Gaming e tide: E territorialisation of temporarily exposed English sandbanks for social cricket events
- Publication Type:
- Journal Article
- Citation:
- Journal of Marine and Island Cultures, 2017, 6 (1), pp. 1 - 16
- Issue Date:
- 2017-01-01
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© 2017 Institution for Marine and Island Cultures, Mokpo National University. Over the last 200 years a number of sandbanks that rise above the surface of the sea or river estuaries for brief periods during low tide points have been site of cricket matches organised by teams based in adjacent coastal areas. The most regular locations for such performances have been the Goodwin Sands (an area of sandbanks located in the English Channel, close to the coast of the English county of Kent) and the Bramble Bank in the Solent. Other locations, such as banks in the River Tamar, have also seen one-off events of this kind. The article identifies these sports occasions as constituting particular forms of temporary territorialisations of space that adapt aspects of the game for the conditions of rapidly changing locations. The annual matches provide an example of the human rendition of spaces as temporary island neighbourhoods, the ephemerality of which is key to their attraction and meaning. Notably, they also involve a return to conventions of traditionally recognised ‘fair play’ in cricket that have significantly diminished in the modern form of the game. In this manner, the temporary spaces of the sandbanks allow for a revival of customs that relate to earlier participatory performance traditions and allow these to be re-affirmed.
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