Cribbage evolved from an earlier English game called "Noddy," and the man credited with inventing it is Sir John Suckling, a wealthy English poet. Cribbage affords players both the anticipation of the luck of the deal as well as ample opportunity to exercise their skills in discarding and play.
One of the novel features of Cribbage is that a Cribbage board is used for scoring rather than the usual pencil and paper. The rectangular wooden board is equipped with holes that accommodate pegs. The board speeds up scoring, and in this fast-moving game, pegging greatly reduces the chances for errors in computing scores.