Abstract

This sutdy focuses on the social and cultural context of cricket and cricket matches rather than on the sport itself. It begins by showing why the retired officers of Woodstock were well connected in the provincial military scene even though the village never possessed a local garrison. It further explores the ways in which this Woodstock elite (known by local contemporaries as the aristocrats) used their cricket club as a kind of cultural cement which reinforced for them and others deference to the British connection and the network of local colonial elites throughout the province. Finally, it concludes with some preliminary observations on the fate of local cricket after dissolution of the Woodstock club in the mid-1850s. Verf.-Referat