Delhi to
Bangalore
by Peter
Wakefield Kitcher
Our RAF Unit
was in India and travelling from Delhi to
Bangalore and, from all accounts, it was going to
take our troop train several days. As usual, out
came the cards and as usual, the choice was a
gambling game such as poker, brag, pontoon, shoot,
or something else. Money was always involved.
Then, strangely, Bert asked me if I could play
cribbage. This was odd since he was an obsessive
gambler and cribbage wasn’t usually a choice
especially as it couldn’t involve the whole
group. He said he hadn’t played for a long
time and wondered if the two of us could play. It
happened that I’d learned crib at a very
early age and loved it. We took a seat at the end
of the coach and let the others do what they
liked.
I’d known Bert for several years in the Unit
and, although we weren’t particularly
friends, we got on well together. Bert said he
hadn’t played crib for some time but thought
it would soon come back. However, during the
morning it became fairly obvious that he needed
to brush up on some things he should or shouldn’t
do, and once or twice I showed him a better way
to do something. At lunch time we took a break. I’d
won most of the games except a couple when he’d
had big combinations and I’d been wiped out.
During lunch he said how much he’d enjoyed
it and asked me if I’d like to continue
during the afternoon. This suited me and we
started again.
Down the coach the rest were going crazy. They
were playing poker and it would seem that money
was no object. I knew what was happening. We hadn’t
been paid before getting on the train and all the
money we had was what was remaining when we left
Delhi. Since they were playing for real money
which they didn’t have, the end result, of
course, was that they were writing I.O.U.’s,
and the papers with varying amounts written on
them were being passed around as if they were
really cash. In one case, a chap had to bet about
fifty rupees or so which he didn’t have, and
was deciding whether he could afford it, since if
he lost, in addition to what he’d lost
before, it was going to be a bit of a problem on
his next payday.
I was happy to be out of it and we played a
couple of games of crib. Then Bert said, “You
know me, let’s have a bet on the games and
it’ll give me some incentive.”
I pointed out, as we were keeping a check on it,
that he’d won only a couple of games and
anyway, I hadn’t much money on me.
He said, “Don’t worry about it; we’ll
keep the stakes low. What do you think about an
anna a game?” An anna was the currency in
those days and was worth about the same as an
English penny. All the time we’d been
playing I’d won the equivalent of twenty
pennies or so, and I laughed and we continued. As
he said, as we were now playing for real money,
if that’s what it was, he’d keep a real
check on it.
There wasn’t a lot of change in the games. I
was still usually winning and, in fact, in
several hands I’d beaten him by thirty or
forty points although, of course, it didn’t
make any difference to the stake money.
The next morning we started again but after about
half an hour or so, we took a break and he
suddenly said, “Look, I’ve been keeping
a check on it and do you realise, if we’d
been playing for an anna a point instead of an
anna a game, how much you would have won?”
Then he told me. I couldn’t believe it but
when I did another check, it was several days’
pay. He said, “Look, you know I’m a
gambler and I’m willing to risk it. Why don’t
we play for an anna a point instead of an anna a
game?”
I argued for a little while and then agreed.
We played for an anna a point for the rest of the
journey. He had a lot of luck in many of the
games. At the end, my total of games won showed
who was the better player but as I say, he had a
lot of luck. Although my total of games won was
greater, his points added up to a formidable
amount. I actually owed him quite a lot of money
which reduced my next pay when we arrived in
Bangalore.
Some weeks later after we’d settled down, I
happened to go into another hut for something. We’d
been separated and split into different watches
so didn’t see some people as often as others.
I hadn’t seen much of Bert but as usual, in
the forces, one went with other people and we did
the same things and played cards and gambled but
I had never played crib again.
I went into this hut and saw Bert playing cards
with these other chaps. They were playing pontoon.
That’s the game where you draw cards and
have to score twenty-one or beat the score of the
dealer. If you get a face card and an Ace, that’s
twenty-one and you’ve got pontoon. The
dealer changes after each hand. I watched the
game for a little while and it was quite
interesting. What was really interesting to me
was that when Bert was dealing and his first card
was a face card his second card was always an Ace.
He was so lucky.
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