SWAN Hill Returned and Services League (RSL) sub branch will partake in a long-running Australian tradition today.
As part of Anzac Day commemorative services, the RSL will run two-up, a gambling game only played once every 365 days.
Anzac Day is the one day of the year that clubs and pubs can legally hold games of two-up and Swan Hill RSL sub branch vice president Matt Down said it made for a special atmosphere.
“It gets very loud. A lot of people have fun,” he said.
The game will be led by an RSL committee member known as the ‘spinner’, who holds a wooden paddle on which two pennies are placed.
Before the spinner throws the coins up, bets are made between punters as to what way the pennies will fall — two heads, two tails or odds.
In previous years two-up has been played at the Swan Hill Jockey Club as part of the Anzac Day Races, but this year a special area has been cleared at the Curlewis Street RSL.
Mr Down said the two-up played at the Swan Hill RSL today will be slightly different from the original version played by the diggers in the trenches of World War 1.
“We simplified it. Come down if you haven’t tried it,” Mr Down said.
“It’s Australian history … we only get to play it once a year so it’s a lot of fun.”
This year the Swan Hill RSL spinner will use special commemorative pennies which have a red poppy on one side.
Head to Swan Hill RSL, 138 Curlewis Street from 11am today to get involved.
For more on this, pick up a copy of Monday’s Guardian (April 25, 2016).
