Cricket in Socorro, November 1980
The winning cricket team, Socorro, November 1980. Front row: Peter Napier, Chris Salter, Dave Gibson, Gareth Hunt [captain]. Back row: Carl Bignell (holding Celeste and John Bignell), Bill Randolph, Rosalie Ewald, Tim Cornwell, Eva Jean Rigby, Brook Ekers, Eric Russell, Clair Rigby. The VLA team (pictured) beat the Socorro team. Players represented the USA, Jamaica, India, England, Holland, New Zealand, and Canada. Writing in the January 1981 Observer (v.22#1), Chris Salter said, "Passers by could be forgiven for imagining that mystical rites were being performed on the playing fields of New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology on Saturday November 8th [1980]. The fact of the matter is that the slow perambulations and weird cavortings of fourteen white clad figures did not mark a frightening outbreak of alien worship but the progress of the first Socorro/VLA cricket match." (cricket-Socorro-8nov1980.jpg)
