Posted this here by mistake - but decided to leave it anyway. Godfrey Chin was more about Guyanese life in general, than about cricket.
I first met Ken as a Sea Wall cricket "buridee". Camp St, in the early 1950s, where a "rag-tag" of 50 odd backyard "cricketers of the street" would meet 7 days a week - all day on weekends, in cricket battles, that makes today's Israel/Hezbollah conflict look like Sunday School.
First come, bat first. One bat, three bramble stumps, 3 cork balls - with all the bowlers aspiring to be John Trim, Pat Legall or Charlie Stayers. Hell, in those days spinners were "eye pass". Brian Patoir & Lance Gibbs came later.
As you bat, 45 fielders are hugging the pitch, right in ya craw! These guys invented "sledging" before the Aussies. And all the fielders were umpires. Ya ever get hit with a cork ball on your shin? While ya bawling and rubbing your shin in agony, every fielder responds like Cecil Kippins to the bowler's loud appeal. Forty five index fingers go up in the air, chorusing "Out!!!", and four fellas grabbing the bat, proclaiming they are "next".
First come, bat first. One bat, three bramble stumps, 3 cork balls - with all the bowlers aspiring to be John Trim, Pat Legall or Charlie Stayers. Hell, in those days spinners were "eye pass". Brian Patoir & Lance Gibbs came later.
As you bat, 45 fielders are hugging the pitch, right in ya craw! These guys invented "sledging" before the Aussies. And all the fielders were umpires. Ya ever get hit with a cork ball on your shin? While ya bawling and rubbing your shin in agony, every fielder responds like Cecil Kippins to the bowler's loud appeal. Forty five index fingers go up in the air, chorusing "Out!!!", and four fellas grabbing the bat, proclaiming they are "next".
Read the whole thing here.
