The Final Test

A dramtic view of the final cricket test from our intrepid sports reporter!

The Final Test

I have just realised that we never have any articles on sport in the "Pump". Is this because nobody in the village is interested, after all we do not boast a football team, cricket side, or even a bowls green. Anyway, I thought that the final match in the cricket Test Match series should not go unheralded.

We are now into professional football again, a business, not a port, played by an undisciplined load of overpaid inarticulate young men whose only loyalty is to their wallets. Cricket could not be more different in every respect. And if you want excitement, don't only look at soccer. The final Test was played over five gripping days and watched by over 86,000 spectators. The balance swung backwards and forwards and at the start of the final day, any one of four results was possible. England had fought back from being 40 - 1 no hopers on the second day, to slightly odds-on favourites at the start of day five. In the end, we defeated South Africa in an epic game that demonstrated physical, technical and mental ability at its very highest. So, I hope that gradually kids will come back to a game where the role models set the right example and where sportsmanship triumphs over gamesmanship.

GF

Graham Forster