| North Yorkshire Cricket Tales |
We Won The Cup! A Cricket Tale That A Captain Can Never Live Down!
By R.E.Aconley.
Sport is all about winning and when you win you have to celebrate. One year, back in the 1970's, my village club beat our local rivals in a final at cricket and our team was presented with a big solid silver trophy that dated back to the early 1920's. The trophy was called the 'Comrades' Cup and it was presented in memory of the soldiers in the First World War. Being solid silver it was worth a lot of money.
After the presentation our team headed back to our local pub to start the celebrations. Well wishers used to give the Captain money and the trophy was filled with a mixture of Whisky, Port, Beer and anything else the landlord could think of. It was very intoxicating. You can imagine that everyone had plenty to drink and our team always had a rousing sing song to celebrate winning at the end of the night. They were great nights but this one was more memorable than most!
When the celebrations finished the Captain, who was responsible for the trophy, had to take it home with him. He staggered out to his car and he could not find his car keys. So he put the trophy on the top of his car whilst he fumbled around to find his keys. Eventually he located his car keys, opened the car door, got into the car and drove off. He forgot to put the trophy back in his car!
As he drove from the pub everyone could hear a loud clatter as the valuable solid silver trophy fell off the roof of the car on to the road. It bounced around a little and everyone feared the worst. Luckily only the lid of the trophy was dented so it did not cost too much to repair but the Captain never lived down the day he forgot to put the trophy in his car.