the crack is back.
out in the paddock steers sense
danger. A simple few step run
as short as Alan Davidson
but a bloody sight more quick,
left arm, right leg taut as a bow
held by Ursain Bolt at the gun,
no chance to reckon direction
before the whip comes over
Crack! Steers cower at its lash,
unable to go forward or back,
lost in the [...]
At the time it hurt. If you support England you don’t like to see any English batting collapse, and not two in percussive innings, interspersed with bowling pretty well as bad. With a week or more to think about it – it still hurts!
It wasn’t quite as bad as the fifth day collapse Tuesday 6th [...]
I’ll talk about three areas here, all inter-related.
Watching the Western Stand, it struck me that the Hogarthian vision of The Times’ Thunderer is scarcely more than jolly japes in prep school dorms. Midnight feasts, ragging of other houses and schools, hiding Screwbottom Jnr’s spectacles, building a periscope from pop bottles to peer up Matron’s drawers [...]
Headingley Carnegie
In the middle of a stand batsmen discard their creases
to parley twixt jousts, their yeomen chosen duties.
Shuffle pads, box, gloves, helmets, fear and bravery;
lean on pikestaffs to dismiss failure’s haunted taunting,
to discuss the matter at hand, state of play,
how to withhold each wicket whilst withering their enemies’
intent, who may snide cunning cussword cudgels in [...]
I’m an optimist – as an England cricket fan you’ve no other option. Not just sun-block, but full whack of lunch-time sarnies packed. I stowed up on luck too, varying my route to include Bramall Lane and Hillsborough as well as Elland Road. Today Ipswich play the greatest team in the universe at the Ricoh [...]
The Bloke Up Your Arse
For it isn’t your sheila or mucker or strife
Whose judgment gets right up your arse.
The bastard whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the one sledging you back to the past.
Don’t come the Plum Warner or W G
And make out you’re real dinki di,
The bloke up your clacker’ll drop you down [...]
Thank you Yorkshire County Cricket Club for seat M446 in the Upper North East Stand, the best view in town, just over the bowler’s arm and hardly any of the field obscured. Headingley’s improved immensely since 1998, the last time I was here. The Western Terrace, late and unlamented, is replaced by the Western Stand, [...]
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 [...]
