A View from the Boundary

Arrived back at campus this afternoon to find a game of Samoan cricket in full swing. I'd read about it so was delighted to don my Panama hat and take one of the chairs on the boundary.

  This is a very different game to the one played at Lords. For a start, the number of players seems to be flexible and can - apparently .- be anything up to 20. Then there's the bats. They look like a cross between a baseball bat and a traditional Polynesian war club - a three-sided block of wood designed for hitting the living daylights out of a ball. There are traditional wickets, but bowling is a ball from one end followed by a ball from another. Batting is vigorous rather than subtle - not much sign of a Geoffrey Boycott forward defensive push here. What you see here is a game between the Reds and the greens - as shown by their lava lavas. It was played with great seriousness, with scorers announcing each run by megaphone. No fours or sixes; you only get 1 for crossing the boundary and 2 if you sail over it. Hit the accommodation block and you're out, apparently! The team waiting to bat kept up their spirits with rhythmic chanting.  Couldn't really follow what was going on, but at the end it seemed that the greens had won the Piula cricket shield. 

I wonder what the TMS team would make of it?