Cricket catches on, but rules still baffle French
By Colin Randall in Roujan
(Filed: 11/08/2006)
Leather met willow and the opening batsman was off the mark, striking a square cover drive and turning one run into two with the cry: "And another - hurry up."
The setting for this midweek cricket match might have been any English village green. Yet both batsmen were French, playing in a field surrounded by vineyards beside a road leading to Pézenas, the town that inspired Molière.
Miss Gibert is one of a growing number of French cricketers
The Midi cricket club, formed only a year ago, is one of a small but growing number springing up throughout France. The number of registered players has risen to more than 1,000, a 20 per cent increase in three years, playing for about 50 clubs. Barclays Bank sponsors a four-division league and there is even a national side, with six French-born players among the 13-man squad.
The Midi, based at Roujan, 20 miles from the nearest Mediterranean beach, is one of many set up by British expatriates. Others are dominated by players of Asian origin.
To Frédérique Gibert, however, there is no reason why her passion for the game, which she developed while teaching in Wiltshire, should not spread among the French.
Miss Gibert, 38, a wine producer's daughter, and Marc Massoulis, with whom she opened the batting in Midi's nine-a-side training match, are two of the club's four French players. "I fell in love with cricket without having known anything about it," she said. "I don't bowl well and can hardly bat, but I am learning and I'm good in the field."
Mr Massoulis, 36, an English teacher, has loved cricket since seeing a match at Old Trafford during his days as a student in Manchester. He has even introduced the game to his pupils.
"They quite enjoyed it, but then why not?" he said, "Most children like sport and learning to play new ones. The main thing holding them back is France's tendency to look more towards America as a cultural and sporting model."
But the sport's appeal baffles most French people. "After 15 years, I am beginning to get the rules but I still struggle with the scoring," said Mr Massoulis's wife, Christelle, 36.
English cricket's most famous ambassador to France is Sir Mick Jagger, the honorary president of the Saumur club near his Loire Valley chateau at Pocé-sur-Cisse.
While the Rolling Stone is hardly leading a sporting revolution, the French governing body, France Cricket, part of the Federation Française de Baseball, Softball et Cricket, detects encouraging signs.
"Ours is alone among those sports in showing regular growth," said Eddie Cannon, the secretary general.
"While the earliest players were generally expats, their children are now following. We have produced a very useful sheet with cartoons to explain the rules in French. But I don't think I've heard anyone translate 'howzat' to 'comment ça'."
Back at Midi, training ended with beer and Hérault wine instead of tea. Despite a dogged stint at the wicket, outstaying four other batsmen, Frédérique Gibert had scored only five runs before being caught. "But I did catch someone out," she said.
Basic Rules
Cricket is played by two teams of eleven on a level, closely cut oval “pitch” preferably measuring about 525 ft (160 m) by about 550 ft (170 m). Two wickets are placed 66 ft (20.12 m) apart near the middle of the field. A wicket consists of two wooden crosspieces (bails) resting on three wooden stumps 28 in. (71.1 cm) high.
At each wicket stands a batsman. If the opposing bowler, delivering the ball from near the opposing wicket, knocks down the bails of the batsman's wicket, the batsman is retired. In delivering the hard, leather-covered ball, the bowler throws overarm but may not bend the arm, and the ball usually approaches the batsman on one bounce. After six bowls to one batsman, an umpire (there is one at each wicket) calls “over,” and another bowler begins bowling to the batsman's partner at the opposing wicket. The players in the field shift position according to the batsmen.
If the batsman hits the ball with his willow paddle-shaped bat far enough so that both batsmen may run to exchange places, a run is scored. When the ball is hit a long distance (in any direction, since there are no foul lines), up to four exchanges or runs may be made. (If the ball crosses the boundary of the field on the ground, four runs are scored automatically; if it clears the boundary in the air, six are scored.) However, if the opposing team recovers the ball and uses it to knock down the bails of a wicket before the batsman reaches it, the batsman is out. A batsman is also retired if an opposing fielder catches a batted ball on the fly (as in baseball), or for any of several more technical reasons. An outstanding turn at bat may result in more than 100 runs, a “century.”
A game usually consists of two innings; in one innings all players on each team bat once in a fixed order (unless a team, having scored what it considers runs adequate to win, chooses to retire without completing its order); a game may take several days to complete. Substitutions are allowed only for serious injury.
These are just the basic rules of what is, to a leaner, a complicated game.
guardian.co.uk
By Colin Randall in Roujan
(Filed: 11/08/2006)
Leather met willow and the opening batsman was off the mark, striking a square cover drive and turning one run into two with the cry: "And another - hurry up."
The setting for this midweek cricket match might have been any English village green. Yet both batsmen were French, playing in a field surrounded by vineyards beside a road leading to Pézenas, the town that inspired Molière.
Miss Gibert is one of a growing number of French cricketers
The Midi cricket club, formed only a year ago, is one of a small but growing number springing up throughout France. The number of registered players has risen to more than 1,000, a 20 per cent increase in three years, playing for about 50 clubs. Barclays Bank sponsors a four-division league and there is even a national side, with six French-born players among the 13-man squad.
The Midi, based at Roujan, 20 miles from the nearest Mediterranean beach, is one of many set up by British expatriates. Others are dominated by players of Asian origin.
To Frédérique Gibert, however, there is no reason why her passion for the game, which she developed while teaching in Wiltshire, should not spread among the French.
Miss Gibert, 38, a wine producer's daughter, and Marc Massoulis, with whom she opened the batting in Midi's nine-a-side training match, are two of the club's four French players. "I fell in love with cricket without having known anything about it," she said. "I don't bowl well and can hardly bat, but I am learning and I'm good in the field."
Mr Massoulis, 36, an English teacher, has loved cricket since seeing a match at Old Trafford during his days as a student in Manchester. He has even introduced the game to his pupils.
"They quite enjoyed it, but then why not?" he said, "Most children like sport and learning to play new ones. The main thing holding them back is France's tendency to look more towards America as a cultural and sporting model."
But the sport's appeal baffles most French people. "After 15 years, I am beginning to get the rules but I still struggle with the scoring," said Mr Massoulis's wife, Christelle, 36.
English cricket's most famous ambassador to France is Sir Mick Jagger, the honorary president of the Saumur club near his Loire Valley chateau at Pocé-sur-Cisse.
While the Rolling Stone is hardly leading a sporting revolution, the French governing body, France Cricket, part of the Federation Française de Baseball, Softball et Cricket, detects encouraging signs.
"Ours is alone among those sports in showing regular growth," said Eddie Cannon, the secretary general.
"While the earliest players were generally expats, their children are now following. We have produced a very useful sheet with cartoons to explain the rules in French. But I don't think I've heard anyone translate 'howzat' to 'comment ça'."
Back at Midi, training ended with beer and Hérault wine instead of tea. Despite a dogged stint at the wicket, outstaying four other batsmen, Frédérique Gibert had scored only five runs before being caught. "But I did catch someone out," she said.
Basic Rules
Cricket is played by two teams of eleven on a level, closely cut oval “pitch” preferably measuring about 525 ft (160 m) by about 550 ft (170 m). Two wickets are placed 66 ft (20.12 m) apart near the middle of the field. A wicket consists of two wooden crosspieces (bails) resting on three wooden stumps 28 in. (71.1 cm) high.
At each wicket stands a batsman. If the opposing bowler, delivering the ball from near the opposing wicket, knocks down the bails of the batsman's wicket, the batsman is retired. In delivering the hard, leather-covered ball, the bowler throws overarm but may not bend the arm, and the ball usually approaches the batsman on one bounce. After six bowls to one batsman, an umpire (there is one at each wicket) calls “over,” and another bowler begins bowling to the batsman's partner at the opposing wicket. The players in the field shift position according to the batsmen.
If the batsman hits the ball with his willow paddle-shaped bat far enough so that both batsmen may run to exchange places, a run is scored. When the ball is hit a long distance (in any direction, since there are no foul lines), up to four exchanges or runs may be made. (If the ball crosses the boundary of the field on the ground, four runs are scored automatically; if it clears the boundary in the air, six are scored.) However, if the opposing team recovers the ball and uses it to knock down the bails of a wicket before the batsman reaches it, the batsman is out. A batsman is also retired if an opposing fielder catches a batted ball on the fly (as in baseball), or for any of several more technical reasons. An outstanding turn at bat may result in more than 100 runs, a “century.”
A game usually consists of two innings; in one innings all players on each team bat once in a fixed order (unless a team, having scored what it considers runs adequate to win, chooses to retire without completing its order); a game may take several days to complete. Substitutions are allowed only for serious injury.
These are just the basic rules of what is, to a leaner, a complicated game.
guardian.co.uk
