Note this is also commonly known as ’seep’, but our family’s theory is that it’s a bastardised version of ’sweep’.

Players

The game is usually played by 4 players, in two teams, with partners sitting opposite to each other. It is played using the standard deck of 52 cards. It can also be played with a two player variant I’ll explain below.

Aim of the Game

Get as many points as you can. First team to reach 500 (or, more commonly, whatever other limitation you wish to put on it, e.g. time) wins.

Scoring

• All cards of Spades ( ♠ ) have points corresponding to their face value - e.g., the King of Spades is worth 13 points, the 10 of Spades is worth 10 points, etc.
• All Aces are worth a point - irrespective of suite.
• The 10 of Diamonds ( ♦ ) is worth 2 points.
• Whichever team has the most cards at the end gets 4 “bonus” points
• Sweeps are worth 50 points (the mechanism for a sweep is explained below)

This makes for a total of 100 points per round.

Gameplay

The method of play is the establishment of “houses” - piles of two or more cards which add up to a ‘high-value’ card. The smallest such house is 9, and the biggest is King (13). A player can only create a house if he has a card in hand, as that is necessary to pick up the house later to collect points.

Establishing a house: This is usually done by adding a card to an existing one “on the floor” - The floor is where the gameplay occurs. The player to the right is of the other team to the dealer. For example, to establish a house of 9, with a 4 on the floor, you can throw down a 5. To establish a Jack (11) house, you would need to throw down a 7, etc.

Only one unique value house can exist at any one time - so the two teams cannot have houses of the same value on the floor.

Gameplay begins: the dealer deals 4 cards to the player on his right, and 4 cards on the floor. The player to the right of the dealer picks up his cards and must bid for a house on the basis of the first four cards in their hand. If the player is unable to do so, the round must be redealt.

If the player has made a bid, the four cards in the middle are turned up. The player who has made a bid must now either create a house by adding a card to the ones on the floor, picking up a sum of cards to the value of the called amount (not usual, but desirable if this locks in significant points), or throwing down the called value card if no house can be established or card picked up

The rest of the pack is now dealt, in groups of four. Play then continues as normal to the right of the bidding player. Normal play affords a player a few actions:

• Establish a house
• Adding to a house
• Breaking a house
• Cementing a house
• Picking up a card
• Throwing a loose card
• Picking up a house

Adding to a house: when there are loose cards, the player can add a card from their hand to one (or more) on the floor and add this to an existing house. Simple arithmetic applies here - a 5 on the floor can be combined with a 4 for a 9 house, 5 for a 10 house, 6 for a Jack house, 7 for a Queen house, or 8 for a King house.

Note that this should only be done to houses which have either been established by yourself, your teammate, or one where you have the house’s value card in hand.

Breaking a house: Houses can be broken. If house of value 9, for example, has been established by your opponent, and you have a Jack and a 2 in hand, you can lay your 2 on the house to “break” the house and establish your own. This now becomes a house of Jack/11 - if you already have one on the floor, the broken house is added to the existing pile. Unless…

Cementing a house: Houses can be cemented or fixed by laying a card of the exact value on top of an existing house. This can only occur where you have at least two cards of the same value in your hand, as you still need a card to pick up the house later. Note that this can occur more than once, and is not restricted to the establishing team - an opponent cementing a house you’ve created indicates that they have another card still in hand capable of picking up the house.

Picking up a card: Any loose card can be picked up by a pair card. This is usually useful where one of the pair is a low (i.e. less than 8) Spade, as it locks away points.

Throwing a loose card: When a player cannot perform any of the other actions available, they must throw a card from their hand. This card is loose on the floor and can be used by other players.

Picking up a house: When points have been tied up in a house, or there are many houses on the floor, it is (usually!) wise to pick up a house. A house can be picked by a player during his turn by playing the card with the number of the house, e.g. a house of 12 can be picked by a Queen. When picked, a house is placed face down in front of the player.

Picking up a house is usually left as late as possible, in order to extend the run of cards being added to a house - remember, points are awarded for the number of cards picked up. Picking up also has a special situation, the Sweep.

The Sweep: if a player is able to pick up all remaining cards on the floor in one go, the player has “swept” it, and is awarded 50 points as a bonus. This typically arises where one house is left on the floor and the next player has the card of the remaining house, or occasionally where no houses are left after a pick-up and the loose cards on the floor all add up to the value of card in the next players hand.

Sweeps are kept in front of the player with the card used to pick up the sweep face-up, or recorded elsewhere on the scoring sheet.

Sweeps mid-game are particularly dangerous, as this forces the opponent to throw a loose card; if the next player has its pair, a second sweep occurs, and the pattern can continue disastrously.

End Game

The end-game of the last card usually has teams picking up the remaining houses. The last team to have picked up receives any loose cards also remaining, and the last pickup is not considered a sweep.

Players count their points, remembering to add 50 for any sweeps. The losing team deals the next round, and play continues until one side reaches the defined target.

Two Player Variant

Two players can play this game, in a slightly modified form. Four hands are still dealt, but two are kept closed. Play goes as normal until the first 12 cards have been processed, and then play continues with the next hand - the last loose cards are not picked up, but rather serve as the seed for the next round.

As the players are forced to pick up any piles before the second hand comes into play, the transition from one round to the next leaves the two-player game particularly vulnerable to sweeps.

Goooooooooooood morning Holsworthy! Hope you enjoy the sound of multi-inch shells blowing up bits of the countryside while you’re having your corn flakes.

Having recently read Tomorrow, When the War Began, I wonder whether I’m being a little paranoid in considering whether, in the event of an invasion, I would be first to know (since it’s the army barracks after all), or the last to know (since these things go on all the time).

It’s one of those things you’d like to know, ideally.

Eleven years, from scratch.

Three years after, they were on Mars. I’m beginning to think we’re getting quite a bit lazier and impatient even than people were 40 years ago (compared to medieval times, that’s a given).

When you think about it, the number of Hollywood A-Listers who were in Batman and Robin, the entirely forgettable Batman movie of the mid-ninties, it is a bit of a shock that between them they managed to turn out the pile of crap that was. I mean, Clooney, Thurman, Schwarzenegger, Sliverstone, and sure, Macpherson even, and with Bruckheimer directing, you’d really hope you got something more for your money. Between that and Batman Forever (Kilmer, Kidman, Carey and Lee-Jones? No?), you’d have thought Tim Burton’s dark and brooding vision of Gotham was lost entirely in a chase for easy money that big names bring.

Little wonder then that Batman Begins wasn’t attempted until many years later, and with a cast far shorter on the A-List side. But aren’t we all glad it was? Dignity was restored to the franchise, even if in a post-Incredibles “No Capes” world, the cape really had to be justified. Not only did writer-director Christopher Nolan show that you could avoid crass blockbusterism, but you didn’t necessarily need to set it in Burton’s alternate reality to make bad guys and good guys work. Batman Begins established that the characters behind the masks could be real, that Gotham really could be somewhere, a true alt-New York.

The Dark Knight continues in that vein. While the broad arc of the story remains true to the comic cannon, Heath Ledger’s Joker is far more grounded, far more visceral than Jack Nicholson’s first incarnation of the Joker. Burton’s vision was a comic book brought to life, and it’s part of what he does best. Here, we have an entirely different beast, one more accessible and requiring less suspension of disbelief, even if the exotic gadgets do step up a notch from the restraint shown in the previous movie.

Much has been said about Heath Ledger and his role as The Joker, and I’m sure much more will be said, amongst them the push for a posthumous Oscar. On the basis of his performance here, it’s hard to see who his competition will be. In The Dark Knight, the Joker is not merely a criminal with a quirk; he’s a full-blown psychopath. Ledger lives and breathes the role, and we are richer for it.

No superhero movie is complete without an arch-nemsis to get in the way, but this movie is so dominated by Ledger’s performance and the Joker’s characterisation that the focus of the movie is more properly said to be the Joker, rather than Batman. It is his actions which drive the plot throughout, and Batman is left playing catchup.

It is a treat to see a superhero movie that both takes itself seriously and pulls it off. Batman has always been the most accessible superhero - his special power is money, not some supernatural, inexplicable power for which we are given pithy explanations. Batman Begins made a serious effort to establish a plausible background for Batman’s abilities, and The Dark Knight takes it to the next logical step, showing Batman still has human frailties. Wayne tires during the day, sleeping in a meeting. After a fight, we see him stitching himself up - he isn’t invulnerable.

While this movie is far from perfect - inexplicable and needless plot points seem to abound, possibly suggesting an even longer movie left (thankfully) on the cutting floor - it definitely is one of the better ones released in the last few years, and strangely enough one where the sequel is more in-depth than the first. Between this and Hancock, I’ve had my hope in the superhero genre renewed.

Christian Bale isn’t my perfect idea of Bruce Wayne - something about him doesn’t live up to the rich-boy image, possibly enforced by another Nolan movie, The Prestige, but he is a capable actor who manages to live the role and make it rise above the standard man-in-leather-tights. Maggie Gyllenhal is a great replacement for Katie Holmes, but is under-used - possibly, again, left on the cutting room floor.

Aaron Eckhart and Gary Oldman round out a solid cast, showcasing some of the better character actors currently at work. Eckhart particularly seems to take his Thank You for Not Smoking role and inject it with a sense of gravitas, while Oldman has long been unrecognisable from one movie to the next.

Well worth watching - all the better if you can catch it on a giant screen, as its cinematography is masterful. ★★★★☆

Street Kings: I will forgive a lot for a story that has the balls to kill off characters, especially likeable ones. Not one of Forest Whittaker’s best efforts, but Keanu and co do well. Good to see Hugh Laurie out and about playing someone other than House. ★★★

There Will Be Blood: Look, I’m sure the critics love this, and I’m sure all those film majors love this, and I’m sure Daniel Day Lewis does a sterling job. But I have struggled personally to make my way through this in one sitting, and as a result my impression ain’t so great. Some impressive camera work, but just so slow and attempts a lot of deep-and-meaningful. ★★

History of the World, Part 1: Mel Brooks is possibly the closest thing America had to Monty Python in the 70s, and he delivers a right old piss-take here. Best line, Josepheus to Oedipus: “Hey, motherfucker.” Unfortunately, a lot of the rest just falls flat. ★★

The Life of Brian: Speaking of Monty Python, this movie shows why the Pythons were miles ahead of Brooks. Deeply sarcastic humour that delivers line after line without fail, memorable ones you can recall for years. Let down somewhat by a bit of rambling in places, but none the less probably the best send-up of religion and religious coflict of all time. ★★★

Definitely, Maybe: More Rom than Com, a nice chick flick, but with little for the guys. Isla Fisher is surprisingly cute, Rachel Weisz is under-used and the other girl… um yeah. Ryan Reynolds does well, surprisingly. ★★★