cricket always terrified me no wonder I escaped to athletics -gosh that
cruel lethal ball hurtling towards you -how many died ? brain damaged
-----Original Message-----
From: Max Richards
Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2015 4:26 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Long on - a cricket poem
Funny to think of the details here being obscure to outsiders…
Cricket not for me, but it’s been hard to avoid, and the vocab here
is often bemusing - goggly I know of but couldn’t define -
leggies and offices almost guessable -
the cherry! joke word for that vicious hard red ball …
This poem deserves a place in any anthology of poetry -
devoted to cricket. Are there such?
Max (gave up cricket in 1949)
On Dec 29, 2015, at 13:29, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dud fieldsmen get captain-directed right
> down on the fence, miles from mid-innings
> action, when no one is likely to take
> a swipe and test your unreliable hands.
>
> At change of overs, you either bolt
> down the other end or get slight relief
> by holding down mid-off for an over
> where at least conversation is audible.
>
> Once in a blue googly, someone swats
> a sitter to you in close and if you manage
> to dispel your panic and actually swallow
> the catch, you will know true gratitude.
>
> Normally restrained leggies and offies,
> unlike their wild-haired, truculent
> cousin quicks, will gather you up,
> tousle your hair and grin goofily,
>
> pretending they planned the trap.
> But mostly, fielding is a lonely business,
> hearing distant thunks as the cherry
> arcs off where others congregate.
>
> Late in the innings, you may be offered
> another reprieve, closer to the popping
> crease but equally isolated - deep fine
> leg - on the off chance of picking up
>
> a skewed hook or a keeper's miss.
> On TV, balls glide across bowling green
> -like surfaces but in the suburbs, any-
> thing can happen as balls spit and jump
>
> over mis-mown, crevice-cracked buffalo
> grass. A sweep along the ground can
> leap up and collect you in the teeth.
> But must not fray your focus. Just don't
>
> let that ball get to the boundary.
> Sorts you, fielding. You're there
> for the duration of afternoon,
> holding down a position.
>
> bw
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