THE Ship Inn Cricket Club at Elie, in the East Neuk of Fife, is, its captain says—and I believe he is right in saying so—the only cricket club in the world with a beach for its home ground. As someone who has played cricket, with great pleasure, but little distinction, ever since he could stand upright, I knew as soon as I heard about it that I had to see this place. Inquiries, introductions and arrangements were made. Not only would I see the place, I would play a game of cricket with the Ship Inn side into the bargain.
As it turned out, the fixture was versus I Zingari. I Zingari are an interesting lot. The name is slangy Italian for The Gypsies. They are a wandering side, with no home ground of their own, founded in 1845. They are as famous for their facetious rules and regulations (‘That the Entrance be nothing, and the Annual Subscription does not exceed the Entrance’) as they are for their illustrious membership (a smattering of royalty, innumerable aristocrats and several captains of the England team among them).
I Zingari arrived by boat. Of course they did. En route to Elie across the Firth of Forth, they passed the Bass Rock, once an island prison where Jacobites were sent to rot, now home to a vast colony of gannets. The morning’s rain had freshened everything up, the sun had come out, there were puffins galore and dolphins swam alongside the boat. I wondered what the puffins made of I Zingari, whose black, red and gold blazers bear an uncanny resemblance to that bird’s beak.
Denne historien er fra July 26, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra July 26, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds
