johneccles Loc: Leyland UK

While visiting France recently I visited a small village in Normandy called Des Ormes to see the Chateau.
There was a helicopter on the front lawn which did aerial tours of the Normandy coast including Mont St Michel. At the rear of the Chateau to my absolute amazement was a full-sized cricket Pitch with a game in progress. I never knew the French played this game but there were two teams some way through a match, it appears the was a local French team playing against a small team from Sussex in England.
Here's the evidence.

(Download)

phlash46 Loc: Westchester County, New York

If I live to be 100 I will never understand that game!

Modnar Loc: Batley' West Yorkshire, UK

I’m most surprised. However my wife’s son used to coach a cricket team in Bavaria.

johneccles Loc: Leyland UK

I know the feeling and I am Engish, I was made to play it at school but I was useless.

boberic Loc: Quiet Corner, Connecticut. Ex long Islander

So, where are the crickets?

mtcoothaman Loc: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

I was surprised to see cricket being played as I looked out of the window of the Dijon-Paris train on Sat afternoon a few years ago.

halraiser

The game is played in various places outside the UK. At a school near my home in western Oregon there is a cricket pitch set up and during the summer I see games every Saturday. The players seem to be from India where I understand that cricket is not a game, it is a religion.

edrobinsonjr Loc: Boise, Idaho

angler Loc: StHelens England

Great shot John.

johneccles Loc: Leyland UK

Thanks Bill, I had left my proper camera in the car so I had to use my phone for this shot but as you can see it takes very good photographs.

John N Loc: HP14 3QF Stokenchurch, UK

Fantastic shot that embodies the game. Who needs to understand it when you can sit on a surrounding bench or seat and watch the action(?), then take a tea break (not half time) before resuming. Or stroll around the outfield to the pavilion and pick up a beer. Can't wait for next season to begin and will be going to Getty's ground (he loved the game) just 5 minutes away for some international warm ups and minor counties finals.

From a photographers point of view it offers a lot of opportunity to practise action shots with time to evaluate your result and shoot again. Love it, but don't understand it all.

And let's not forget Robin Williams - "Cricket is basically baseball on Valium". That should help you.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

cambriaman Loc: Central CA Coast

When I lived and worked in the UK, I was exposed to Cricket. There was a game every Saturday on "The Weybridge Village Cricket Pitch". Over 2-½ years, I watched several, asked a lot of questions talked to Brits at work about and after that time I think it made less sense to than before I started! Definitely a game for a person with English (or Indian, it seems) genes. "Baseball on Valium" only explains the rate at which it is played. The only use I used Cricket Bat (or as my British colleagues called it, "a Crickey Bar") for a bit of memorabilia of my time there. I bought one a few days before leaving to return to the USA and had all the members of the management, staff and my technical colleagues autograph the face of the bat for me as a souvenir. I spayed coating of clear lacquer over the signatures and displayed it at home in California for years. Now it is in storage as we have downsized to move the Central Coast. An interesting aside is that I just walked into a sporting goods store and bought the first bat I found. When it was being autographed, the British colleagues that had played Cricket tried flexing the bat and found it to be a particularly excellent bat. They complained that I just bought the first bat I saw and that they spend quite a bit of time in the shop trying all the bats to get the best one! Memories, memories!

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

John, you might be even more surprised that we have a cricket league in the Phoenix, Arizona area. There are a number of teams and they play regularly.
--Bob

khalidikram

Great picture and great find! I remember being similarly astonished when I stumbled across a cricket match in progress on the island of Corfu, off the coast of Greece. All hope is not lost for the world!