Anzac Day Festivities
Morning all.
Well, I’ve gotten off to a bit of a slow start after the long weekend, and I really can’t be stuffed thinking of anything to write, so let me instead introduce you to the marvellous sport of two-up. Two-up is a traditional Australian gambling event, played on Anzac day each year, usually accompanied by our national beverage, beer.
My first experience of two-up was this year, and at first it seemed that the object of the game was to stand around a large mat yelling at each other at the top of your voice and brandishing money. After observing the game for a short period of time, I discovered that the object of the game is in fact to stand around yelling at each other, but also to place bets with people who are at least equally as drunk as you are, based on the outcome of tossing a couple of coins. Naturally, I dived into the fray.
Now, the greatest part of two-up is the role of the referee, whose job is to indicate to the participants whether the result is heads, tails, “onesies”, or a no throw. This is done by making extravagant hand gestures, followed by a large cheer or jeer from the crowd. A call of heads or tails also inevitably results in a large transfer of money. The referee is also required to swing his arm about wildly to motion “come in spinner”, at which point the spinner will step in and “spin” the coins. Two heads results in a win for the spinner, two tails results in a loss, and “onesies” results in a respin. If the coins are not tossed high enough, hit the roof, or roll off the mat, there is also a respin. This resulted in several contentious decisions made by the referee, when the coins had come up heads, but had just barely touched the roof, much to the dismay of half the crowd (and the relief of the other half).
I managed to end the night down $10, which was a reasonable result, considering most of the people there were brandishing $100 notes around like there was no tomorrow. I guess this conforms to the true Anzac spirit, because for many of them, there wasn’t.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, two-up is illegal for the other 364 days of the year, so I guess I’ll have to spend that time saving up for next year, so I too can bet ludicrous amounts of money on the toss of a couple of coins. I’ll see you there.
April 29, 2004 11:42 am 
