This could be a bloody long day, says Neil, my Aussie mate. Isn’t that just what you want? I reply. Mr Hussey looks ominously unfussy. Four overs in Flintoff finds the Lord’s line outside off-stump, Mr Cricket drives four and air. Each tests and raises the other’s game.
The ground’s filling with 1500 tickets left half-an-hour [...]
On Monday 3rd August 2009
after the departure of four of their team
Clarke and North guided Australia from nine hours
to safety. Navigating under the Southern Cross
in the northern hemisphere they reached haven
through diligence, application and no small measure
of audacity which brings its own fortune
On Sunday 21st April 1861
Burke and Wills reached Cooper’s Creek
nine hours after their [...]
Hedley Verity
no one should die here, except in peace.
news travelled slowly; weeks, months or more passed
till all those who knew you heard of a hill
in Sicily, of wounds, of capture and death.
one more soldier, one more war,
where is its honour, except in us all,
to fight the aggressor who lives
in our breath, who heeds no call.
listen. [...]
no great drama, simply done,
perfectly flighted, and spun.
flight to draw the bat towards the ball,
without the ball being where the bat is drawn,
that is the guile of the craft.
to beat the stroke through thin air
thins the air though the air
itself turns as one in the deception
twirled twixt fingers and thumb,
end of story, the rest perfunction.
once [...]
When Panesar came out to bat at Cardiff less than a month ago, did anyone either side of the Antipodes reckon that Australia would face being two-nil down in the series? To prevent this, their task or test is a mirror image of England’s in the first Test – to bat out just over a [...]
I shall show them their maker’s name.
I shall not hide, nor angle nor feint,
But smite might with unholy power
The utmost of deliveries
Till their hope extinguishes,
exiled from the crease,
incarcerated for transgression,
denied deferred redemption
while I broad-blade all morrow into shape.
I am more than the Gods,
I am hero, I choose their fate
By the wreaking of havoc
When I show [...]
