42 Cricket Teams
p. 65 · Read in the full issue
Colourful Picture in Samoa
IT is a pity that, a newsreel cameraman was not in Samoa on Flag-Raising Day recently, so that the world could have seen how the old English game of cricket has been adapted to Samoan conditions.
Samoans and Europeans, about 4,500, assembled at the model village of Lepea. near Apia, the seat of High Chief Mataafa; and, to this place, with its fine new cricket pitch, there came no less than 42 teams of Samoan cricketers, each team having 20 players.
It is impossible here to describe the method of play. The competition ex tended over two days.
The crowd and the players made a colourful picture, under the blue sky, amid the coastal palms, in the brilliant Samoan sunshine.
The High Chief and his people provided a sumptuous Samoan feast. It comprised 607 pigs, 265 fowl. 7,404 loads of taro and bananas, and fish and other Samoan delicacies without number.
Out of the proceeds of this mighty cricket game High Chief Mataafa has made a substantial contribution to West ern Samoa’s fund for buying fighter planes for the RAF.