Dent steel
pummel resolve
grind hope
cleave partnerships
hammer blows
sandblast egos
shatter morale
catch catches
file appeals
cast dies
hewer luck
mould chances
anneal fortune
enamel success
forge victory
dent their steel
till it rusts
www.dentsteel.co.uk
To Siddle – a verb
I bowl
you score
we curse
you all
I bowl
I hit
you’re hurt
I sledge
I bowl
you glove
he catches
you’re out
I bowl
you miss
we shout
they give it
you’re out
I bowl
you’re XXXXed
Stuart Clark
Not that you’d notice him for seeing,
the sort of bloke in the office
who always comes to work on time
to a tidy desk all parts done efficiently
yesterday.
Pays the drinks kitty and sweepstake
promptly
and tells the sharpest stories about the bosses
secretly
(not that you notice him for seeing.)
The sort of bloke troubled mothers of errant daughters
pray they’d bring [...]
It feels weird. Sitting at home about to go to the cricket. I feel I should be somewhere else, in The Ivy Bush pub in Newport for Cardiff, relatives in Golder’s Green for Lord’s or a rented farmhouse in Worcestershire. Being at home, with a half-finished kitchen awaiting the return of the builders (all meant [...]
Before checking the Dressing Stations behind front lines at Headingley, I’d like to say how marvellous it was and is that there is an Ashes Festival in Leeds www.ashesfestivalinleeds.com. I would say that since they asked me to close the official reception this Tuesday, which I did with http://www.ashespoetry.net/2009/08/03/safety-in-numbers/ written the evening before. It seemed to [...]
The papers are full of it. Shock, horror, people drink at test matches. This is also known as lazy journos not looking for a story. Richard Whitehead ‘The Thunderer’ in The Times is perhaps the worst http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6736701.ece
“Those not used to these occasions might think they have slipped into a Hogarth canvas.” My fourteen year old daughter, [...]
Odd test match, this. Were it not the Australians, nor being one-nil up in the series, nor the memory of 2005, most people would say it was a pretty dull affair, more or less ruined by the weather. Which would be more or less true, certainly from half-an-hour prior tea on the last day, when [...]
Our Freddie, the heart of our eleven
Hallowed be thy knees.
Give us your all from test to test
While inbetween giving them each a rest.
Cortisone injection those Australians
From openers to tail-enders
But do not do yourself a mischief
As you would do unto others.
We forgive you your pedalos
As you would forgive us ours.
At Leeds, lead us not into temptation,
Premature [...]
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 [...]
