'Austin's final overseas tour was in 1961 with a strong Somerset side that toured England, Scotland and Wales. The tour, which saw Somerset play at such hallowed grounds as Lord's and The Oval, was a huge success with the Bermudian side losing just two of their 23 matches, winning six and drawing 15.' – Tommy Aitchison, "A True Bermudian Champion, a Tribute to the sporting life of Austin (Cheesey) Hughes", 2005.

The annual match for "The Cup", the most prestigious trophy in the field of Bermuda cricket, took place on 29 and 30 July 2010, with play being held at the western Somerset Cricket Club. Torrential rain interrupted the game on the first day of "Cup Match" and eliminated play on the afternoon of the second, with St. George's retaining the Cup. As one headline put it, Somerset was "hoping to end the drought of six years" of losses to St. George's, but it was not to be. The showers were welcomed elsewhere in Bermuda, as the rains ended the longest April to June drought in the history of the island since the summer of 1963. However, neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow interrupted play at the "Crown and Anchor" tables, which bristled with gambling sports, all determined to improve their betting average over the course of the two-day holiday, Bermuda's annual jamboree.

Out by the roadsides, in public parks and by the seashore, campers retreated to their tents or went home for the duration of the downfalls of water. That is another major feature of the holiday, as thousands of Bermudians take to camping for the four-day weekend. On most fronts it seemed, the global recession was not allowed to interfere with the annual Cup Match parties in paradise, including the final day of the weekend, when maritime madness took place in the form of the non-event of the "Non-Mariners Race" in Mangrove Bay, Somerset.

For those from overseas, Cup Match gives Bermuda the apparent distinction of being the only country on Earth to stop proceedings for two full days, in order to play a sport, namely cricket. If you are from the US, you may associate the noun with a noisy bug, but in the sporting world, cricket is the second most popular sport in the world, second only to the soccer of Pele, Maradona, or Spice Girl's Beckham. Cricket is a bat-and-ball game, like baseball, but having an intricacy of outs, overs, LBWs and such like, one may fail to understand it fully and thus hesitate to explain.

Cricket appears on the pitches of history in the 1500s. By the 1790s, it had become England's national sport, as football was mainly developed in the mid-1800s. With the expansion of the British Empire, cricket came to be played round the globe and it may be said that the sun never sets on the panoply of cricket pitches, as it always has one to shine on somewhere, if it is not raining. Some of the greatest cricketers bowled in from our region of the Commonwealth, specifically the West Indies, and Bermuda produced the incomparable Alma (Champ) Hunt, who played to rapt audiences for some years in Great Britain. Locally, Austin (Cheesy) Hughes and others excelled at the sport, to the delight of fans who well enjoyed the game without the massive sound systems that drown the play today at Cup Match.

Cricket is a serious sport and sacred to many. Years ago, I spent a year at the Australian National University as a Graduate Fellow of Rotary International's student scholarship programme. Upon arrival, I was informed that I had been accepted into the Archaeology Prehistory Department, as, coming from Bermuda I must certainly play cricket and could be a valuable member of their team, academic credentials aside. Needless to say, I was almost sent packing off the university property when it was discovered that the only thing I knew about cricket was that the ball was as hard as a cannonball and almost as dangerous.

It seems that cricket was introduced into Bermuda, possibly before the mid-1800s, perhaps by British military personnel. One, Captain John Moresby, RN, was several times mentioned as the instigator of Cup Match, but researcher and "history detective" LeYoni Junos pointed out in a 2009 article in The Royal Gazette that he was in fact on the other side of the world at the relevant period, only later becoming Captain-in-Charge at the Bermuda Dockyard. The first recorded cricket match between two black Lodges in Bermuda took place in Somerset in August 1872, noted as "the most interesting and notable feature in the customary August rejoicings, which took place this week, the week usually set apart as the 'Carnival' week in commemoration of the emancipation from unjust thraldom of the coloured portion of our population".

The date of the beginning of the annual cricket game, or 'Cup Match', was June, 1902, later moved to the end of July or early August, to be a formal part of the commemoration of the end of slavery in British dominions, which was the "Day of Jubilee", August 1, 1834. The first day of Cup Match thus marks that epochal change to liberty in Bermuda, while the second denotes the anniversary of the wreck of the Sea Venture in late July 1609, which led to the permanent settlement of Bermuda.

Under the title of "Honouring Bermuda's Emancipation: Respect. Recognition. Reconciliation", the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs had a "Cup Match Heritage Tent" to dispense information on Emancipation.

While the traditional three Rs, Reading Writing and Arithmetic have a practical application, the Department's three Rs might serve as a moral guideline, not just for the consideration of the relationship to enslaved persons of the past and their descendants, but for communion with all peoples.

Those three Rs unfortunately run against the concrete pitch of modern narcissistic traits of egotism, conceit, vanity and selfishness, which can be found throughout society.

Looking out through the Sunday rain over the maritime madness of the Non-Mariners Race, or rather at the massed armada of party boats in Mangrove Bay, representing hundreds of millions of dollars, one wonders what heritage is really being celebrated sometimes in this paradise.

On the other hand, the Sandys Parish Council did a wonderful job of making Somerset a less narcissistic place during Cup Match, with flags of both east and west teams mounted on Belco poles, wrapping the lamp standards at Somerset Bridge in cricket club colours and mounting a welcoming banner at the crest of Scaur Hill.

Edward Cecil Harris, MBE, JP, PHD, FSA is Executive Director of the National Museum of Bermuda, incorporating the Bermuda Maritime Museum. Comments may be made to director@bmm.bm or 704-5480.