In 1985, King George V soccer field in St. John’s was the site of a historic Canadian sports event- Canada qualified for the soccer World Cup by beating Honduras. On a warm, humid night 25 years later, history was made again, as organized cricket returned to Newfoundland after at least 40 years. It was perhaps not cricket for the purist. Lack of equipment and safety considerations meant we played with a taped tennis ball, bowling from one end only, and with improvised stumps at one end. We improvised rules to deal with the short boundaries. But there was a crowd of more than 50 including local print and TV reporters, and a tremendous spirit. The grass was green (albeit made of plastic), the pitch was true, and the outfield perfect.
The result perhaps was immaterial, but for the record the Labrador Ducks beat the Newfoundland By’s thanks to an excellent innings of 72 from their opening bat. We saw some stunning six-hitting, including a couple over the stands on the longest boundary, and a straight hit into the Rennies River, some brilliant (and not so brilliant fielding), some entertaining running between the wickets, and some aggressive bowling. A bit of good-natured sledging was mixed in with exemplary sportsmanship, with good play applauded by both sides.
In the hour before the match, spectators had the opportunity to try bowling and batting, and several showed considerable aptitude. Two young Argentineans immediately picked up the basics of both bowling and batting, and attempts to convert a young baseball pitcher (female) to bowling met with some success. Two of the spectators ended up fielding, much to their surprise and did an excellent job, considering their experience of the game amounted to a total of one hour! During match play the club secretary combined scoring duties with explaining the game to the crowd, and the club raised nearly $100 on donations and sales of delicious cakes and cookies.
At the end, bad light stopped play- the floodlights had to be switched off- and the target had to be recalculated without the benefit of Duckworth-Lewis tables. 34 runs off one over proved too much, and the Ducks were the winners – a trophy was presented, group photographs taken, and hands shaken. There were smiles all-round, and a sense that the first solid steps towards re-establishing cricket in Newfoundland had been taken. As the lights were turned off, dusk fell on King George V – for one night at least transformed from a football pitch to our village green, our Eden Gardens, our Sydney Cricket Ground, our Lord’s.
Dave Liverman