Johnathan

Jonathan Kent: 

Been showing off a bit, 

haven't you, son?

Clark Kent: 

Uh... I didn't mean to show off, Pa. 

It's just that... 

well, guys like that Brad, 

I just wanna tear 'em apart... 

I know I shouldn't, but...

Jonathan Kent: 

I know. You can do all these amazing things, 

and sometimes you think that you will just go bust 

unless you can tell someone about it.

Clark Kent: 

Yeah!... I mean, every time 

I get the ball, I can make a touchdown. 

Every time! 

Is it showing-off for a person to do 

what he's capable of? 

Is A Bird showing off when it flies..?

Jonathan Kent: 

No! No, now you listen to me :

When you first came to us, 

we thought that people would come and take you away 

because if they found out about the things you could do, 

well that worried us a lot. 

But then A Man gets older 

and he thinks very differently, and — Things get very clear  —

And there's one thing 

I do know, son, And that is —

YOU are HERE 

for a REASON. 

I don't know whose reason it is, 

or whatever the reason... 

maybe it's... I don't know.... 

But I do know one thing: 

It's not to score touchdowns.

Clark Kent: 

Thanks Dad. C'mon Dad! 

I'll race you to it!

Jonathan Kent: 

You will?

[Both of them run to the barn.]

Clark Kent: 

C'mon! C'mon!

[Clark runs into the barn with his dog. Jonathan starts having a heart attack.]

Jonathan Kent: 

Oh, no —!

[He collapses. Martha Kent looks over at the barn.]

Martha Kent: 

Johathan... 

Jonathan!

[Clark runs out from the barn.]

Clark Kent: 

Dad...

"Something is added to cricket by the angle of the sun as it stands at four o'clock in early September. 

The shadows are longer, there's a suggestion of colder days approaching, of Circular Time, of aspects of our lives dying away and returning. 

The other sort of time is called Linear Time -- Life is hard and then one dies.... if that's something one is liable to do. 

Cricket, to me, seems to stand for The Former and against The Latter. 

It's something that dies but returns and writes mortals into History, in stories and statistics. Perhaps that's why it appeals to me. 

I, also, die and return, like a hardy perennial. 

However, Linear Time is currently impinging on the Hampshire town of Stockbridge in the form of an end-of-season struggle to avoid relegation from the top-most league of village cricket. 

They're raging against the dying of the light, they need wins not draws. They need umpires to take the brightest possible view of those stormy skies overhead. 

They need to play in horizontal rain if they have to. I've seen them do just that in the last couple of weeks, but I've joined them so late this year that I may not be much help...."