Tuesday, April 5, 2005

My one brush with a good game....

You may blame Dave over at Revenge of Mr Dumpling for this. Dave likes cricket, and I mentioned in passing that we shared that. I knew that wouldn't be enough, so I promised this post.

I participated in the Kentucky Governor's Scholars Program in the early 1990s, and one of our teachers was an English professor from Bellarmine. (I'll have to find my pictures, since I don't recall his name right now.) He was an avid cricket fan and player, and had brought a set of cricket equipment (and an appropriate white set of clothing :) ) with him to GSP. On one of the "free activity" afternoons, those of us who were interested got together on the field closest resembling a cricket pitch and set up the equipment.

Our teacher led us through a quick summary of the game, and then put us out on the field. The batsmen and the bowler had to switch sides when changing bowlers, since one wicket was too close to the street. Almost everyone wanted to drop the bat, a clear indication too much baseball or softball had been played. The concept that you don't take risks when the ball is coming straight at your wicket (versus baseball's strike zone) was discerning. Even so, it was a lot of fun. We played an hour or so each side, and I remember getting several runs at my turn. We finally had to call our game because of a lack of time, and there wasn't another opportunity to play while at GSP.

After GSP, I never had an opportunity to play the game again. The University of Kentucky Cricket Club started after I left UK. I have heard that the same group has become the Lexington Cricket Club, but I am not sure how to get up with them, or that I would even have time (or the physical conditioning) to play. They also seem to be rather serious at it (road games all over the midwest, etc.), from what little I can find. OTOH, I would jump at the chance to join a "casual" team that played a few games a year in this general area. Too bad Central Kentucky just isn't big enough to have that kind of opportunity.

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