After 350 years, nobody ‘board’ by this card game

Every Wednesday from the beginning of September to the end of May, if you visit the Round Table Pizza in Centerville, you might wonder what those people in the back are doing. People are playing some sort of card game that also involves moving pegs around a wooden board. Congratulations, you have stumbled upon the Fremont Cribbage Club.

The Club of approximately 25 members began meeting in May of 1987. One of more than 200 “Grass Roots Clubs” under the jurisdiction of the Western Region of the American Cribbage Congress (ACC), the official Club name is Christopher’s Crusader’s, named in honor of departed long-time club member, Bob Christopher.

The game itself is more than 350 years old. According to biographer, natural philosopher, and pioneer archaeologist John Aubrey (1626-1697), English poet Sir John Suckling (1609-1641) invented cribbage in the early 17th century. It is derived from the game ‘noddy’ which gets its name from the noddy, or knave, also known as the jack, which bears an important role in both games. The objective of cribbage (one of the most popular card games in the English-speaking world) is to be the first player to score a target number of points, typically 61 or 121. Points are scored for card combinations that add up to fifteen, and for pairs, triples, quadruples, runs and flushes. The board itself is simply a point-tallying device.

The ACC supports local, or ‘Grass Roots,’ clubs all across the country. These clubs meet once a week or every other week and conduct 6-game or 9-game tournaments that last between 2 and 3 hours. It’s a great way to meet new people and play cribbage without needing to travel very far. Playing in a local club “is a way for us to enjoy a game that many of learned playing with our families when we were young,” says current club president Craig Rothbach. He moved into his role a few years ago when the previous president resigned. “Someone had to do it,” he says. “I’m retired so I figured I had the time.”

One of Craig’s jobs is to transmit to the American Cribbage Congress’s website points tallies for the players. The ACC keeps track of points and statistics, and players are awarded prizes and honors according to the point tallies they accumulate over the years. Annually, the Fremont Club holds a dinner and award ceremony (spouses invited) to honor the high scoring players. Each club crowns its own local champion who is then eligible to play in a Tournament of Champions at the yearly ACC gathering in Reno. Though the ACC sanctions dozens if not hundreds of tournaments across the country every year, Reno is the big one where the National Champion—the player who earns the most points in a season—is crowned.

Cribbage holds a special place among American submariners, serving as an ‘official’ pastime. The wardroom of the oldest active submarine in the United States Pacific Fleet carries the personal cribbage board of World War II submarine commander and Medal of Honor recipient Rear Admiral Dick O'Kane on board. Today, the honor of carrying the cribbage board belongs to the nuclear-powered attack submarine, USS Los Angeles (SSN 688).

The story is that while aboard the USS Wahoo patrolling in the shallow waters of the Yellow Sea during WWII, O'Kane was dealt a perfect 29, the highest possible score for a single cribbage deal. The crew felt that it was a lucky omen and indeed they sank two Japanese freighters that night. Three days later, while patrolling off the Korean coast south of Chinnampo, O'Kane received a 28-hand, the second best possible score. When the crew sank two freighters that day and another one the following day, the cribbage board became a talisman of good luck.

In Theodore H. Sweester’s memoirs, published as ‘Cribbage in the Dugout,’ by Richard E. Hage and‎ Anna M. Meleney, the WWI physician recounts that while on the front near Ypres, he spent a year tending to the wounded as shells burst overhead, even surviving a gas attack. For relief he and his fellow officers played cribbage. A search for ‘trench art’ on eBay turned up a couple cribbage boards, including a rifle with a cribbage board inlaid into the stock.

Cribbage finds it way into English literature by way of Charles Dickens’ ‘Old Curiosity Shop’ character Richard Swiveller, who teaches a young lady cribbage, guaranteeing thereby his ticket to everlasting marital bliss. Speaking of the English and cribbage, it is the only game that can be played in a pub for money.

To ensure that new and would-be members are welcomed, the ACC has devised a Code of Congeniality, which, among other pledges, promises to

• Welcome new players warmly and make them feel wanted.

• Not make new players feel inferior if or when they miss points or make a bad play. (They will, instead, let them know that all cribbage players do this and that it is part of the learning process.)

Those interested in learning to play have a variety of books to choose from: Titles such as ‘Cribbage Made Easy’ by George Walker, ‘Play Winning Cribbage’ by DeLynn Colvert, and ‘Hand Book of Cribbage’ players of all levels instructions, strategies, and caveats. The tongue-in-cheek guide, ‘How to Cheat at Cribbage: With Quotations from William Shakespeare’ by Jeffrey O. Haseltine seems a promising read for those interested in cribbage’s mischievous side.

Anyone wishing to learn on their own can find rules and online gameplay at https://cardgames.io/cribbage/

How much of cribbage is skill, and how much is luck? “That’s always a good question,” Rohrbach laughs. “When you’re winning, it’s skill, when you’re losing it’s luck. I have learned tricks from players that I never would have thought of. Skill is definitely involved, and some players are clearly better than others.”

In February 2017, The ACC announced that Sir John Suckling's birthday, February 10, is the official date of National Cribbage Day. “Take the day to celebrate,” reads the ACC website, “take time off work, be with family, make a cake, organize a local parade, but most of all play cribbage!

If you’d like to contact the Fremont cribbage club Christopher’s Crusaders, ACC Grass Roots club #43, email accgr43@gmail.com.