“TWO-UP.”

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2112, 21 June 1907, Page 4

“TWO-UP.”

AN ANCIENT GAME,

MODERN DEVELOPMENTS.

“Two-up” has come into such prominence lately that a peep into the past of tho game is justifiable, says the Evening Post of Juno 4tli. “Twoup” is not a modern invention. It is really an old friend, pitch and toss, under a new name. Fifty or sixty years §go pioneers in New Zealand played pitch and toss with a couple of pennies in much the same style as the one adopted by their two-up descendants to-day. All over the English-speaking world “two-up” has a vogue. A visitor from Australia says this game has greater popularity there than even in New Zealand. In shearing sheds, in slaughter yards, or cab ranks, men are for ever tossing two pennies with the bit of wood known asTthe “kip.” It is only during the past ten years that “two-up” has come into any great prominence in Now Zealand, and the la'go increase in the numbor of players is ascribed to the growing prosperity of the country. The people have more money for gambling purposes, and tho simplicity of “two-up” appeals to the masses. A small pieco of board; which costs nothing, and two pennies are all that are required for a school. A few years ago Hagley Park, Christchurch, the site of the Exhibition ,was a favorite rallying-place for two-uppers. On Sunday afternoons numbers of youtßs and men used to congregate there and gamble, and by an elaborate system of scouts they managed to escape trouble for a long time, but in the end they wero routed by the subtlety of detectives, and changed their habitat. They began to play in a section adjoining the Theatre Royal, and there a “school” was surprised ono night by the police. Tho pupils fled, leaving afioat £4 ,10s in the ring. This money was never claimed. It was disjilayed in the Canterbury Industrial Exhibition half a dozen years ago, and was afterwards paid into the public account. In Wellington, some time back, '.“two-uppers” were wont to congregate in Kelboure, in the region of tho Botanical Gardens, and also at the back of the plantations on Mt. Victoria, but the march of progress has compelled them to take to darker quarters. In Dunedin, too, the penny tossers had a fondness for openair assemblies till a raid by detectives the other day discouraged them. In city and country alike “two-up” has many votaries. This pastime is especially jiopular along the North Island Main Trunk railway line. On a recent Sunday afternoon a traveller noticed £6O in one ring up there, and other authentic reports go to show that many of the workers are inclined to try and increase their shillings by pitching two pennies. To-day a Post reporter asked a police officer whether he considered that sharpers went up the lino to prey upon tho toilers. “Lots of men along the line can take down tho spielers,” was the reply. Two-up seems to appeal to gamblers because they consider it gives them a straight, even chance on each toss. Each player has a right to cry i“I bar” if ho thinks that the coins have not been .properly spun, and be may also take his turn at the kip. .There are tricks: in this trade, of course. Recently the writer saw a kip with a slit filed neatly in ono side for tho reception of a double-beaded penny. This instrument was found by the police on a man who bad no doubt used it to victimise” greenhorns. Palming, ordinary sleiglil-of-liand, is also practised for the confusion of simpletons.