cricket (The Noble Game)
noun

- a sport in which two teams of eleven players try to score runs (= points) by hitting a small, hard ball with a bat, and running between two sets of small wooden posts

- fair and honorable behavior

- a brown or black insect that makes short, loud noises by rubbing its wings together

The Cambridge Dictionary /  Merriam-Webster

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WORD ORIGIN

The word “cricket” is from the 1590s, from the Old French criquet “goal post, stick”, from Middle Dutch/Middle Flemish cricke “stick, staff”, from the same root as crutch.

The sense of “fair play” is first recorded in 1851, based on the notion of “cricket as it should be played”.

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WHY CRICKET IS CONFUSING TO FOREIGNERS

- You have two sides, one out in the field and one in.

- Each man that’s in the side that’s in goes out, and when he’s out he comes in and the next man goes in until he’s out.

- When they are all out, the side that’s out comes in and the side that’s been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out.

- Sometimes you get men still in and not out.

- When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in.

- There are two men called umpires who stay out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out.

- When both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game.

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SYNONYMS

- characterized by being fair, just, or impartial

above-board, above reproach, above suspicion, according to the rules, applaudable, as good as one’s word, beyond criticism (reproach), boy scout, by the book, copper-bottomed, cricket, decent, down-the-line, even-handed, even-steven, fair-and-square, fair-minded, faultless, free of sin, gentlemanlike, going by the rules, high-principled, holding water, honest-to-goodness, honourable, incorruptible, irreproachable, knightly, kosher, lily-white, morally correct (right), noble-minded, of excellent character (of good repute, of good standing), on-the-level, on the square, principled, pure as the driven snow, reputable, respectable, respected, right-minded, right-thinking, right and proper, rock solid, salt of the earth, sportsmanlike, spotless, squeaky-clean, stainless, stalwart, tried-and-true, tried and trusted, true-blue, true-hearted, trusted, trustworthy, trusty, twenty-four carat, unbiased, unbribable, uncorrupt(ed), unimpeachable, upright, upstanding, venerable, venerated, well-thought-of, well respected, whiter than white, without fault, without fear or favour, without prejudice, without sin, worthy (of trust)

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SMUGGLE OWAD into an English conversation, say something like:

“If you read ‘It’s Not Cricket’ by Simon Rae, you realize that THE NOBLE GAME isn’t always so noble after all!”

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HERZLICHEN DANK to all readers helping me keep OWAD alive with single or monthly donations at:

https://donorbox.org/please-become-a-friend-of-owad-3

and,

Paul Smith, IBAN: DE75 7316 0000 0002 5477 40