The first party of the summer season was tonight. We had a lovely time with lots of friends, good food and, of course, a rousing game of cricket.
Having never been to a cricket match before, I am not sure of what the terminology is - but I can say that a "jolly good time" was had by all.
Fortunately, there were some folks who knew the game well and they volunteered to umpire and coach for both teams. Hats were passed out - it was Red vs Blue - and the game was on! It our game, we had 2 wickets - little sets of 3 sticks setup in a row with 2 tiny sticks resting on top of them. The pitcher (bowler) tosses the ball towards the wicket and tries to knock the tiny sticks off of it - meanwhile, the batter (batsman) tries to hit the ball away from the wicket so he can then run like mad back and forth between the 2 wickets - all the while carrying his bat. This was all explained in great detail - and we all promptly forgot everything except hit the ball and run back and forth.
Some of the players had the advantage of growing up in cricket playing towns - they hit the ball long and scored run after run.
Each hit was cheered and the batters did their best while the outfield scrambled to get the ball back to the closest wicket.
But of course, you had to carry the bat for it to count as a run - Blue lost a few points over this little detail.
Of course the dogs had to get into the game - there was a ball being tossed around! It was a challenge to keep the play going on when the 4-legged outfielders would "fetch" the ball back to the wicket.
But there were distractions enough to keep them busy so the 2-legged players could keep the action going.
By the end of the game (and I still am not sure how it was determined that the game was over), the Blues won the day, the dogs took to the field to play and the humans took to the tables to eat.
We had a simply wonderful time. It was a great start to the summer season!
