Anonymous 1928 NZ cricket poem

Over the weekend, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading Ron Palenski’s recently published anthology of rugby poetry, Touchlines (NZ Sports Hall of Fame, 2013).

The book is well worth having on your bookshelf. It contains poems from the 19th century up to the 2011 Rugby World Cup, from Samuel Sleigh to John Bryan, a Dunedin rugby follower at the 2011 World Cup.

I’m a contributor to the book, and helped with its compilation.

Other poets include: Harry Tillman, Max Boyce, William Pember Reeves, John Carrad, Banjo Paterson, Brian Turner, Allen Curnow, Ernest L Eyre, Bill Sutton, Seaforth Mackenzie, N A Fenwick, Leo Fanning, Sir Richard Wild, William Robert Wills, Robert J Pope, C A Marris, Claude Olsen and Andrew Paterson. Some of these are unknown in the poetry world but all were rugby enthusiasts with a genuine love of the game.

Cricket, another of its compiler Palenski’s enthusiasms, is included in a few poems and bio notes on the poets.

19th century poet and writer Samuel Sleigh includes cricket in his rugby poem (‘Glorious is the forward drive / From the wickets where you stand, / When the bat is all alive, / When it tingles in your hand’), Wellington lawyer John Carrad was a collector of cricket scorecards, Wisdens and memorabilia and N A Fenwick once wrote advice for Don Bradman in the New Zealand Sportsman magazine.

One of the rugby poems found by its compiler Ron Palenski may well pass for a cricket poem too as it combines both cricket and rugby. I’ll include it here. Some of the cricketers named are batsman Roger Blunt, bowler Bill Merritt, Aussie wicketkeeper Bert Oldfield (of Bodyline series fame), Dicky (tail-ender and bowler George Dickinson?), wicketkeeper Ken James and bowler Reg Read.

The poem is anonymous and written in 1928 (from a University of Otago capping magazine):

ANON

The Open Road

The Aussie cricket team was here;

  They kept their nose in front;

Our bowling had no Merritt,

  The attack was mostly Blunt.

Their batting in the latest test was

  A Dicky show indeed;

New Zealand’s bowling average looked

  A decent thing to Read.

Their keeper Oldfield was a beaut;

  He saved them many games;

New Zealand’s not downhearted –

  Not a bit of it, by James!

New Zealand’s best have donned their boots

  And pants and jerseys black;

We hope their belts are lined with scalps

  When they come sailing back.

O’er scorching veldt and hill they go,

  Though many a hefty Alley;

And one thing to SA they’ll show –

  A half must never Dalley.

We trust their cherished hope to bring

  A dull and sickening thud

And neck and crop their best to sling,

  Our best crop is our Spud.

Our boys will Lucas well next year.

  All fit and Brownlie tanned;

Their Nicholls will be spent, I fear,

  And Carleton will be Grand.

The All Blacks named include Geoff Alley, Bill Dalley, Syd Carleton, Mark Nicholls, Fred Lucas and captain Maurice Brownlie. One of the interesting things about this poem is that it notes the comparison between cricket and rugby.

Rugby was our national game then and particularly successful following the Invincibles tour of 1924/25, cricket on the other hand (our foremost game early on) was still looking for international status.

The same kind of national sentiment continues now in the public’s mind. So when New Zealand’s cricketers fair poorly: ‘New Zealand’s not downhearted – / Not a bit of it, by James!’ For they at least have All Black tests to savour, in this case the 1928 South Africa tour after a cricket series loss to Australia.

This was again noticeable in 2013 with the recent May test series loss to England followed by the All Blacks securing good victories in their June test series with France.

Article © Mark Pirie 2013

Touchlines compiled by Ron Palenski
(NZ Sports Hall of Fame, 2013)

Copies of Ron Palenski’s Touchlines: An Anthology of Rugby Poetry can be purchased direct from the NZ Sports Hall of Fame, Dunedin. Price $22.00NZ. Email: info@nzhalloffame.co.nz Tel: 64 03 477 7775 (for purchases by credit card).

Anonymous 1938 Ashes poem

The big event on this year’s cricket calendar is the 2013 Ashes series between England and Australia.

Kevin Pietersen is back from injury for England, which is good news for their Ashes chances. With Joe Root, Cook and Trott, they have a good batting order in store for the upcoming Tests.

A cricket poem I found recently is incidentally an Ashes poem from 1938. It was an advertisement for “Minties” confectionery in the Auckland, New Zealand paper, The Weekly News.

Minties’ hilarious ads became well known in New Zealand for their ad campaigns based around the idea that when things go wrong, one can always reach for a Mintie. Some of the TV commercials in New Zealand during the ’80s featured bad moments from New Zealand cricketers such as when John Bracewell during an ODI (4 March 1990 v Australia) ducked a full toss and was clean bowled when the ball from Simon O’Donnell dipped in flight. O’Donnell took 5-13 that day. New Zealand, featuring most of their future 1992 World Cup squad, were all out for 94 after being 79-2 at one stage. 8 wickets lost for 15 runs. How does that compare to recent batting disasters? Other Minties ads often had catches embarrassingly put down.
I haven't seen Minties around for a while. Maybe they've stopped making them?
This particular Minties ad refers to a dropped catch by New South Welshman Arthur Chipperfield. Chipperfield split his finger in the 1938 Lord’s Test trying to catch Wally Hammond who went on to make 240.

I once tried to catch a scorching drive myself and split the webbing around my middle finger in a club match. I still had to bat No. 11 with my arm in a sling but I wasn’t needed as we won the match. The team had put my pads on for better or worse...

Here is the poem or ad:

ANON

Hush, hush! Mourn for the match!

The Aussie bowler dropped a catch;

Hammond’s drive was full of ginger,

And poor old Chipperfield split his finger.

Does Stan McCabe or Bradman swear,

Or Chipperfield mumble in dumb despair?

Not they! With hearty acclamation

They turn to MINTIES for consolation.

(From The Weekly News (Auckland), 2 July 1938)

It’s universal. You could change the names for any international, provincial or club team worldwide on a bad day, and amuse your mates.

Article © Mark Pirie 2013

(Sources: The Weekly News, Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, ESPN cricinfo)

"Minties" advertisement 1938

Day five at Headingly and tour review

As you know, rain failed to deny England on the final day.

England take the series with a 2-0 whitewash, and New Zealand will be wondering where it all went so wrong after scrapping so valiantly in the three Test home series in March.

Credit must go to Alistair Cook and his team, particularly the bowling of Anderson and Broad at Lord’s and Finn and Swann at Headingly. They played to the conditions on both occasions and dominated our batsmen. For the upcoming Ashes series, England, however, may have found their own batting to be as problematic as New Zealand’s outside of Cook, Trott, Root and Bairstow.

It’s hard to hide the disappointment as a New Zealand cricketer or cricket fan after making some real strides since South Africa.

Unlike the South African tour, we fronted up to England with our strongest current team minus Daniel Vettori.

But that’s international cricket. Fortunes change like the weather.

2.

A mystery for me these past post-Test days has been the name, Hiddleston. He’s in the 1937 poem I posted during the Headingly Test.

I hadn’t come across the name before but it’s John Hiddleston. He was a popular and solid bat for Wellington at first class level and once scored a double hundred. He was a North Island and New Zealand rep batsman (before official Test status) after the First World War and during the 1920s.

3.

When I started writing this diary, I told friends I would stop at the end of the first class tour fixtures.

I also mentioned at the outset the fine team of ’49ers led by Walter Hadlee. After their humiliation in the 1946 Basin Test v Australia, Hadlee, Merv Wallace and Co. set about building a team and were determined to put New Zealand cricket back on the map during the 1949 England tour. They succeeded.

For these very reasons, I can’t write off Brendon McCullum and Mike Hesson just yet, nor do I wish to suggest whole scale personnel changes. The team of 2013 has some fine talent still to work with and develop further. We may begin to see this during the ODI series and the Champions Trophy and over the next few years.

Ken Rutherford, another mentioned in the course of this brief tour diary along with Brian Close (who did appear at Headingly with John R Reid), said in his 1995 autobiography that he similarly believed in nurturing all the talent that’s there by showing selection faith in players. Stephen Fleming took a while to get going in the Test arena but was among our most talented batsmen since Martin Crowe’s retirement.

After the 1992 World Cup success, cricket suffered a slump until the late 1990s. There was a rise for a while with Fleming as captain of a good crop of players: Chris Cairns, Dion Nash, Daniel Vettori, Roger Twose, Shane Bond, Nathan Astle, Adam Parore, Craig McMillan, Mark Richardson, Chris Harris etc. England will never forget Astle’s sensational ‘master blaster’ innings of 222. Who’d have predicted Astle’s emergence in the centenary season of 1994?

Rutherford confidently stated during a period of cricket’s declining popularity in 1995 that : ‘…within a decade I believe New Zealand will be among the top four or five nations in the cricket world.’ New Zealand cricket rose again. It may happen too with McCullum’s team. Ken’s son Hamish may well be among our future stars.

The upcoming ODI series, Champions Trophy and Twenty 20 games don’t interest me so much as Test cricket but I will watch them.

This, however, will be my last post on the current England tour.

4.

Perhaps it is fitting to end with an ode to Brendon’s team in review:

MARK PIRIE

To McCullum’s Thirteen*

Thirteen players from New Zealand

Flew off to tour Old England.

Their fortunes have suffered,

But let’s not leave them coffered.

Yes, in review, let me inscribe

Their names with Ferns of the past.

I’ll be this team’s loyal scribe.

Even tho’ cricket’s at half-mast.

*          *          *          *

Fulton, made the runs at home

He didn’t add to his tome;

Still he can rest on laurels

For now, when he arrives home.

Ruds, no not Ken, it’s Hamish now

He secured his spot to end any row.

May he bat on with his willow blade

And make good his run-plough.

Kane did not quite cane the Poms,

But still shows dormant class

As yet untapped. He might surpass

Some records yet, I let him pass.

Rosco again proved his mettle.

He played the best knocks

For that I offer humble tribute.

Rosco with wood guitar clearly rocks.

Guppy has a way to go yet

To be in the bracket of “world class”.

He has the style, can come good yet.

Runs are the key but for me “no pass”.

Brownlie, no Maurice, on this tour.

Mighty was he, but Dean derailed.

Can he lift his play, not become dour;

His bat speed, I lament, failed.

Brendon’s the skipper, as such

He needs to do much more

Than he did this tour and much

Admiration depends on his score.

Watling had the gloves at Lord’s.

He impressed in warm-up matches

But in cricket’s home of Lords

Injury meant he played in snatches.

Southee’s really come good, a hero

At Lord’s, a 10-wicket haul,

His batting’s now handy, no zero

To his name, he’s the heart and the soul.

Boult arrived on the world stage,

5 wickets at Headingly; his name

was made on this tour. With the cage

around the batting, he was not tame.

Doug a cricketer with distinctive tats,

Nice to see him back and playing well.

I won’t bore you with feeble stats.

His name he didn’t disgrace: Bracewell.

Martin was competent without flair;

His batting was missed on this tour;

It’d be hard to see a place and compare

To Vettori if his spin turns sour.

Wagner is still coming on strong.

With his passion, others could learn.

He makes strides and toils on,

While batsmen crash and burn.

*          *          *          *

There you have it, lots of work to do.

McCullum’s building a team and intends

To deliver. And we may yet have a team

To be proud of. Can they tighten the ends?

Poem © Mark Pirie 2013

*Tom Latham and Mark Gillespie also toured but didn’t play in the tests.

Article © Mark Pirie 2013

Day four at Headingly

Day four played out much as I thought it would.

A century to England captain Alistair Cook, the England record holder for most Test centuries, and a big run chase for New Zealand of 468. Did Cook bat for too long? Possibly.

It’s all down to the weather now with New Zealand’s batsmen trying hard but fairing little better than in the first innings finishing 158-6 with skipper McCullum and Tim Southee at the crease.

Hamish Rutherford again looks a real find for New Zealand with a well-made 42 and Ross Taylor with 70 showed his consistency at Test level. A couple of late wickets in the darkening conditions, however, handed the day to England.

2.

At times like these, there’s a well-known song by Neil Finn’s Crowded House that goes “Wherever you go / Always take the weather with you…’

Right now there’s a blustery southerly wind where I am in Wellington and rain, and around the country snow has been falling in some areas. The Finns are cricket fans. I can but wish New Zealand’s team could take our weather with them to Leeds.

If it’s any use, here’s a short rain dance:

MARK PIRIE

A cricket fan’s prayer when odds are low

Rain! rain! oh please arrive today.

Keep the covers on; stay all day!

Poem © Mark Pirie 2013

Day three at Headingly

After staying up till midnight to follow the first session of day three, I was beginning to enjoy New Zealand’s batting again. I thought too soon as England’s Steven Finn struck twice removing both openers, Peter Fulton and Hamish Rutherford, just before lunch. A good start of 55-0 quickly became
62-2.

In the morning, checking the score, I found another mediocre New Zealand batting display, with the opening wheels of the innings well and truly fallen off: 174 all out.

Reviews by commentators of the day’s play were fairly scathing of New Zealand’s batting. Two stanzas from Michael O’Leary’s witty ‘Ballad of Reading Oval’ (a rewrite of Oscar Wilde’s ‘Ballad of Reading Gaol’) came to mind in the case of Hamish Rutherford, Peter Fulton, Martin Guptill and Dean Brownlie:

Some play careless strokes when they are young

And some when they are old

Some leave such a gap twixt bat and pad

That the ball, like an arrow of gold

Straight to its target blindly goes

Leaving the batsman out in the cold

Some hit too little, some too long

Some wait for an extra or a bye

Some leave the field almost in tears

And some without a sigh

For each man pulls the stumps on himself

Yet none can answer why

Guptill, a very good bat, always looks the part and stylish, and he did look the part again, showing his front foot defensive technique as he leaned forward to defend the ball from Swann. Just one problem: he left ‘such a gap twixt bat and pad’. Oh well.

But you know something definitely isn’t right when Trent Boult’s tail-end slogging is the main highlight of New Zealand’s batting in news footage from a Test. His three sixes off Graeme Swann were clearly IPL shots rather than Test level cricket. Good on him, however, for helping avoid the follow on.

2.

I can’t see New Zealand squaring the series from here. England’s well placed to set a big run chase, and Boult is now injured.

I said after the Lord’s Test that our batsmen need to find the ‘necessary mettle’ and today’s play highlights that comment. In good batting conditions, they needed to make much more of their first innings in a must-win match.

It’s difficult to say how poor our current 2013 batting is. I can remember sitting through a number of batting disasters at Basin Tests in recent years.

Another poem came to mind again, written ahead of the 1937 England tour:

Cricket Ballade

(Written after witnessing some “highlights” recently on the Basin.)

Glumly I sit by the Basin rail.

  The play’s so poor I’ve a mind to quit;

A feeble stroke and a flying bail,

  Or else it’s caught off a woozy hit!

And as the batsmen process, I grit

  My teeth in despair, and groan: Oh dear,

This isn’t the cricket we “uster git”!

  Where are the players of yesteryear?

Where are the men whose bat, like a flail,

  Beflogged the ball, till it well nigh split?,

Who seldom knew what it was to fail

  To lift on the score a tidy bit!

Who scorned to potter and poke, or sit

  On the splice, if the wicket was somewhat queer.

Hiddleston, Dempster, McGirr, to wit!

  Where are the players of yesteryear?

The prospect’s gloomy. No stars prevail.

  Dull is the cricketing sky, unlit!

The bowling’s weak and the batting “tail,”

  And that’s about all there is to it.

Send forth these crudies with fern and kit!

  Absurd! The Pommies would grin and jeer.

Scarce one of ’em’s worth a “thrippenny bit.”

  Oh, where are the players of yesteryear?

Percy, the fans to your care commit

  Their woeful case. If you’d raise a cheer,

Prevail on the gods—can you smooge a bit?—

  To give back the players of yesteryear.

C.V.L.

(From Postscripts, The Evening Post, 6 February 1937)

Percy, in the poem, is Percy Flage [aka C A Marris, editor of the “Postscripts” column]. I’m unable to uncover who the author ‘C.V.L.’ is.

It’s a very pertinent poem (after Villon’s French ballades) outlining a New Zealand cricket fan’s past frustrations. Of course, the bowling for New Zealand (unlike in this poem) has been the strong point on this current tour. Trent Boult’s five-for was a standout today.

Yet despite the poem’s protest, it’s never as simple as just wishing for a Bert Sutcliffe, Martin Donnelly, Stewie Dempster, Herb McGirr, Glenn Turner or Martin Crowe to materialise again.

I believe we have the nucleus of a good batting line-up in the young Hamish Rutherford, Ross Taylor, Kane Williamson, Brendon McCullum and Martin Guptill. They do need to show more application at international level than they are currently doing but they do have the talent and class when you see their better shots, such as Rutherford’s cover drive in the first session.

Not much hope left for this Second Test. We can wish for rain. 1-0 is always better than 2-0 on a tour of England. A bit like the 1958 Test series, which New Zealand lost 4-0 with one match drawn. 4-0 was a lot better then than a 5-0 whitewash.

Article © Mark Pirie 2013

Day two at Headingly: A Joe Root poem

Play finally got under way in the Second Test at Headingly. Vettori didn't make the New Zealand XI.

England made three hundred odd for the loss of seven wickets from 94 overs, so it will be hard for New Zealand to win from here and square the series.

Still, from a cricket watcher’s point-of-view, Joe Root making his maiden Test century was the highlight and I've composed a Joe Root ‘concrete poem’ below.

When I first started writing at 18, I came across North American poet John Hollander’s concrete poem from the late ’60s. It was included in the 1970s US school anthology The Lyric Potential given to me as a child in San Francisco. (An article about it appeared on my website.) Hollander’s poem ‘Under a Beach Umbrella’ was in the shape of a beach umbrella, a fun idea that appealed to me as a young student.

I wrote a few in my book, No Joke (2001): one in the shape of an electric rock guitar and the other in the shape of a jazz trumpet.

Of course, concrete poetry dates back centuries: George Herbert’s 17th century ‘Easter Wings’ for example and even Dylan Thomas’s 20th century sequence ‘Vision and Prayer’ before the concrete poetry movement was in full swing in the 1950s and '60s. In New Zealand, the contemporary poet Michele Leggott (among others like Alan Wells) has made use of concrete poems composing a sequence, ‘Tigers’, in the form of globes.

The idea to make a new concrete cricket poem came to me after following young English batsman Joe Root’s great start to the season: several first class hundreds (including one double hundred) plus his 71 in the Lord’s Test last weekend, and now his maiden century at Headingly this weekend. Congratulations, Joe.

Here is my Joe Root poem in the shape of his bat.

Joe Root’s bat

(a concrete poem)

 J
 O
 E

 R

 O

 O

 T

J  O  E

R O  O

T  B  A

T  T   I

N G  ’S

A  H  O

O  T  I

F  Y O

U  A R

E  J  O

E  R O

O  T …

Poem © Mark Pirie 2013

If you work out the e. e. cummings-like riddle of the words: it reads like an epigram: “Joe Root, Joe Root, batting’s a hoot, if you’re Joe Root…”

Kevin Pietersen was my favourite batsman of the current crop but Joe Root is definitely a batsman to watch.

Article © Mark Pirie 2013

William Outhwaite’s 1885 Auckland cricket poem

With day one at Headingly washed out, I put my time to some use hunting out an old 19th century cricket poem on Saturday.

When I was putting together A Tingling Catch a few years ago, one book I wasn't able to view at the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington was a diary by the Twelve of an Auckland First Class XI’s tour south in the 1884/85 season titled Pavilion Echoes from the South. (The copy had been temporarily misplaced.)

It was the second collection after the first tour diary On Tented Fields of the South collected by the Childe [Auckland cricketer W F Buckland – the presumed author] in the 1882/83 season and printed in Auckland in 1883. I included several poems from that book in A Tingling Catch.

Well, when another Auckland team toured south two seasons later, their diary including cricket poems and songs appeared similarly, printed in Auckland in 1885.

Of interest in this book is also a poem by William Outhwaite, the presumed author of The Ladies’ Guide to Cricket c1883. An essay about the book and Outhwaite’s life appears on this blog.

As a companion to that article, I’d like to share with you Outhwaite’s cricket poem, ‘To Robinson’s Twelve’, concerning the Twelve who toured from Auckland.

Outhwaite mentions W Lankham, R Blair, A B O’Brien, Jack Arneil, R J Yates and W F Buckland as remaining behind. They were some of the well-known Auckland players who were all on the first tour south in 1882/83. (They all appear in the first Tented Fields diary.)

The Auckland captain of both touring teams was W W (“Billy”) Robinson. A friend Rowan Gibbs who is working on a cricket book about Robinson’s career found this poem by Outhwaite for me while researching a copy of Pavilion Echoes from the South in the Rare Books Section of the Auckland City Library.

The copy of Pavilion Echoes from the South has now been located at the Turnbull Library, and I was at last able to reproduce the poem.

Here it is:

WILLIAM OUTHWAITE

To Robinson’s Twelve

(A New Ode by an Old Chum)

Forth from the North there sallied a team

Of wanderers, partially skimming the cream

Of our cricket, but leaving behind ’em,

A “residuum” that made us look glum,

While the A.C.A., in a pet swore “By gum,

“We shan’t call ’em Reps.—never mind ’em!”

*          *          *          *          *

            For Lankham, Yates, O’Brien,

            With Jack Arneil the fly ’un

Reluctantly forbore the pleasant cruise;

            Tho’ substitutes were plucky,

            And sometimes rather lucky,

They couldn’t slog like giant Blair and Dewes.

            While C. F. Reid and Walker,

            With Buckland—mighty talker,—

And eke almighty leveller of sticks,

            Were left forlorn to languish,

            And drop the tear of anguish,

Ah me! ’tis hard to kick against the pricks.

            Then kindly Cantab foeman

            Call this not—improper nomen—

An Auckland Representative Eleven,

            Nor reason like that simple

            Childish wearer of a wimple

In Wordsworth’s little poem “We are seven.”

            For certes our chosen cricket,

            When Provincially we pick it,

Can furnish forth a tougher lot to tackle;

            So reckon not as laurel

            A wreath of mountain sorrel,

Nor swell your list of victories with cackle.

*          *          *          *          *

Yet our trusty skipper undaunted sailed

With his casual crew, and they never quailed

            Before the long odds that faced us:

A draw, a defeat, and a win he scores—

Wanderers! Welcome back to our shores—

            Good lads, ye have not disgraced us!

Poem © William Outhwaite 1885

Notes:

The poem was signed W.E.O. [William Eugene Outhwaite].

“A.C.A.” = Auckland Cricket Association.

The poem is introduced with the following text:

The following verses have been sent by the writer on account of a paragraph in the Canterbury Times. As our correspondent sees nearly all our matches, has played well himself, and is an excellent judge, we append the lines. The paragraph which caused our kind sympathiser and contributor to burst into verse runs as follows:—“From an intimate knowledge of Auckland cricket, none of those left behind would have done better than their substitutes.” Now, even though our vanity may make us agree with the Canterbury Times, figures on the Domain tell us a different tale, Reader—Au Revoir!

I note that the poem references Wordsworth and a quote from Wordsworth’s poem ‘Peter Bell’ is also in the Ladies’ Guide to Cricket – a reference that gives us more evidence for Outhwaite as the presumed author of the Ladies’ Guide.

The style of this Outhwaite poem is more in line with the light verse cricket poems contained in the Ladies’ Guide. (One of these poems is also in Pavilion Echoes from the South.)

The Auckland team (Dec-Jan 1884/85) mentioned in the poem drew with Wellington, lost to Canterbury and defeated Otago (both of the latter two games played at Lancaster Park), so did not fair too badly despite being considered a weakened Auckland side by Outhwaite for the tour south.

Article © Mark Pirie 2013