Well, as cricket is an incredibly old sport (we know it was played in the 13th century, that is the 1200s, possibly earlier) it is a little tricky to figure out the reason behind the name.
Most likely it comes either from the old French word cricket, meaning bat, or old English crycc, meaning stick or crutch. There are a few other possible explanations, but you see what we must deal with.
The sport I’ve been doing the longest…. Well, my father taught me cricket because he was always a great fan of the sport, so I’ve played that since I was a wee boy, but never seriously.
Fencing was mandatory at Eton College, the boarding school I went to in most of my teen years, so I daresay that is the sport I truly played and excelled at. So since my lessons in it started when I was 12 (the year before I went to Eton) I’ll say that fencing is the sport I’ve truly done the longest.
“A wee boy”. I like this phrase very much. Thank you for answering all my questions so nicely, my lord!
You must still do fencing now, yes? I can only imagine the kind of agility required to do such a thing! I have mostly been doing kick-boxing myself these days, since I lack the time and space to play football. I suppose it isn’t really sad -- I am really getting into it, and it makes my arms and thighs burn nicely! -- but I miss the simple feeling of kicking a ball around.
I was never good at baseball so I think I would be bad at cricket. But the name is so cute I would love to try.