Cricket in Poetry: Run-Stealers, Gatlings and Graces

Cricket in Poetry tells the fascinating story of cricket’s strong ties with poetry.

It may be cricket’s rural origins, its slow pace or the literary ambitions of its aristocratic patrons, but the game has inspired more poetry than any other. Some of it is moving, some is funny, and some is arch and clunky. Two poems stand out: Vitai Lampada and At Lord’s. Both were penned by the sons of prosperous families. One poet, Henry Newbolt, was a toff. The other, Francis Thompson, was a religious writer and Jack the Ripper suspect. While the two were growing up, county cricket was coming of age.

The book charts the game’s early days from the countryside of the south to the industrial towns and cities of the Midlands and the north. It recalls the famous matches, W.G. Grace and Gloucestershire on their first visit to Old Trafford and the first Ashes Test. And it celebrates the heroes, from Hornby and Barlow to Ranjitsinhji and the great victory calypsos of those ’two little pals’, Ramadhin and Valentine.

Bob Doran first played cricket on the green at Walton-le-Dale across the River Ribble from Preston in Lancashire. He studied classics at King’s College, London, and joined the BBC as a trainee journalist working mostly in radio. He writes on cricket, classics and travel. He bowls off spin and fields in the gully. His batting position has slipped over the years from one to 11.