Cricket

I've mentioned my affection (or "affliction", according to TPO) for cricket previously. I make no apology. I was raised on it. It was inculcated into every molecule of my body when I was a child. My father was a very good cricketer, and on my mother's side, her brothers were also excellent cricketers. I think my mother would have been pretty good too, but in her day, the ladies didn't play. When we were kids, we listened to the big matches on the wireless with our father, and then when TV arrived, there was no other program available on our set when the cricket (any cricket) was on.

Of course, with a heritage like that, I had to play; and although I was never very good, I played cricket for many years and loved every moment of it.

The picture above was taken in May 1986 in Oxford, England. It was my first visit to England, the place where I had imagined so many Test matches over the years of listening to the radio and watching TV. I stayed in Oxford for a few days and absolutely loved it. On walking the town one day, I came across this schoolboy cricket match. I was immediately enthralled - particularly as all the boys were attired in proper cricket whites, so unlike the scruffy shorts and bare feet that I played in when I was at school. Then, the picturesque quality of the very green English field on which the match was being played and the backdrop of the old stone buildings became evident to me. This was the English cricket I had imagined over all of those years of listening to the wireless.

I stil love looking at it.

EXIF: No clue; but probably a Pentax 35mm camera with Ektachrome ASA 200 film.

TFF