ‘school’? Two countries divided by a common language, indeed!
I really don’t know why this term is peculiar to us!
According to the Free Dictionary it is an Australian term for a group of people gathered together for gambling. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/school
What is the British term for a collection of gamblers?
Apparently the correct collective noun is ‘talent’! A talent of gamblers.
I was tickled the other day by a picture of two crows that was captioned ‘attempted murder’… perhaps a little too obscure for most people?
Attempted murder? I love that! A murder of crows is one of my favourite collective nouns. That and a shiver of sharks. 😀
Fascinating! Both the gambling game and the use of the word “school.”
We are divided by our common language, but that doesn’t prevent me from sharing the wacky image that came to mind — a school of fish at a casino, playing poker.
I like that image, finny gamblers in an underwater casino. Pearls for chips? 😀
I always see it as a group of not so good gamblers being schooled in why they, and their money, should have stayed home!
It seems a pretty harmless game to me, I wonder why it was banned. I wonder whether it ever took off in Canada when the boys from there went home.
Have a great ANZAC day. Hugs xxxx
It does seem harmless but Australians have a reputation for betting on everything, including two flies walking up a wall. I still can’t find a definitive reason why it was banned though.
I am intending to spend ANZAC Day hard at work in the veg garden and will probably get pizza for dinner because I will be too buggered to cook!
I will be thinking of those whose sacrifice ensured that we have the choice to do something like that, there are many places around the world where life is not so peaceful.
I recently read an article in “Archaeology” (April-May issue) about ANZAC and now understand the need to honor these men. Have a great day.
Thank you. 🙂
Celebrating the ANZACs becomes more popular as time goes on. Hordes of people even travel to the beach at Gallipoli now just to be right there for the dawn service.
I’m impressed. I wish there was more enthusiasm here for our ‘honor days.’
For those who are really fit there is the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea where hundreds of our soldiers died in WWII. http://kokoda.commemoration.gov.au/
Nearly 100 kms of hilly jungle and people make the pilgrimage all the time. Football teams do it as a team building exercise, families do it for their grandfather or uncle who died there. It seems Aussies have really embraced that part of their history, I think it is great!
Went to that site and have bookmarked it. WOW and THANKS
🙂
Enjoy ANZAC Day! The sacrifice of Australian and New Zealand troops, particularly in World War I, is well worth remembering and commemorating.
I will! The kids and the Man even have Friday off too so we are REALLY going to enjoy a four day weekend 😀
Do you have a similar day there?
No one here even knows what ANZAC Day is, but we celebrate Memorial Day at the end of May. And for we good folks in the Southern US, we have Confederate Memorial Day, which in South Carolina is commemorated on May 10.
I didn’t think that anyone other than the Aussies, New Zealanders and the Turks would really remember the ANZACs. 🙂
Keeping the memory of your soldiers alive is really important whatever country you live in.
So true. And, yes, I would think the Turks most certainly remember.
It would be nice if the British did as well, since they devised the whole Dardenelles’ mess.
Great post Metan. And I suspect Two-Up would be legalised if they could work out some way of taxing it. 😀
Oh no, they couldn’t possibly legalize it! That might be a few more gambling dollars being filtered away instead of going to something other than the pokies or Crown! 😉
lol – And we can’t have that, now can we? 😉
When I was growing up, here in South Oz in the 1950’s, the blokes used to play “two up” down in the mangrove swamps… of course we were forbidden from ever going near the place.
Knowing this part of the world like I do… I reckon that in 1923 behind the Adelaide Gaol was a pretty good postion but seems like their fellow “keeping nit” must have been pretty lousy at his job. (no pun intended)… ha ha ha 😀
Mangrove swamps would be a great place to hide out and play. It isn’t like anyone could sneak up too easily could they? Squelch squelch glub glub 😀
I bet the lookout was looking the wrong way, at the game, not the police!
Your last para had me awfully visualising that bloody Tom Waterhouse spruiking a commercial for Two Up 😦 ANZAC Day Two Up is gold exactly the way it is. This year we didn’t participate-donate but it’s a great institution and exactly as you say, no undeserving middleman derives benefit from Two Up other than the lucky winners, and if the venue is a pub, as happens on ANZAC Day at Taylors Arm a lot of money goes over the bar but everyone has a good day, the RSL makes some money and hands out free rum and breakfast for Dawn Service attendees, and sandwiches and nibbles for the lunch time ANZAC service crowd who also may invest a little cash in a traditional game of Two Up. Nearly everyone is local, so winnings and losings just acts to redistribute wealth or lack thereof within the community.
I agree, a bit of local gambling on a special occasion just redistributes funds locally and if someone gets greedy it is pretty clear and will only affect their future popularity!
I am just listening to ABC news on the radio and they are really riding the weekends little public horse racing spat between Gai and Singo! I am not sure how anyone thought a top level horse trainer whose son and husband are both bookies could keep an unbreachable wall between home life and her family making a few more bucks…. Maybe that’s just me though….. 😉
Those ads with Tom Waterhouse are hugely annoying, even more now he is trying to convince us that he has no insider knowledge, after all, he talks up his racing connections in every ad!
I hate that TW has bought his way into a commentary position for our NRL Friday night football. Gai & Singo fighting makes me laugh… rich people’s problems!
Rich people’s problems indeed! “I hate you and I will be sending a truck around in the morning to get my racehorses back.” Poor pet. Life is hard….
TW commenting on the rugby? Blah. Once he went from obscurity to bookmaking seemingly overnight I just expected it was because he had no discernible talent and that way mum and dad could keep an eye on him…
So interesting!
Thanks! 😀