At last we’ve reached the point of no return – the Opening Ceremony – the reason for the trip. Join us as we take a light hearted look at The Holy Grail of mature age cricket -the Golden Oldies World Cricket Festival Cape Town South Africa 2015.
After milling around outside the venue for what seemed an age (and marvelling at the size of the man mountain, Joel Garner) we lined up and proudly marched into Newlands Stadium through the welcoming band tunnel.
Newlands Cricket Ground is considered by many to be the most beautiful test cricket venue in the world. The crowd certainly agreed.
In a show of great skill and timing each team marched in with the precision of a military parade.
and lined up in perfect copybook formation. Following the welcome speeches we found a spot in the members area to enjoy the drinks, the food and the atmosphere.
Over sixty teams from around the world have made the journey to Capetown to play the gentleman’s game and relive old dreams and past glories and to share funny cricket stories. Well that won’t take long.
I wandered through the crowd taking photos of some of the team banners to give you an idea of how far and wide they have travelled.
This is Kenny from Japan. He’s a one man team. We met him in England 5 years ago; he was a one man team then too. They don’t play much cricket in Japan. He told one of us that there’s only two cricket pitches in Japan, about 100km apart. I think he’s become a bit of a celebrity; everybody wants a photo with Kenny. He affiliates himself with another team so that he can at least get a game here.
Here’s Richard on the right; he was the man leading the honouring of the pitch a couple of days ago.
The Band.
More Rules.
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