RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30951, 6 January 1966, Page 16

RANDOM REMINDER

EVIL INTENT

The Plunket Shield cricket programme is now in full swing, if that term is not objectionable to the game’s detractors as being too red-blooded. Next month, there will be test matches. But not all cricket belongs to the major sporting grounds, or the schools; the game is often one of the principal features of the family picnic. To be sure, the pitch is not all that it might be, as a rule, and the implements of the game vary quite considerably, but the cricket match in which two or three families com-

bine, can offer a delightful drawing together. There are few umpiring incidents, the scoring rate is usually brisk and playing for a draw almost unknown. Witness the recent match in which the children of two Christchurch women, sisters, took part. Some of the boys knew little about cricket. but there were a couple of girls, handsome creatures, whose pace and accuracy, on the interesting surface of the Redcliffs domain, was rather like Larwood on a carpet of cherry stones. They had played cricket for some years, and some

of the boys had a passing knowledge of the-game too But it was the reaction of one of the older boys, who had never before played cricket, which was of particular interest, for it gave some indication of th* views of non-cricketers on cricket: He had apparently come to the conclusion, from what little he had seen, that cricket was not a conflict, but a ritual dance; cricket administrators should bear in mind the words he found, after he had been bowled out bv a younger brother . - "He tried to get me out — deliberately." a