never: be the same again'. And if cricket fans are too busy to listen to
the radio commentary, they can always phone a special number to be given
the latest score!
Many other games which are English in origin have been adopted with
enthusiasm all over the world, but cricket has been seriously and
extensively adopted only in the former British empire, particularly in
Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the West Indies and
South Africa. Do you know how to play cricket? If you don't live in these
countries you won't learn it at school. English people love cricket. Summer
isn't summer without it. Even if you do not understand the rules, it is
attractive to watch the players, dressed in white playing on the beautiful
green cricket fields. Every Sunday morning from May to the end of September
many Englishmen get up very early, and take a lot of sandwiches with them.
It is necessary because the games are very long. Games between two village
teams last for only one afternoon. Games between counties last for three
days, with 6 hours play on each day. When England plays with one or other
cricketing countries such as Australia and New Zealand it is called a test
match and lasts for five days. Cricket is played in schools, colleges and
universities and in most towns and villages by teams which play weekly
games. Test matches with other cricketing countries are held annually.
Cricket is also played by women and girls. The governing body is
Women's Cricket Association, founded in 1926. Women's cricket clubs have
regular weekend games. Test matches and other international matches take
place. The women's World Cup is held every four years. But There is The
Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and Lord's cricket ground in the United
Kingdom. The MCC was founded in 1787, and is still the most important
authority on cricket in the world. As a club it is exclusively male. No
woman is allowed to enter the club buildings. There are special stands for
members and their wives and quests.
Organised amateur cricket is played between club teams, mainly on
Saturday afternoons. Nearly every village, except in the far north, has its
cricket club, and there must be few places in which the popular image of
England, as sentimentalists like to think of it, is so clearly seen as on a
village cricket field. A first-class match between English counties lasts
for up to three days, with six hours play on each day. The game is slow,
and a spectator, sitting in the afternoon sun after a lunch of sandwiches
and beer, may be excused for having a little sleep for half an hour.
When people refer to cricket as the English national game, they are not
thinking so much of its level of popularity or of the standard of English
players but more of the very English associations that it carries with it.
Cricket is much more than just a sport; it symbolizes a way of life - a
slow and peaceful rural way of life. Cricket is associated with long sunny
summer afternoons, the smell of new-mown grass and the sound of leather
(the ball) connecting with willow (the wood from which cricket bats are
made). Cricket is special because it combines competition with the British
dream of rural life. Cricket is what the village green is for! As if to
emphasize the rural connection, ‘first class’ cricket teams in England,
unlike teams in other sports, do not bear the names of towns but of
counties (Essex and Yorkshire, for example).
ANIMALS IN SPORT
Traditionally, the favourite sports of the British upper class are
hunting, shooting and fishing. The most widespread form of hunting is
foxhunting — indeed, that is what the word ‘hunting’ usually means in
Britain. Foxhunting works like this. A group of people on horses, dressed
in eighteenth century riding clothes, ride around with a pack of dogs. When
the dogs pick up the scent of a fox, somebody blows a horn and then dogs,
horses and riders all chase the fox. Often the fox gets away, but if not,
the dogs get to it before the hunters and tear it to pieces. As you might
guess in a country of animal-lovers, where most people have little
experience of the harsher realities of nature, foxhunting is strongly
opposed by some people. The League Against Cruel Sports wants it made
illegal and the campaign has been steadily intensifying. There are
sometimes violent encounters between foxhunters and protestors (whom the
hunters call 'saboteurs').Foxhunting is a popular pastime among some
members of the higher social classes and a few people from lower social
classes, who often see their participation as a mark of newly won status.
The hunting of foxes is sport associated through the centuries with
ownership of land. The hounds chase the fox, followed by people riding
horses, wearing red or black coats and conforming with various rules and
customs. In a few hill areas stags are hunted similarly. Both these types
of hunting are enjoyed mainly by people who can afford the cost of keeping
horses and carrying them to hunt meetings in 'horse boxes', or trailer
vans. Both, particularly stag-hunting, are opposed by people who condemn
the cruelty involved in chasing and killing frightened animals. There have
been attempts to persuade Parliament to pass laws to forbid hunting, but
none has been successful. There is no law about hunting foxes, but there is
a fox-hunting seasons – from November to March.
Killing birds with guns is known as 'shooting' in Britain. It is a
minority pastime confined largely to the higher social classes; there are
more than three times as many licensed guns for this purpose in France as
there are in Britain. The birds which people try to shoot (such as grouse)
may only be shot during certain specified times of the year. The upper
classes often organize 'shooting parties' during the 'season'. The British
do not shoot small animals or birds for sport, though some farmers who
shoot rabbits or pigeons may enjoy doing so. But 'game birds', mainly
pheasant, grouse and partridge, have traditionally provided sport for the
landowning gentry. Until Labour's election victory of 1964 many of the
prime ministers of the past two hundred years, along with members of their
cabinets, had gone to the grouse moors of Scotland or the Pennines for the
opening of the shooting season on 12 August. Since 1964 all that has
changed. Now there are not many leading British politicians carrying guns
in the shooting parties, though there may be foreign millionaires, not all
of them from America. Some of the beaters, whose job is to disturb the
grouse so that they fly up to be shot, are students earning money to pay
for trips abroad. But there is still a race to send the first shot grouse
to London restaurants, where there are people happy to pay huge amounts of
money for the privilege of eating them.
The only kind of hunting which is associated with the working class is
hare-coursing, in which greyhound dogs chase hares. However, because the
vast majority of people in Britain are urban dwellers, this too is a
minority activity.
The one kind of ‘hunting’ which is popular among all social classes is
fishing. In fact, this is the most popular participatory sport of all in
Britain. Between four and five million people go fishing regularly. When
fishing is done competitively, it is called ‘angling’. The most popular of
all outdoor sports is fishing, from the banks of lakes or rivers or in the
sea, from jetties, rocks or beaches. Some British lakes and rivers are
famous for their trout or salmon, and attract enthusiasts from all over the
world.
Apart from being hunted, another way in which animals are used in sport
is when they race. Horse-racing is a long-established and popular sport in
Britain, both ‘flat racing’ and ‘national hunt’ racing (where there are
jumps for the horses), sometimes known as ‘steeplechase’. The former became
known as 'the sport of kings' in the seventeenth century, and modern
British royalty has close connections with sport involving horses. Some
members of the royal family own racehorses and attend certain annual race
meetings (Ascot, for example); some are also active participants in the
sports of polo and show-jumping (both of which involve riding a horse). The
steeplechase (crosscountry running) is very popular in most European
countries. The first known organized crosscountry race in 1837 was the
Crick Run at Rugby School. Originally, crosscountry running took place over
open country where the hazards were the natural ones to be found in the
country. These included hedges, ditches, streams and the like. Schools and
some clubs still run over open country. Sometimes, however, the competitors
run off the course as, on one occasion, happened to all the runners in a
race. Because of this, the organization of these races has to be very
strict. Nowadays, crosscountry races (or steeplechases) are often run in an
enclosed area where the hazards are artificial. This makes organization
easier.
The chief attraction of horse-racing for most people is the
opportunity it provides for gambling (see below). Greyhound racing,
although declining, is still popular for the same reason. In this sport,
the dogs chase a mechanical hare round a racetrack. It is easier to
organize than horse-racing and ‘the dogs’ has the reputation of being the
‘poor man's racing’. Greyhound racing has had a remarkable revival in the
1980s, and by 1988 it accounted for about a quarter of all gambling. Its
stadiums are near town centres, small enough to be floodlit in the
