In Entertainment today, we listen to extracts from an interview with John

Major, who was the British Prime Minister before Tony Blair. He’s written a

book about the history of cricket from the 18th century to the First World War –

it’s called More Than a Game – the Story of Cricket’s Early Years, and, as

we’ll hear, there’s plenty to say about the ways politics and cricket meet.

First, here’s John Major talking about how cricket used to be very ‘classridden’.

In other words, it followed the class divisions of society. He agrees

that cricket was very bound-up with class, but that was becoming less true, it

was ‘beginning fade’, when he fell in love with the game, as a boy growing up

in a working class family. He says there were meaningless, or ‘absurd’,

practices, such as men of different status having to enter the pitch through

different gates and use different dressing rooms!

As you listen, try to catch the expression John Major uses to describe how

cricket was very slow to accept or ‘to come to terms with’, the fact that society

was changing, it was becoming less divided by class.

John Major

‘Yes, it was, I mean, it was beginning to fade then, but only just beginning. And of course for

most of the 19th century and before, it was a very class-ridden game. Until well into the 20th

century, you found professionals and amateurs entering the pitch from different gates - it was

an absurdity - and not sharing the same dressing room. It was very slow in many ways to

come to terms with the real world.’ 

Entertainment © BBC Learning English 2007

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Amber: Did you catch it? John Major says cricket was ‘very slow in many ways to

come to terms with the real world.’ ‘The real world’ – the set of situations most

humans have to deal with in their lives, rather than what happens in stories,

films, and so on.

John Major

‘Yes, it was, I mean, it was beginning to fade then, but only just beginning. And of course for

most of the 19th century and before, it was a very class-ridden game. Until well into the 20th

century, you found professionals and amateurs entering the pitch from different gates - it was

an absurdity - and not sharing the same dressing room. It was very slow in many ways to

come to terms with the real world.’

Amber: In his book, John Major admits to feeling very sorry that, when he was Prime

Minister, many playing fields, especially school playing fields, were sold. This

prevented many people from playing cricket in a land where the modern

version of the game was born!

He says ‘in retrospect’ – when he thinks about the past in the light of the

knowledge he has now – he thinks he should have made it harder for playing

fields to be sold. He should have put in place a ‘blanket-ban’. A blanket-ban is

an unlimited ban, affecting all cases. So, does he feel guilty?

John Major

‘I do. I mean, I did stop some of them and I did make it harder for them to be sold. I think in

retrospect it would have been better to have had a blanket-ban on the sales.’

Amber: And will John Major be publishing other books? And why does he write?

Listen.

John Major

‘I’ve always enjoyed writing. I still have drafts of bits of several novels, but I wrote all the

time. I write a lot of poetry, not for publication, but privately. I find it very cathartic to pick

up a pen and to write – it’s particularly cathartic at moments of stress.’ 

Entertainment © BBC Learning English 2007

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bbclearningenglish.com

Amber: Well, we don’t know if he’ll be publishing other books but he has written

‘drafts of bits of several novels’ – a draft is a first or rough version - and he

writes a lot of poetry, but this is private.

And he writes because he finds it ‘cathartic’, calming and purifying, especially

‘at moments of stress’, or difficulty.

John Major

‘I’ve always enjoyed writing. I still have drafts of bits of several novels, but I wrote all the

time. I write a lot of poetry, not for publication, but privately. I find it very cathartic to pick

up a pen and to write – it’s particularly cathartic at moments of stress.’

Amber: Now, here’s a list of the language we focussed on in today’s programme.

to be class-ridden – to follow the class divisions of society

to come to terms with something – to accept something you don’t like

 

 the real world – the set of situations most humans have to deal with in their

lives, rather than what happens in films, stories and so on

in retrospect – thinking about the past in the light of recent knowledge

a blanket-ban - an unlimited ban

cathartic - calming and purifying