Hail, Cricketer! You scored your opening run
Last day of April, Nineteen Twenty One,
When (see page one) proud prophecy fulfilled,
‘A Youngster with a Future’ you were billed;
Beneath which caption stood a beaming ‘Plum’,
Anticipating triumphs yet to come.
For two decades in that doomed World Imperial
You reigned benevolent yet magisterial.
Though tuned to the Establishment at Lord’s
You keenly fostered games on humbler swards,
While countless schoolboys through your long career
Are proud you dignified their lowly sphere.
You spread the ‘Gospel’, brought to every corner
Of foreign fields the polished Word of Warner.
From Nineteen Thirty- Nine to Forty-Five
You kept the hope of decent things alive,
When, largely through the Langfords’ sacrifices,
You stayed afloat, surviving every crisis.
Your fighting on without a ‘Rain Stopped Play’
Ensured your firm foundation of today.
Though (see some memoirs!) scarcely overpaid,
Your writers formed a glittering Parade.
Patron of Poets, you enticed the flow
Of lines from ‘Crusoe’, Dockrell, Martineau;
While Statesmen, statisticians, wits and sages,
Plus kindly gossips, have enriched your pages:
Home Gordon, Webber, Roberts, Second Slip;
Altham’s and Ashley-Cooper’s scholarship;
Menzies, Fry, Swanton, Cardus, Graham White;
Kilburn, Bowes, Brodribb: sources of delight.
A Prittie wartime piece earns special mention:
Moat-cricket played in Spangenberg detention.
Great players come and go, their suns will set,
But you, unbowed by time, are batting yet.
Well played! The cricket world applauds as one
Your Innings of Three Quarters of a ‘Ton’.
With kind permission of THE CRICKETER. May 1996