Our annual Cup Match cricket festival has grown to become one of the single events, outside of Christmas, that is able to ignite the true Bermuda spirit to a degree where for two days, political, racial or whatever differences are shoved aside, as the island community becomes one huge social playground with cricket at the top of the agenda.

If only the organisers of the event back in 1902, could have imagined what they were starting.

On the other hand, they may just have envisioned that this sporting competition to celebrate the abolition of slavery, might one day hold the key in helping to eradicate the dark social and racial undertones that would follow.

The Cup Match spirit is such that it touches the very core of our great values that form the anchor of the true Bermudian character. It has a way of bringing people together from all walks of life, irrespective of status. In recent decades the cricket festival continues to take on a much greater ethnic mixture of our diverse society.

As a youngster in the late 1940s, the only thing about Cup Match that mattered were the cricketers and whether my team would ever win.

With giants in the likes of Alma Champ Hunt, Cocky Steede, Bosun Swainson, Chopper Hazel, and the Proctor brothers to name a few, there was plenty of excitement. Of course big names like Calvin (Bummy) Symonds, Clarence Parfitt, and other Cup Match heroes too numerous to mention here, were yet to come.

Although the first day is dedicated to the abolition of slavery in Bermuda, now known as Emancipation Day, the battle to wipe out racial attitudes continues not only in Bermuda, but in other parts of the world. However it is a battle that right thinking people of all races are winning.

The second day pays tribute to Sir George Somers, who colonised Bermuda in 1609. For our younger readers it is important to know that Cup Match is not just a cricket match, between Somerset and St. George's, with people partying for two days.

Something seldom mentioned, is the fact that the Cup Match fever was such that it even penetrated sections of the community not fully embracing the event, since for many years the match was played while racial segregation was official policy in Bermuda.

Happily the annual Cup Match was never an event with any type of social or racial barriers and that in itself could hold the key in helping to eradicate left-over negative attitudes still cropping up in our society on both sides. Also seldom mentioned is the fact that there were white people who attended Cup Match as though in a quiet way, they knew apart from witnessing great cricket, they were participating in a major Bermudian event, and were never made to feel unwelcome.

None of this even entered my mind in the 1940s when my childhood buddy, the late Winston (CI) Place, invited me to travel with his family to a Cup Match in Somerset. We were not yet in our teens, but we loved cricket so much that in the heat of summer, his mother would not mince her words in telling us to stop playing cricket in the middle of the street, and get out of the hot sun.

In those days people attended Cup Match in suits, ties and colourful jackets while sporting their favourite team colours. I was not too concerned about wearing colours, since I knew the likely outcome.

We travelled by a sleekly varnished speedboat from Albouy's Point to the west end. Being the only one on board hailing for St. George's, and I could not swim at the time, and I don't recall saying a single word during the whole trip.

However I did enjoy every moment with that wonderful family. It should be noted here that Cup Match that year was played at the Royal Naval Field, now renamed after the distinguished Warren Simmons, who contributed much to this classic. Unlike today there were no giant sound systems capable of bursting the Richter scale, along with your ear drums. Yet the air was filled with the sound of people cheering their team and enjoying themselves. What added to the atmosphere was a brass band that struck up lively tunes throughout the match.

I don't know whether the musical selections had anything to do with play, but at one stage a Somerset batsman was showing little mercy to the St. George's bowlers, and the band decided to play what sounded like a hymn. The Cup stayed with Somerset that year, but my time was coming, and in later years the tide changed and I had much to celebrate for quite a few years.

However the real winner, in all of the Cup Matches, is the true Bermudian spirit that rises above any obstacle standing in the way of a decent free society.

Cup Match hopefully will always be an event with the ability to renew friendships and open hearts, where often legislation and politics fail. Cup Match in a sense still holds the key to a more harmonious Bermuda, because it touches the very soul of what we cherish as Bermudians. Good friendship, fair play and most of all respect for one another.