The Game – by Ray ‘Jacko Jackson

No more bets big Nick cried, as the pennies went up,
And they spun round and round in the air
Tails he called when they came down to rest,
For the spinner it was sheer despair.

He tossed the kip down on the ground in the ring;
that was a quick lost ten quid
This is bush two-up the way it was played,
back when I was a kid

Out in the bush off the Broadarrow road,
six miles from Kalgoorlie town
You turn off the tar and on a rough track
this is the way you go down

A circle of pipe with the ground inside sealed,
to make it a surface for playing
The real Aussie game, fair and honest with fun,
not like casinos I’m saying

Old sheets of iron formed into rough walls
for keeping out some of the dust
Also a few sheets make up a tin roof,
but mostly they are all just rust

One row of boards just outside the ring,
for old blokes to sit on and bet
As Nick walks around with a fistful of notes
getting the next spinner set

Bet some money heads, bet ya twenty tails,
all round the ring voices cry
All set big Nick yells and the pennies go up,
spinning our hopes in the sky

Another flat tails, one more spinner done,
white crosses on pennies are blinking
I’ll give it a go a new spinner cries,
its ten heads from him I am thinking

He throws the coins up, his sixth set of winners;
his mates all round him are calling
Its money for jam the big miner yells
as down the bright pennies are falling

One comes down tail up, the other on edge;
it rolls cross the ring to the side rail
All eyes are fixed on the little brown coin;
the white cross is up its one more tail

Some blokes had a win, some did all their all their dough,
I won ten quid from old Ruly,
My very first day at the bush two up school,
when I was a kid in Kalgoorlie.

Thanks to Ray for allowing me to publish his verse.

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Moya Sharp

Owner at Outback Family History

My name is Moya Sharp, I live in Kalgoorlie Western Australia and have worked most of my adult life in the history/museum industry. I have been passionate about history for as long as I can remember and in particular the history of my adopted home the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. Through my website I am committed to providing as many records and photographs free to any one who is interested in the family and local history of the region.

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