Cricket

  

In case anyone has missed it, Australia has been playing cricket against England in a series or matches referred to as “The Ashes”. Cricket is a game that was once described by Robin Williams as being similar to baseball on Valium. Devotees will sit for hours watching it, whether at the ground or in front of a box. Non-devotees (and I confess that I am one) feel that it is only marginally better than watching paint dry.

I am, however, interested in some of the terms and facts associated with the game:

• The game is believed to have developed from a children’s game in Saxon or Norman times, possibly from the use of a matted lump of sheep’s wool (or a stone or a small lump of wood) as the ball; a stick or a crook or another farm tool as the bat, and a stool or a tree stump or a gate (e.g., a wicket gate) as the wicket.

A Glimpse of the Past: Sydney 1932, and after and before...

(Click on the photographs to enlarge).

Members Stand packed for Test, 2-7 December 1932

Some interesting things to note about the above photograph:

 

-    The fact that even going to watch the cricket, men wore suits and ties.

-    Most men wore hats.  Some of those not wearing them are holding them or have them on the ground.

 

-    Note that the males at the front are sitting on their newspapers.