Our first real Cup Match since 2019 and apart from one tragic incident, it seems all went extremely well.

Condolences to the families of the young lady that we all lost.

For diehard St George’s supporters, it is yet another 300-something days of hoping that our team will actually win. It seems that every year we have to hear the same refrain: “It will take ten years before you see the cup again.”

Well ten years has gone by, and we are still cup-less.

A very bright spot was seeing one Treadwell Gibbons Jr make more than 50 runs. He has come a mighty long way in both his Cup Match batting and sportsmanship.

As for the Somerset team ...

What can one say? They clearly had command of the game on both days. Dion Stovell has earned all the accolades as MVP. Somerset captain Jordan DeSilva can truly say that he has an unblemished record.

One small consolation: it was great fun watching Somerset fans' faces when they lost four to five wickets in short order on the first day. They really looked like they were staring at death's door for an hour or so.

Congratulations to the host club, Somerset Cricket Club, for their organisation of the event. If there were any hiccups at all, no one noticed them. I’m not sure how many people came to the game, but everything was laid out for the masses:

• Adequate security

• Lavatory services

• Plenty of food stalls

• First aid for those who needed it

President Vashun Blanchette, secretary Dawn Simmons and their committee have put in countless hours to ensure that our Annual Classic was first-class.

Bermudian love

There were a number of other social activities that took place both before and after the games — concerts for the young, old-time dances for the not-so-young, a soca event for all age brackets and a very nice cruise called “Rockaway”.

A special shout-out to Magnum Force, Blackaknights, King Jyrus and Blackstarr for the old-school dance at West End Sailboat Club. It was very refreshing to see a mixture of hundreds of Bermudians in one spot like the good old days.

Camp sites seemed to be still going strong with families, and their generators, moving to the “great outdoors” for a week. Special shout-out to the parks department for making sure all the campgrounds were well maintained.

A few observations after spending two days at the game:

• Rule No 1: take two laps of the field so you can mentally mark out where people’s camps are

• Rule No 2: after you map out where different camps are, make sure you hit them up on Day 2. Bermudians are overly generous with their food and liquid refreshments. If they find out that you were at the game, but did not stop by their camp, they will look at you crossed-eyed until Christmas

Despite the result in the game itself, the real winners were the people of Bermuda. No matter how we spent the holiday, we clearly did it with friendly rivalry and Bermudian love.

So see you all next year down east. Time to map out some new camps.

• Christopher Famous is the government MP for Devonshire East (Constituency 11). You can reach him on WhatsApp at 599-0901 or e-mail at carib_pro@yahoo.com