Morality -

‘One of the illuminating facets of the game [two up] was the code of morality that existed among the men. Bougher and the other men who helped him organise the game, although participating in an illegal game, were bound by a fairly rigid code of ethics. Even amongst the thieves, there was right and wrong.

For instance, for many years there was a thin old man who used to pedal his push bike from his camp to the game at Brown Hill. He was a player of some stature and often would have about 2000 (pounds) on him (when wages were 5 a week)… Every day he would ride out to Brown Hill on the same track at the same time. The track was surrounded by bush and he could have easily been ambushed by an enterprising thief. Everybody knew he carried big sums of money, but in all those years he rode out to the game on that lonely and secluded track he was never once robbed…

Actually, when the police made the big raid on Brown Hill in 1952, they went around and collected the keys from everybody’s car. After the raid they threw all the keys in the middle of the ring for everybody to collect. The simple fact was that nobody ever locked his car or bothered to extract the keys from the ignition. Cars were never stolen so there was no need to take your keys with you. The “thieves” would never steal a car or rob an old man.’

Heads and Tails by Danny Sheehan.

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