Friday, 16 April 2021

One felt that somehow it would take more than totalitarian war to put an end to cricket

[H.S. Altham, in 1940] ends by describing a visit to Lord's, sandbags everywhere, the Long Room stripped bare. And yet: "The turf was a wondrous green, old Time on the Grand Stand was gazing serenely at the nearest balloon, and one felt that somehow it would take more than totalitarian war to put an end to cricket."

Since all Wisden  readers obviously enjoyed a classical education, he concluded with a line - in Latin only - from Horace, the poet who had also written the dulce et decorum est mantra that inspired the Great War generals. Altham's choice was more positive: Merses profundo, pulchrior evenit (You may drown in the depths, but it rises the more glorious). So it was for cricket in1940, so it will be 80 years later.


P. Kidd, 'When the cricket stops', L.Booth (ed.), Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (2021), 46-47

No comments:

Post a Comment