CRIBBAGE

card game in which the object is to form counting combinations that traditionally are scored by moving pegs on a special Cribbage board. The appeal of the game, usually played by two but with a popular variant played by four or, occasionally, by three, is evident from two facts: few changes have been made in the original rules, and it remains one of the most popular of all card games. In Great Britain, from 1966 through 1969, the Card Corner in News of the World had more requests for information on Cribbage than for any other game. In the United States, Cribbage is played by more than 10,000,000 people, principally across the northern states, from New England to the Pacific, and the game has remained popular in Canada as well. The game of Cribbage (earlier spelled Cribbidge) was invented by the 17th-century English poet Sir John Suckling. Although Cribbage quite clearly developed from Noddy, an older game for which a special scoring board also was used, it appears to be the only existing game in its family. Cribbage would quite likely have become the most popular of all two-hand card games if so many descriptions had not called the Cribbage board indispensable, which it is not. Almost the only big change from the original rules is that in modern two-hand Cribbage each player is dealt six cards instead of five, as originally.