On the journey to today’s game at Cadnam three Rioteers discussed, among other things, the fact that the first international cricket match was played between Canada and the United States on 24 and 25 September 1844, and that Great Britain beat the USA to become the first baseball world champions in 1938. We ruminated on the counter-intuitive, mixed-up nature of these facts.
On the journey home from today’s game three Rioteers contemplated several matters including but not limited to: capitalism; the increasing divide between rich and poor; the privatisation of the NHS; Greek philosophy; the (significant) influence of Indian philosophy on early Greek philosophy; that Greek culture is the sine qua non of the culture of the Roman Empire in particular and of Europe more generally; that, possibly, Indian culture is the sine qua non of Greek culture. And so on and so forth. We ruminated on the awe-inspiring nature both of history and what the future may bring.
In between these conversations there had taken place a game of cricket, the effect of which had clearly been to sharpen the wit and expand the intellectual horizons of this surely representative cross-section of Rioteers.
Thank you for reading the match report. Those that wish to delve in to the finer detail of what went on between the above conversations are welcome to read the appendix, below.
Appendix
Our captain ordered me not to use the word “hubris” in today’s match report, so I shan’t. Martin won the toss and elected for the Rioteers to bat.
Honourable mentions on the batting front should go to Jim Slape and Bertie Hillier, both of whom got in to double figures, and to Simon and Dougal Swales, father and son with the thankless task of trying to score as many as they could in the last few balls. Now, while Rome may not have been built in a day, openers Campbell Williams (1) and Martin Hillier (2) managed to spend a glorious hour(-ish) building for the Rioteers a partnership and the foundations of an innings of which Romulus and Remus could only have dreamed (had they known about cricket, which they did not, only having had boring Greek Olympic sports from which to draw inspiration). These magnificent gladiators scored 98 and 72 respectively, upon the Doric, Ionic and what-have-you columns of which the Rioteers ended up posting a very respectable score of 216 for 8 off 40 overs.
For completeness of this appendix, batting scores appear below, together with a picture of son and father leaving the field in an emotionally charged moment.
It was a humid, sunny and hot afternoon. Everyone needed refreshment and, as always at Cadnam, a banquet was provided that might have made Caligula blush. Tea was, simply, an Epicurean delight (although it should be noted that referring to Epicurus’ thinking in relation to food in this way is to misunderstand and misrepresent the great man’s meaning, as a representative cross-section of Rioteers may have discussed on the way home). Thank you so much to our splendid hosts for their hospitality.
For completeness of this appendix, here is a picture of Campbell about to enjoy his tea. He batted so peerlessly that none of his teammates felt qualified to join him.
Cadnam batted confidently, with a strong top order that scored 25, 26, 78 and 37 respectively. A not insignificant number of wides and suchlike also contributed an extras score of 36 to what was a deserved victory for the hosts of 219 for 4 off 31 overs. It is worth noting that the Rioteers’ fielding was energetic and committed, which bodes well for the rest of the season. Although he took no wickets, John Hall was our most parsimonious bowler, giving away only 26 runs off 8 overs (2 maidens). Congratulations to Dougal Swales on taking his first wicket for the Rioteers, beating the bat of Cadnam’s number four batsman Godfrei and hitting middle stump. Richard Brazier bowled Cadnam’s number five. Jim Slape got two wickets, the second of which was during an epic, Russian-novel of an over that began with several wides that had the planned soporific effect on the batsman prior to the (also planned) sucker-delivery straight on to the stumps.
For completeness of this appendix, bowling scores appear below, obviously.
