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Ben Gore bats the ball at Community Field June 28.
Patrick L. Sullivan
LAKEVILLE — The Salisbury Cricket Club held a charity match at Community Field in Lakeville Saturday, June 28.
The match was a fundraiser for the Salisbury Volunteer Ambulance Service.
There were ballcaps and t-shirts for sale, and in keeping with the relaxed atmosphere, all proceeds and donations went into a big jar.
About 22 players, and about the same number of spectators, were on hand as things got started a little after 11 a.m.
David Shillingford announced the rosters and went over the ground rules peculiar to the field.
One spectator asked if she was sitting in foul territory (as in baseball), only to learn that there isn’t any in cricket. The field is an oval shape. There is an outer boundary, but the cricket equivalent of a fair ball can go in any direction.
The pitch is a rectangular area in the middle of the oval and is where the batters and bowlers do battle.
This concludes the cricket lesson.
The first batter was Ben Gore, who with wife Victoria recently became U.S. citizens.
The Gores and their two teenage children, who were born in the U.S., split their time between New York and Salisbury.
Before heading out to the pitch, Gore hung an American flag from the tent supports, being careful not to let it touch the ground. The project required some duct tape improvisation, but the newly-minted citizen got it done.
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HVRHS’s Henry Berry dunks in practice.
Simon Markow
TORRINGTON — When Bill Notaro could not find anywhere for his kid to play summer basketball in 1982, he ended up founding what is known today as the Torrington Summer Basketball League.
The league began its 43rd season in June at Vogel-Wetmore School in Torrington, one of the league’s three venues alongside Forman School in Litchfield and the famous Torrington Armory. Girls and boys from 5th grade through high school compete in highly competitive and entertaining games until August, when a champion for each division is crowned.
The league now has 51 teams — eight more than last year — but still about 20 shy of pre-pandemic levels.
Notaro has rekindled participation, and the league is becoming increasingly competitive. “Last year was probably the strongest the league had been in a while,” said Notaro. “There were so many battles and close games. It was really good.”
The Armory, the league’s longest standing home, boasts a shiny new floor this year. True to tradition, there’s still no air conditioning. When the temperature rises, games are hot and sweaty; players emerge glistening like a glazed donut, and not because Dunkin’ is a league sponsor.
Despite the sweltering heat, kids return each year because it gives them the chance to sharpen their skills for the fall season.
“The high school coaches like the feeder system, they like their younger kids playing,” Notaro explained. “And most of the summer leagues don’t deal with 5th and 6th grades boys and girls and the 7th and 8th grade boys and girls”
Both the Housatonic Valley Regional High School’s boys and girls teams will be returning for another season, looking to improve their performance after finishing in the lower half of the standings last summer.
Games are running nightly at the Armory, Forman or Vogel, with some nights featuring simultaneous action at all three venues. Schedules are available at www.quickscores.com/torringtonct.
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Clocking heat
Jul 02, 2025
Provided
On a toasty afternoon Tuesday, June 24, North Canaan Resident Trooper Spencer Bronson joined a group of youth baseball players at Steve Blass Field. Radar gun in hand, he captured their pitching speeds with each player getting three throws. The top velocity was 38 MPH, closely followed by a 37 MPH fastball. Nikki Blass, coach of the Northwest Connecticut Steve Blass Little League AAA Red Sox, thanked Bronson on social media: “As hot as it was you were still willing to add fun to our morning.”
Buckle up for what’s taking place in space
Jul 02, 2025
China is building a solar array in space, right now, with a design of over one square mile. Yes, almost six football fields in size.
Everything you know, everything you think you can plan for in the next 10+ years is wrong. Faster than the changes to the backbone of civilization and industry during the ‘70s and ’80 resultant from the Apollo Program (computer chips, MRI, CAT Scans and an endless list — including your cellphone) — what is taking place now will change everything on Earth in the next 10 to 20 years.
Data centers and all communications are moving off Earth. Why? Because computers and data centers (which are only many, many computers in one warehouse) need massive cooling and cooling needs energy. Some data centers now operating use more electricity than the New York City Subway system, hour after hour, day after day. The same data center, in space, in near absolute zero needs only low power for the chips from solar panels.
China is building a solar array in space, right now, with a design of over one square mile. Yes, almost six football fields in size.
Now, let’s explain something here. Arthur C. Clarke, the Sci-Fi author, was a brilliant scientist. He calculated a point above the Earth where the gravitational pull of Earth would balance out with a satellite’s inertia to move away from Earth and the satellite would, in effect, rotate over a specific spot on Earth… seemingly stationary above that point. Originally called the Clarke Orbit, it is now called GEO (geostationary orbit). You put your computer and data center at that point and up and down links to Earth are constant and clean.
A scientist recently said, “You control GEO and you control the world’s industry and communication.” When you put Quantum computers at GEO along with the data centers, you can save more than 50% of all – the entire! -- electrical consumption now being built and planned for on Earth.
Now you may wonder at news items about a return to the moon. That same scientist said, “And if you control the moon, you also control GEO.” Why? Because the moon has all the advantages of low gravity, easy solar arrays, and cool temperatures for these data and computer locations. Oh, and the moon has lava tubes for safe habitation and there’s Helium3 there – a vital cooling chemical for Quantum computers. Why Quantum computers? Quantum computers compared to the fastest current computers are like a F1 race car is to a hula-hoop. One Quantum computer recently performed a calculation that would have taken a Cray Supercomputer 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years to perform, it did it in under 5 minutes. Couple that with automation and AI and tasks will be performed you cannot possibly imagine.
Think space exploration is all about satellites and warfare? Medical research in zero gravity accounts for 50% of the greatest breakthroughs in medicine in the last decade… that’s why Russia is staying in the game with another $56,000,000,00 next year to rebuild their own space station. And China? Their space station is growing in size and capability, already 75% of ours.
The Apollo era brought us a 100% change in everything we have, everything we use, everything we know, design, invest in, and invent. This next space era will come quicker and with more fundamental change than you can possibly imagine. So, the message I want to impart here? Space is the future. Buckle up and get involved.
Peter Riva, a former resident of Amenia Union, New York, now lives in Gila, New Mexico.
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