 |
 |
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
Peter Steward's Web Pages |
 |
|
My Site
Review Section Books Concerts
|
English Village Cricket Picture the scene. A bright sunny and warm English
day with just a wisp of breeze to take the temperature down a notch and
into the comfort zone. In the clubhouse teas of scone and strawberry jam are
being prepared. Outside the pitch looks a picture. It is the middle
of summer and the players look resplendent in their whites. Around the
boundary former players and club supporters enjoy the sunshine whilst
lounging in comfortable collapsible chairs. Often there is a glass of beer
or wine by their side. Some occasionally snooze, being woken only
occasionally by the full throated appeal of a “Howz ‘At”, others are
reading the Sunday papers. One is even writing a letter to a far distant
relative explaining how idyllic this day is. Yes this is English village cricket and yes it still
exists. The old values of sportsmanship are still on show. Players do
still occasionally “walk” if they know they have edged the ball to the
wicketkeeper or slip. And at the end of the game the teams enjoy a drink
together, the battle well and truly over. England has some wonderful cricket grounds that still
seem to be the centre of village life and the sport is still synonymous
with the words “cream tea” or “lazy Sunday afternoons.” Strangely I often admire the grounds even when it’s
midweek and they are empty. The epitome of English cricket is still the
village green and there are some marvellous ones. I know it’s a strange person that can have his or
her breath taken away by looking at what is essentially an empty piece of
ground. But somehow these cricketing village greens sum up an Englishness
that still exists but is also rooted firmly in the past and an age when
life was arguably quieter and more peaceful, a time when communities were
genuinely at the forefront of local life. I was driving through Cambridgeshire a couple of
years ago when purely by accident I came across the small village of
Barrington with its idyllic village green where there was a cricket pitch.
It didn’t take too many leaps of the imagination to move back a century
to picture two local villages locked in gentlemanly conflict – each
trying to take the cricketing laurels and the bragging rights that went
with victory. There are grounds such as this throughout England –
places that are simply a delight to be. There are plenty of ghosts there
as well – faces from the past that occasionally appear in the mind and
memory in a kind of Field of Dreams scenario. The living past coming back
to life in a haze of Sunday afternoon reverie. No other sport quite takes you back to the past like
cricket. No other sport has re-invented itself so much to move into the 21st
century whilst still maintaining many of the values of the late 19th
and early 20th. So next time you are at a loss on a sunny weekend, find yourself a village green with a cricket match and just luxuriate in those memories. Don’t forget to take a picnic with you.
|