(With apologies to CLR James)
As Canterlot's first ever cricket team comes together, star player Spearhead struggles to process the feelings that are stirred by the team's latest addition.
WARNING: contains cricket and m/m shipping
Written in a last-minute blur for the Third M/M Shipping Contest 2023, because why not. (Winner of a Judge's Prize!)
Reviews
4*, Louder Yay
You get bonus points for doing a story with cricket in it for sure. Don't think there's any other story on the site with it.
11765270
Ha, thanks! There was really absolutely no reason for there to be cricket in this story either, but it's been my ambition for years to shoehorn it into a pony story somehow, so... Here we do are.
11765279
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Glad to see you’re back. This was cute.
I'm sure glad that warning label was accurate. I mean, it worked out well for me.
Good on Spearhead and Blank Slate.
Also I still don't get how cricket even works.
11765279
I think there were multiple benefits to having cricket in the story!
I think I'm just reminding you of things you already knew as you wrote the story, though.
Opportunities for 'international' culture clash and concerns about culture clash. Cricket, being a Commonwealth sort of game, more readily brings together people from very different parts of the world, whereas 'soccer'/'football' might instead have involved other Weatern European equivalent cultures, which are less different from a U.K.-ish culture.
Also, a sport was useful for reasons I won't go into, like incidental gender segregation and preparation in locker rooms are commonplace. Other advantages I won't go into because pretty indirect and some people would disagree with me and I don't feel like getting into an argument.
So, yeah, you could have avoided cricket if you really wanted to avoid it, but why?
Edited to Add: But if you'd had Transgender-Friendly Off-Brand Quidditch, you could have had Blank Slate catch (or block) a bludger.
11765451
I tried hard to make it so people didn't have to know the rules to get the story, I hope that sort of worked.
Cricket is actually really easy to understand (it's a much simpler game than its nephew, baseball, for example) but because it's encrusted in 200 years of jargon and British culture, and because it has some very specific quirks (a single match can last five days! They officially break for tea!) any attempt to explain it ends up sounding way more complicated and arcane than it actually is. But I love it
Using Spearhead? And Corriander Cumin? Bonus points for that on top of an already wonderful story.
I love that you went for what you love by having the backdrop of this story focus on a cricket team. It's unique and immediately compelling and I enjoyed getting to learn a bit about the sport through its presence in the lives of the central characters!
Your handling of Spearhead's characterization was really enjoyable. His concerns were legitimate yet based in the sort of prejudiced thinking he, himself, was wary of receiving and that was a great parallel to explore. Good on Thunderlane and Blank for giving him a reality check.
And, I love that the scarf Blank gifts him is the one he's seen wearing during his episode appearance. That's adorable!
Hello! Have a review. As well as this courtesy note, there's a like and a favourite too. You already know I really liked this, but that a fic about cricket (albeit as a mostly background event) is also very nice makes me very happy.
a natural fielder! love it
aww very glad that he managed to save the huge plate glass window of my wife’s boutique!
most worldly Amare-ican
of course Equestrians use traditional cricket whites because it is a nice place there
ah the travails of associate-level cricket!
aww i bet the fashion student would have the best regulation white sweater
ehehe
auauagh love the customary polite stomped applause!
love it
and of course Celestia watches the game with opera glasses! perfection
ehehe double meaning
love the silent prayer to Celestia, who was literally watching the game in pony just minutes earlier
smooth!
those were good silk scarves!
absolutely love the awkwardness of this whole exchange, so relatable and adorable!
trying to appear nonchalant is the most chalant-seeming one can be
love this
he is such a dork love him
ooh, perfect way to bring Blank’s own background and talents into this
ahaha
Coriander is giving off immaculate middle aged immigrant dad vibes here
noooooo
noooooo it’s a great game that is awesome!
invoking Celestia so much adds another layer to this team being the one to represent Celestia’s city, haha. augh i love it
noooooo
aww Spearhead discovered swing bowling
ahahaha! so this is a sports movie where at the climax the protagonist has to accept his gayness in order for the team to win, i love that so much
gottem
augh, what timing!
but it was necessary to make this decision the most meaningful!
love cricket, Equestria. and cricket in Equestria. and you really succeed in making this actually feel like Equestria! really love to see it, and i hope this inspires others to write stories of cricket in Equestria as well (me, for instance).
thank you so much for writing this, Mist!
11765986
Thank you so much for the kind comment! I thought hard about candidates for the central ship and Spearhead just seemed ideal (and I still couldn't find a canon shipping partner I really liked for it, hence the deliberately named OC). Meanwhile, it was the existence of canon Indian ponies that gave me an opening in the first place, and a perfect opportunity to talk about assumptions over "cultural differences". I had lots of fun writing it!
11771466
Thank you for this (and congratulations!) - I'm so glad you liked it and I'm especially happy you noticed Spearhead's scarf being the one from the show
11796060
Thank you for the kind review, it was really lovely to return after such a long time away and still get positive notices on Louder Yay !
11799600
I'm so glad you enjoyed the story and got so much out of it! I was writing for people who've never heard of cricket but also hoped it would be enjoyable to cricket lovers, so this really makes me bouncingly happy! I was a long time away but the way this seems to have struck a
cover drivechord with readers is genuinely humbling and makes me so proud