Was reminiscing today about playing cricket as a kid. You just don’t see kids playing it now but me and my mates were well into it as kids in the 60s. The rules we had, which I’m sure were universal, were nothing to do with the rules of ‘proper’ cricket. Who remembers ‘Out over gardens’ (any batsman who hit it over someone’s back garden was out), ‘last man bats on’ ( if we were playing doubles ie two batsmen, the innings didn’t end until everyone was out), ‘three shies at the bat’ (if was a contentious LB (never LBW) decision, the batsman could have three shies with the ball at the bat balanced against the middle stump, if he hit it, he stayed in, if not, he was out). My favourite though was ‘You’ve got to field your innings’, no matter what the circumstances, your house could be on fire, your mother had ran off with the milkman, your sister was pregnant by your brother etc, if you’d batted you couldn’t just piss off home, you could sulk, make ludicrous excuses etc, there was no way that you were leaving.

I’m sure kids don’t go through this growing up ritual now, more’s the pity.