FUN WITH MAPS – ISSUE 2022-147 DAILY FEATURE:

By Steve Kovacs (Introduction by Chuck Gibson)

LOVELAND, OH (August 19, 2022) – In Issue 2022-147 of Steve Kovacs Fun with Maps, today we note the final “Olympic Moment”  for Cricket which certainly was NOT broadcast on NBC-TV. 

CRICKET ANYONE?

Cricket takes on multiple forms.  No not the insect, rather the game. 

Invented in the 16th century in southeast England, with the first recorded evidence of cricket played was from 1550 at Guildford, Surrey (about ten miles from where we lived in the late 1990s).  It spread globally with the rise of the British Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries.  A form of export.

As a side note, the English also invented soccer, rugby, tennis, table tennis, water polo, rowing (as a sport) among others.

Cricket has multiple rather odd considerations.  My favorite is that umpires, or game officials, often wearing a white ‘lab-coat’ over white shirt and pants and a white wide brimmed hat.  They look like they are ready to sell ice cream… (Apologies to cricket enthusiasts…).  And, there isn’t a standard dress code for the umpires.

Cricket matches can last anywhere from 5 days (highest form: the test match typically played between national teams) to the Twenty20 lasting about 2.5 hours, and a number of other options in between.

Cricket was an Olympic sport one time only, in the Paris Games, with its last match played on this day in 1900.

Vuillemin’s folding tourist map of Paris from 1861 is presented here.

Steve Kovacs and his wife Theresa reside in Loveland, Ohio where they raised their two children. He is a passionate collector of antique maps.

Visit his antique map boutique world-on-paper online. Watch for his daily feature Steve Kovacs: Antique Maps & Fun Facts here on Loveland Beacon.