The Law of the Oval
\nby cricketjeff on March 27, 2019.\u00a0 \u00a9 Jeff Green, All rights reserved
\nThis is the law of The Oval, where bat against ball is the fight,
\nWhere the best will be greeted as champions, for praise for the mighty is
\nright,
\nAnd mettle of men will be tested against devils of spin and of pace
\nThe ball turning sideways or spitting from short of a length past your face.
\nRemember the greats of our history, Jack Hobbs, Bobby Abel and more
\nBrian Lara, whose reign was more recent, on his way to a fast fifteen score.
\nOr bowlers who teased and bamboozled, Jim Laker made off spinners fizz,
\nTony Lock ever overaggressive, who could catch any chance that there is.
\nAli Brown was the king of my county, hitting balls over stands to the road
\nHe terrified dozing men watching, nearby windows or seats could explode.<\/p>\n
Lazy days in the sun in the Summer, or nights of excitement and noise
\nAnd recently ladies have joined us, and they play with as much spirit as boys.
\nWhen I was not more than a toddler I first stepped inside of the ground
\nWhere I have spent hours in pleasure entranced by the site and the sound
\nI vaguely remember Fred Truman bowling fast as the wind at his foes
\nAnd Edrich ignoring the Aussies as hand grenades fizzed past his nose
\nKenny Barrington grafted for ever adding run after run to his score
\nBacon rolls with an ice-cream for afters were a pleasure no child could ignore
\nThen taking a broom from a groundsman the crowd brushed the water away
\nAnd Deadly was ready for battle, we knew he could carry the day<\/p>\n
And now that I’m older, not wiser, you’ll still find me glued to a seat
\nFrom the first call of play in the morning till evening’s last over’s complete
\nAnd this is the law of the Oval, the temple to all that is best
\nWhen there’s leather and willow to worship, we don’t give a fig for the rest
\nAnd whether it’s England or Surrey, I’ll stand to applaud what I see
\nNo doubt ever enters my thinking that cricket is life’s poetry!<\/p>\n
\u00a0
\n Author notes
\nMuch too short but I bet Robert Service wasn’t writing to a contest deadline!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Law of the Oval by cricketjeff on March 27, 2019.\u00a0 \u00a9 Jeff Green, All rights reserved This is the law of The Oval, where bat against ball is the fight, Where the best will be greeted as champions, for praise for the mighty is right, And mettle of men will be tested against devils […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":9742,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5679","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5679"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5829,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5679\/revisions\/5829"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicewaistcoat.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}