Former Cup Match players from both ends of the Island were among those honoured during Heritage Productions Eighth Annual Emancipation Celebration Awards Luncheon at Willowbank Convention Centre yesterday.This year’s awardees included ex-St George’s’ players Wendell Smith, Winfield Darrell, Wilbur Burgess and Louis (Red) DeSilva. DeSilva never played in Cup Match for St George’s but is a former club footballer, selector and president.Those honoured from Somerset were Gladstone (Sad) Brown, Quinton Sherlock, Albert Donawa, Rudolph (Buck) Simons and Charles (Skeets) Fubler, all of whom played in the two-day classic.Special Awards were presented to veteran broadcasting engineer Delano Ingham and long serving Somerset Cricket Club administrator Charlotte (Molly) Simons, who is the club’s current Cup Match selection committee chairperson.Former Bermuda and St George’s Cup Match skipper Smith stood out among the crowd, and for good reason.In 1994 Smith became the first batsman to score 1,000 runs in Cup Match at Wellington Oval, two years after sharing in the second highest partnership in the classic’s history (200 runs for the second-wicket) with younger brother Clay Smith at the same venue.Upon receiving his award, Smith downplayed his many outstanding achievements in Cup Match and cricket in general.“Playing cricket and Cup Match was never about personal achievements and personal records,” he said.At age 92, ex-St George’s player Darrell is the second eldest surviving Cup Match player behind Somerset’s Woodgate Simmons who turns 93 in September.Due to poor health Darrell could not attend yesterday’s ceremony. Accepting the award on his behalf was St George’s Cricket Club president Neil Paynter who urged those in attendance to educate young people about the “real” significance of Cup Match.“We need to educate our children what Cup Match is about and what the real reason what Cup Match is about because a lot of them only think it’s about the cricket game,” he said. “It’s not just about this cricket game and it is important that we teach our children about it.”Somerset Cricket Club president Alfred Maybury said it was important to recognise the legacies of past Cup Match players that have contributed to the annual midsummer classic over the past century.“Whilst Heritage Productions have taken the lead and have shown us the value of all of those who have come before us and made this the greatest event there is, we must recognise that we have many, many more who have played a part that we need to make sure that we honour them and let them know that they have been an inspiration to what we currently have,” he added.Brown, who was a member of Randy Horton’s 1979 Somerset Cup Match team that won the cup back from St George’s after a 20-year drought, listed playing Cup Match as one of the most memorable moments of his career.“You play cricket, but there’s no match like Cup Match,” said Brown, the first Bermudian batsman to score a century in a World Cup qualifier. “It is true some cricketers get the shakes (during Cup Match) and you have to see it to believe it.“I was the complete opposite, I never felt like that. My thing was all these people came to see me!”