One night over beers (during a night out from the Blue Mountain Center) Mark Roper tried to explain cricket to me. He talked about sticky wickets and scores that could go into the hundreds. The more Mark talked, the more I concluded he was making everything up on the fly. In my mind, either he didn’t know the game at all and was just shooting shit, or, it was just a little kids game and he just pretended it was an actual sport for adults.
By the way, I should mention at this point that the very first day I got to New Zealand I actually saw grown men playing cricket. Adults. And I thought just the British were silly.
I also discovered that behind rugby (the real sport in New Zealand), cricket seems to be a sport Kiwis are passionate about. However, what I had never heard of before I arrived here was “beach cricket.” although, that's probably not be the official name.
Still, picture a scene of beach volleyball, but replace the area in the middle of the spectators with a larger sand court, a tiny yellow strip, and a bunch of guys of various ages - the oldest appeared to be in his late forties or maybe even early fifties.
As the game is played, one guy runs about 20 feet (not sure how this helps) and pitches a windmilling overhand toss and the other guy bunts with a fat bat. If he hits it, he runs maybe 20 feet. I don’t know. Maybe it was more than that.
One guy got hit right in the nuts by a pitch. Seems like a juvenile game, if you ask me. If you want to make sense of it, talk to Mark Roper, but make sure he hasn't been drinking.
Actually, if you want to make sense of it, maybe read a good book on the subject.
2 comments:
Wow, you got to see Gene Hackman playing beach cricket! That's almost as good as a penguin! Almost.
Ha! Yes, I think you are right. That DOES look like Gene Hackman
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