In cricketing terms 98 represents a good innings.

The same can be said for life in general, especially when you are still able to enjoy the simple things.

Brownlow Place celebrated his 98th birthday last Thursday and he still manages to live a full life with good health.

He also knows not to take anything for granted, so he will be grateful to live to see another Cup Match, something the Somerset fan seldom misses.

Even with so many changes over the years, Mr Place has a special fondness for the 112-year old Cup Match, whose history is based on the celebration of the freeing of slaves in Bermuda, with the first day of Cup Match being Emancipation Day.

“Emancipation is about the freeing of the slaves who, for years, were praying about freedom,” said Mr Place.

“When the day came they did not know what to do.

“They had nowhere to live, had no money and believe it or not had no name, so they had to go by their slave master’s name. Just imagine that.

“God must have been with them in order to hold themselves together and out of that togetherness came the Friendly Societies, the Lodges and out of those Lodges came the Cup Match, because the east end lodge and west end lodge wanted to know one another.”

Mr Place has only missed a handful of matches since he began going as a little boy back in the 1920s and can remember when Cup Match was played at Royal Naval Field.

He remembers watching Edward “Bosun” Swainson score the first century in Cup Match there in 1937.

This Thursday and Friday he will be heading west again, driving himself from his home in St David’s.

“Oh yes I still drive, that’s part of my Cup Match and it is my wish, but God’s will, that I make it,” said Mr Place, who needs two more ‘singles’ to reach his own century in 2016. “It’s natural for me to think that far ahead but it is still God’s will. I can’t take that for granted. Today is made for some and for some tomorrow may never come, so I live one day at a time.”

Mr Place was recognised by Heritage Productions for his longevity as a Cup Match fan at their 10th banquet luncheon recently when they honoured former Cup Match players. He has roots in Somerset, family of his mother Julia Tucker-Place who came from Somerset.

“I can remember when we used to catch the 6 o’clock boat from Hamilton to go to Dockyard, then to Watford Bridge,” he recalls.

“When I was about 12 years old I used to travel by myself and I don’t think I’ve missed more than a half-dozen Cup Matches all those years. Once I was away, my wife and I, because I got tired of Somerset not winning a game during those 20 years (1959-79). Strangely enough that year that I didn’t go, 1979, Somerset won the game!”

Mr Place is only a few years older than the two oldest surviving Cup Match players, Woodgate Simmons and Leroy “Tubby” Richardson, both former captains.

“I can recall the time when the Cup Match teams would only pick players from the parishes, no outsiders could get into those teams,” he said. “I can remember the time when Somerset had fellas like the three Hunts and three Simonses and the Durrants, Woodgate Simmons and Warren Simmons.

“St George’s had Walter and Clifford Darrell, Edward “Bosun” Swainson, Edward “Boar” Watson, Alec “Cocky” Steede, Fielding Swan and “Tubby” Richardson. Those chaps played the game honestly, full of vigour and played for the sport of it. Like everything else it’s all commercialised now. The sportsmanship is not there like it was in those days.

“When it was played in Somerset, it didn’t matter who won the cup, the Somerset band used to escort the St George’s cricketers to the boat after the game and there were crowds of people.”

The crowds are much bigger these days, and noisier, but the rivalry remains fierce, though friendly. “Back in those days you went to Cup Match dressed in a necktie with collar and men used to wear doeskin trousers,’ Mr Place recalls. “In fact the cricketers used to wear doeskin trousers. The women were well dressed too, for them it was a fashion show and that hasn’t changed.”

Mr Place will sit with family in a reserved spot on the eastern end of the ground facing the club.

“I like that the clubs have the extra seating, it’s a good change,” he said. “I leave around 7.30 in the morning, this time I’m going to pick up my daughter Charlene Tyrrell on the way to Somerset.

“We have a great time, some of my family are St George’s fans, I just sit back, listen to them and laugh.”