The late Liverpool Football Club manager Bill Shankly once memorably declared: "Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I'm very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that."

Those words, as much as his extraordinary success as a manager, have become part of football's folklore, in part because they show the extraordinary devotion that the "beautiful game" engenders.

But the words are memorable too because they are patently untrue. Football, like all sports, is only a game, and is, by definition artificial, with rules that remove the complexities and unpredictable turns that life ? and death ? constantly produce.

There are variables in sports, notably the individual talents of the players, injuries, poor decisions by officials and, at least for outdoor sports, the weather.

But these variables pale in comparison with those that life produces with dizzying frequency.

Nonetheless, there are lessons that can be taken from sports, and last week's Cup Match threw up some that are worth remembering.

The challenger in Cup Match faces a notoriously difficult task in regaining the title. As was noted in many of last week's previews of "The Game", bowling out the opposing side twice in the space of two days is extraordinarily difficult, and St. George's, which last held the Cup in 2001, had signally failed to accomplish the task in the ensuing years.

So the team's selectors risked it all by leaving out two key batsmen, the promising OJ Pitcher and the always dangerous Glenn Blakeney, in favour of adding more bowlers to the order.

That decision resulted in a good deal of second guessing, and for three quarters of Cup Match 2005, the armchair selectors looked like they were a lot smarter than the real ones.

By 2.40 p.m. on Friday, Somerset had been set a target of just 121 runs to win the game with about five hours in which to accomplish the task. In cricketing terms, that is a paltry target and the Cup might as well have been sent back to Somerset Cricket Club's ground right then.

But St. George's stuck to its plan. Their bowlers were put to work, and by around 5 p.m., it was all over, with Somerset defeated after being bowled out for just 94 runs. It had been a stunning turn of events.

All of this can be read about in far more detail in sports pages, and the match, will unquestionably be talked about for years as one of the matches that truly deserves the title "Classic".

But what lessons are there to be taken from this match that can be applied to life?

The first is that there are times when risks not only can be taken, must be taken. Had St. George's gone with a more conventional selection policy, the match would probably have ended in a draw, or event defeat, given the success of Somerset's own bowlers ? who would have been the toast of the Island had Somerset won the match.

The second is that no one should fear failure. St. George's could well have lost the match, and might have done so in ignominious fashion. But the alternative was no more palatable; in effect ceding the match before it was played.

The third is that if you decide on a plan and believe in it, you should stick with it. There must have been times on Thursday and Friday when the St. George's team doubted itself, right up to to the moment when they took to the field to defend that 121 run total. But ? and they had little choice, it's true ? they stuck to the plan and won.

Finally, even when you are confident in your plan, you have to adapt to conditions. While George O'Brien, Jr. had huge success on Thursday, Gregg Foggo, who was chosen to open the second innings bowling with him on Friday, is far from Bermuda's best known bowler, and most comments about his selection related to whether he should have been selected at all while was facing criminal charges.

But he had been one of St. George's most efficient bowlers on Thursday, while promising young fast bowler had been more expensive. And so the change was made, with devastating results. While O'Brien wiped out the top of Somerset's order, Foggo dispatched the tail. And with that, the match was won by a group of risk-takers who were not afraid to fail.