The Cricketers of Digby and Yarmouth Counties, Nova Scotia, 1871-1914: Social Roots of a Village and Small-Town Sport

Abstract

Cricket in Nova Scotia, up until 1914, was a complex and deeply rooted sport. Rural and small-town cricket has attracted little historiographical attention, and yet multiple cricket clubs existed in villages and small towns. The adjoining counties of Digby and Yarmouth form a subregion in the southwestern part of the province where the social roots of cricket can be gauged and analysed. This essay argues that cricket long retained its place as a prevalent summer sport, and also contributed notably to the normalization of colonial settlement as well as to social linkages among settler communities.