Match Bermuda's sporting event of the year, but few stop to appreciate how it all began almost 100 years ago.

The meaning of it all was recognised by the Bermuda Govenment at the 1984 Cup Match as part of Bermuda's 375th anniversary celebrations when the two participating Cup Match clubs, Somerset and St. George's, received special commemorative citations.

Cup Match began out of the ex-slaves' celebration of emancipation from slavery on August 1, 1834. The first official Cup Match was played in 1902, when a friendly game was played between the fraternities of the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows.

This year marks the 159th anniversary of Emancipation with the second day of Cup Match, which is put aside for Somers Day, marking the 384th anniversary of Bermuda's permanent settlement.

Legend reveals that each year Bermuda's ex-slaves celebrated their emancipation from slavery, achieved August 1, 1834, by picnicking, although the day was never officially made an Emancipation holiday.

Some time after 1840 Blacks at the Dockyard, who had been taught the game, included it as part of their picnic activity. Later, cricket became a main sport played by the Lodges and Friendly Societies, who "unofficially'' perpetuated the August 1, celebration. In 1902 the Lodges scheduled a cricket game as a special Island-wide event and the annual Cup Match was in the making.

The first Cup Match was played at Royal Naval Field in Somerset in 1902 with three matches actually being played that year, two at Royal Naval and the other at Garrison Field in St. George's.

According to a widely publicized story, when the working-class began en masse taking the day off to attend "the game'', Government declared the first day of the Cup match an official holiday. Later the second day of the match was designated Somers day in honour of the British admiral Sir George Somers, whose shipwreck in Bermuda waters in 1609 led to the colonization of these Islands.