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of fair play, but at least the grand old Bodyline tactics. Facing Larwood’s game might show them the necessity of 90mph thunderbolts might make a playing by the rules. good training exercise for soldiers – if, of course, the bowler used a bigger, harder There had been some – but not much – ball, and the batsman had his pads – in Germany since the mid-19th “artificial bolsters”, according to Hitler – . Like football, it was introduced taken away. by British students and businessmen. However, unlike football, only a few Once in power, the Nazis used sport, as Germans took it up. Fry quipped that they did most other things, as a way of Germany’s athletic javelin throwers and indoctrinating people into being good hand-grenade slingers might make National Socialists and good fighters. decent fast bowlers. Ribbentrop said that Hitler wanted speed and violence from his cricket was “too complicated for us.” sport, not subtle nuances. When he heard “COMPLICATED, ILLOGICAL, that a cricket match had gone on for a Ribbentrop’s Führer had stronger whole week and still ended in a draw, he EffEMINATE” opinions. During the First World War, supposedly said that Germans had better Lance Corporal Hitler, recovering from things to do with their time. Crispin Andrews on the history of cricket in Germany injury in a Berlin hospital, organised a cricket match between a German team, Thankfully, there are a lot of things about including himself, and some British ofcers modern Germany that Hitler wouldn’t have who were prisoners of war. According to liked: Jerome Boateng, Sami Khedira and They gathered, wearing pullovers, by the Fry had lived through the First World War, Conservative MP Oliver Locker Lampson, Mesut Ozil – brilliant footballers of African, concrete steps under the red clifs, on the and in the preceding decades saw Kaiser who’d subsequently met some of the Tunisian and Turkish descent – lighting island where no one gets hayfever. On Wilhelm II and a succession of pushy ofcers and written about it in the Daily up the German national team with flair, the plastic football pitch below, men and Prussian aristocrats on the German Army’s Mirror in 1930, Hitler wanted to learn the physical presence and athleticism. Or The boys wearing white clothes and coloured general staf throw their weight around in intricacies and mysteries of the English Scorpions, German heavy rock musicians, hats played a strange game with a bat Europe and the African colonies. This, he national game. performing shows to sold out crowds all and a ball. and many other Brits believed, plunged over the world and writing hit songs about Europe into a terrible war during which The ofcers duly obliged. However, by the Germany’s friendship with Russia. Germans playing cricket – with Englishmen millions died. time Hitler took the field a few days later, – on Heligoland, the tiny German island he wanted some of the rules changed. And now, it seems, there are Germans where there are no cars and definitely no By 1934, Germany’s new National Socialist Cricket, he apparently believed, was who play cricket. Proper rules: pads, cricket pitches. CB Fry would have been leader was making some decidedly too complicated, illogical and also too gloves and sometimes even helmets. suitably impressed. inflammatory public statements about efeminate. “The Laws of cricket were Germany’s post-war position in Europe good enough for the pleasure loving- Last May, 34 of them jumped out of small Fry – a diplomat and navy superintendent being a long way from what he, Adolf English,” wrote Locker Lampson, quoting open boats, onto the beach at Heligoland. long after he’d finished playing for Hitler, considered was its rightful place. Hitler. “But Hitler proposed changing There was no mooring place for the and somersaulting onto mantelpieces them for the serious-minded Teuton.” Cuxhaven Ferry on this famous little – once told Hitler’s foreign minister, von Fry was one of those English gentlemen island, which used to be a British colony Ribbentrop, that the Germans should take of the 1930s not averse to a strong On 3 January 1933 when Hitler was made before the Brits traded it for Zanzibar in up cricket to teach them some manners. Germany pursuing its legitimate interests Reich Chancellor of Germany, England 1890. THCC Rot-Gelb Cricket Hamburg in Europe. Playing cricket, he believed, were 2-1 up against Australia and on their were to play Heligoland Pilgrims, a team Fry met Ribbentrop in 1934. He was would teach them to do so in the right way to regaining . Judging made up of Hamburg players and friends in Germany trying to forge closer ties and proper manner. Fry thought that the by what Locker Lampson wrote, the from other local clubs. The same two sides between the Boy Scouts and Hitler Youth. Germans might struggle with the concept Führer would have approved of Jardine’s met at the same place last year for the

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island’s first cricket match. Some players wooden planks and some matting. “It’s a team was made entirely of expat Asians would win four World Cups and three wore their whites on the ferry. Time was struggle, but the bounce is good enough,” except for one expat Australian. European Championships and produce short. A two-day, two-innings, 30-a-side says youth team organiser Michael Daub. some of the world’s greatest players. But, match to get through. A return ferry to Most of Göttingen’s players are overseas ICC rules say that a cricketer who lives in a while football gained a distinct German catch the following evening. university students from cricket-playing country for four years is eligible to play for identity, cricket remained the epitome of countries. The club recently set up a youth the national team. Germany, like any other Englishness and, as such, stuttered on as The game went to a nail-biting finish. The section, all Germans. “The University team, picks on merit, hence all the expats. a minority sport with only a few Germans Hamburg was caught at long on wouldn’t let the kids use the sports field, But Brian Mantle, the DCB’s General taking part. with nine to win. “An unnecessary bold which they said is for University students Manager, says that with more German shot,” Hamburg player Tim Tigges called only,” says Daub, “so our youth team now players of a high standard coming through It was popular after the First World War it. Tigges, who first played cricket at plays matches on the Göttingen All-Stars the DCB’s youth development schemes, and again after the Second, with interest Green Point Cricket Club in Cape Town, baseball pitch.” the national team could be up to 50 per kick-started both times by the British wasn’t complaining though. The shot, cent German within ten years. Bächstädt soldiers stationed there. There was also the tension, as the ball flew towards the Phillip Bächstädt, a German TV presenter, believes that better opportunities to play a brief spike in popularity during the boundary fielder, just added to the drama. plays for Tegernsee Cricket Club, 60 for the national team will encourage more interwar period, again mainly in Berlin. miles south of Munich. Here, 75 per cent German youngsters to take up the game. This time, more Germans took up the and Ken Higgs may have been of the players are German. The team game. A Berlin XI, consisting mainly of pictured on balcony in 1966 was founded 20 years ago by a group Germany played its first international Germans, toured southern England in celebrating their match-winning last- of school friends who’d been introduced against Denmark in 1989 and took part in the 1930. A few years later, Dartford Cricket of 128 against West to cricket by a teacher, Wolfgang Albert. European Cricket Championship from 1996 Club and Somerset Wanderers made the Indies with a cup of tea, but tea was far too Albert had previously spent a year at through to 2010. In the 1997 final they lost return trip to Berlin. So did a team called English for Hamburg and the Heligoland Michael Atherton’s old school, to France by one run, a match Wisden later the Gentlemen of Worcestershire. Pilgrims. Instead they celebrated their Grammar, and returned to Germany with said was the 20th century’s 96th greatest special game with a few cans of non- a coaching manual. cricket match – one below England and Sometime in 1936 or early 1937, Nazi alcoholic beer, donated by the match ’s “flippin’ murdered ’em” draw Sports Minister Hans von Tschammer sponsors Erdinger, a Bavarian brewery. “After we left school, the team joined the with in 1996–97 and just above und Osten was in by invite and local club league and then became a club England’s three-wicket win at Port of Spain drinking in the Lord’s Pavilion, when he Cricket is a minority sport in Germany, in 2000,” Bächstädt says. The German the following year. Former Derbyshire suggested the Worcester Gents should but it is growing. There are clubs in Berlin, national league is divided into six regional stars Harold Rhodes and Ole Mortensen come to Berlin. Cologne, Hamburg, Bremen, Hannover, Kiel, leagues. The winner of each plays in the both coached Germany during the team’s Dresden, Stuttgart, Freiburg and several in league finals. Current champions are SKG formative years. In 2000, Mortensen ran the In 1936, Hitler had remilitarised the Bavaria. About 50 overall. Most of them Waldorf, part of a multi-sports club in country’s first ever ECB level-one coaching Rhineland – something he was forbidden are made up of expat Asians, some Brits, Hessen where people also play football, course. Ten people turned up. from doing by the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. Aussies, New Zealanders, South Africans tennis, volleyball and mini-golf. “We don’t Hitler planned to overturn the entire and a few Germans. More Germans play win the league. We play a more chilled Germany are currently ranked 44 in the post-war peace treaty and needed to in women’s and junior teams. The game is game and hope to develop young players.” world with Argentina and Zambia on either encourage Britain to continue with its overseen by the Deustcher Cricket Bund side. The German football side is No.1 in the policy of appeasement while he re-armed (DCB), founded in 1988. The German national team play in division FIFA rankings. In 1891, when the Germans his country. The British government knew eight of the ICC World Cricket League, set up their first cricket association, the what Hitler was up to, and hoped he could Göttingen Cricket Club in central this year against Japan and Ghana. In body also ran German football, which be stopped short of a full-scale war, but Germany plays on the University sports 2013, Germany came bottom of division back then was also a minority sport played needed to buy time to re-arm Britain ground but is not allowed to cut a seven. They also took part in the ICC mainly by British people living in Germany. just in case he couldn’t. After the Berlin grass wicket or put down a permanent European T20 Championships in Essex in Olympics the previous summer, the Nazis AstroTurf strip. Instead, club members June. Against Norway, Austria, Gibraltar, In 1900, German football established its were keen to show the world that Germany turn up two hours before every game, Belgium and the Isle of Man, they came own Federation, and eventually grew was an open and embracing country that put down a layer of plastic foil, some last, losing all their games. The German into the all-conquering behemoth that was also rather good at sport.

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“The Worcester Gents won all their games The Berlin team’s approach, if not their watched Botham’s Ashes on TV – says: Will the game that CB Fry loved teach pretty easily, they were too strong for the skill level, reminds Waddell of the West “I can’t really play at all, but my friends the Germans better manners, as Fry had Germans,” says Dan Waddell, author of German football teams of the 1970s and know I’m mad, so it doesn’t matter.” Phillip hoped? Hagenmeyer believes that cricket Field of Shadows, a recent book about ’80s: grim, humourless, focused to the Bächstädt likes cricket’s diversity: “It is a can teach sportsmanship, fairness and an that tour. “The Gents had some pretty exclusion of all else on the result and the structured game, a technical game, where appreciation of both team and individual, decent first-class players and one of the best way of achieving it. “Unfortunately, players have to think a lot.” but he also thinks Fry should have taken youngsters, in to make the numbers up, the cricketers weren’t any good,” he says. a closer look at his own house before opened the bowling for Eton.” Most Germans still don’t get it, though. pointing his finger at Germany’s: “Tony Had they got better over the years, “My parents have known cricket for 20 Weir, one of my lecturers at Cambridge Researching the book gave Waddell Waddell wonders if the Germans might years and they still don’t understand the University in 1988, once said that in a some insights into how a team consisting have ended up playing cricket a bit like rules,” Bächstädt admits. “People see society of gentlemen you would not need entirely of Germans played the game. His the all-conquering Australian teams of cricket and they think lazy, beer-drinking any law, only to concede that not even verdict: good fielding, decent club-side the late 1990s and early 2000s. “There people on a field who don’t move, and England was a society of gentlemen.” standard, bowling OK, but struggled when was something very Teutonic about think it’s boring.” . “Strange grip, crabby stance, the way those Australian teams ground Tigges thinks that it’s a good job for lots of back foot nurdling and scooping, opponents down with such ruthless A shorter form of the game that can England that Germans didn’t take to very defensive, not many flowing drives,” efciency,” he says. be played locally may encourage more cricket too seriously. “Will, determination, Waddell says. “They could have done with German youngsters to take part, but even gamesmanship, efciency, tactical a few English pros out there to teach The Second World War stopped cricket Brian Mantle admits that cricket will never awareness – with all our clichéd them batting technique.” in Berlin. Then came the Cold War, East be a major sport in Germany. “What we characteristics, we’d have been a premier Berlin, and a regime even more suspicious do want is for the game to be known to cricketing nation by now,” he says. “But Waddell explains that the dodgy batting of undesirable Western influence. There everyone in the country,” he says, “and aren’t England used to inventing great was partly down to the matting . had been a bit of cricket in St Petersburg to have a structure in place that allows games only to see other countries learn Many of these pitches weren’t even pulled in the late 19th century but, following the everyone who wants to play, to take part.” to play the game better?” tight, let alone rolled, and were just laid 1917 revolution, Lenin and co thought the on top of grass. “The 1930 tour to England game bourgeois and so discouraged it. đŏđŏđ was the first time the Berlin team had played on a grass wicket,” Waddell says. The cricket that we see in Germany today “They didn’t have spikes and were slipping grew out of informal knockabouts in all over the place.” universities, workplaces and parks during the 1960s. Once again, students and He thinks that there was something rather visitors from cricket-playing countries – chilling about how the Berlin side played this time mainly the Asian subcontinent the game: appealing for everything by – started things of. Unlike their shouting “out”, setting strangely defensive predecessors, today’s German cricketers leg-side fields, eking out runs, with play with a smile on their face. survival the main aim. “They approached the game very seriously, didn’t play with a For Tigges, cricket is a story that can song in their heart,” he says. “Not at all in unfold over several days, alongside a few keeping with the cavalier way in which the gin and tonics. Moritz Hagenmeyer, who English believed teams were supposed to bowls “slow-motion donkey-drops” for play friendly cricket.” Heligoland Pilgrims, sees himself as the happy eccentric who plays for friendship, In one game, after a dropped catch, a fun and the sheer joy of taking part. Berlin bowler marched up to the ofending Hagenmeyer – who has followed the game fielder and punched him in the face. since 1981 when he lived in Sidmouth and

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