One of the best cricketers Bermuda has produced Alma ‘Champ’ Hunt once wrote: “Through Cup Match, cricket still lays claim to the belief that it is the most democratic of games.“It has the power to merge the community into one spirit, one mood and why not the world for at least two days.”Grand thoughts considering that Cup Match evolved from slavery and segregation and to this day marks the emancipation of slaves in Bermuda.Each year Bermuda’s ex-slaves celebrated their emancipation from slavery, achieved on August 1, 1834, by picnicking, although the day was never officially made an emancipation holiday.The forerunner to Cup Match was introduced after the abolition of slavery in Bermuda. Men from Somerset and St George’s met in friendly rivalry and held celebrations of emancipation by holding annual picnics to mark the anniversary of the abolition of slavery.One of the highlights from the picnics was a friendly cricket match played between lodges from east and west ends of the Island.In 1901 during a cricket match between two major Friendly Societies, an agreement was made to play for an annual trophy.Members of the Friendly Societies and Lodges raised funds and in 1902 a silver cup that was played for annually was introduced and Cup Match was officially born.In 1947 two official national public holidays were introduced and held annually on the Thursday and Friday closest to August 1.One day, was renamed Emancipation Day in 1999 and continued the tradition of remembering the end of slavery.The other day, Somers Day, commemorated the arrival of Admiral Sir George Somers who colonised Bermuda in 1609.According to CURB Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda “Cup Match is so much more than cricket.“Emancipation Day and the emancipation of slavery symbolises one of the most significant moments in our history.“Emancipation Day acknowledges a period in our history that shaped and continues to influence our society today.“It is a time for assessment, self-improvement and for planning the future. When action was determined to abolish the practice of slavery we moved closer to the ideals of bringing our island community together.”Educator, writer and musician, Ronald Lightbourne wrote in a publication “Marking the Millennium’: “If colonial society marginalised black Bermudians and rendered them invisible, nothing reversed these processes as powerfully as did the evolution of Cup Match.”Mr Lightbourne wrote of the picnic matches that evolved into Cup Match: “Those gatherings were of a people mainly disenfranchised and racially segregated, who came together to celebrate the emancipation from slavery of their forebears some 60 years earlier.”Mr Lightbourne adds: “It (cricket) is a game of skill and grace and above all, of respect for the rules of the game. The name cricket became a byword for fairness in English-speaking countries, even the United States of America, where the game is hardly known.“This is a game with which Bermudians choose to express themselves, to celebrate the freedom from slavery and to register their hope for full and equal participation in society.“Like a great flock of migratory birds, Bermudians return from wherever they have temporarily roosted for the Great Summer Reunion. In this, the spirit that animated the earliest games lives still.“Cup Match is layered in social and cultural meaning. It is as quintessentially Bermudian as the Gombeys and for similar reason.”