Songs of Cricket
1 Cricket Theme Medley
Various, arr. Alexander L’Estrange
[5.24]
2 The Cricketers of Hambledon †
Bruce Blunt / Peter Warlock
[2.42]
3 School Songs Medley (five school songs) †
Various
[5.48]
4 The Summer Game – from Cricket (Hearts and Wickets)
Tim Rice / Andrew Lloyd Webber
[3.39]
5 Lillian Thomson
Richard Stilgoe
[2.04]
6 Radnage Cricket Song (Bucks. folk song) Traditional, collected by Horace Harman
[2.00]
7 Four Jolly Bowlers †
The Yetties
[2.24]
8 The Rules of Cricket – A Psalm Chant
The London Quartet / W.H. Havergal
[2.34]
9 You’ve Got to be a Cricket Hero †
(to Get Along with the Beautiful Girls)
Al Sherman / Buddy Fields /
Al Lewis and Fred Tupper / Cliff Nichols
[2.39]
0 Jiggery Pokery †
Neil Hannon / Thomas Walsh
[3.13]
q Village Rondo †
Matthew Holst, arr. Chris Hatt
[3.41]
w Eton and Winchester †
R.T. Warner / F.S. Kelly
[4.10]
e I Made a Hundred in the Backyard at Mum’s
Greg Champion
[2.29]
r Australian Cricket Medley †
Various
[5.42]
t The Barmy Army
Richard Stilgoe
[3.21]
y That’s Not Cricket – from At Home Abroad †
Howard Dietz / Arthur Schwartz
[2.26]
u Cricket Tea Towel: The Ins and Outs of Cricket
Anon. / The London Quartet
[2.19]
i Andy Flower Duet †
Richard Stilgoe / Léo Delibes
[2.04]
o Jerusalem †
Richard Stilgoe / C. Hubert Parry
[1.18]
p When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease
Roy Harper
[7.00]
a ‘Stop it, Aggers!’
Rory Bremner [2.02]
[69.00]
Total timings:
All titles arranged by The London Quartet unless otherwise indicated.
THE LONDON QUARTET with
Chris Hatt piano – tracks marked †
Gary Lovenest – cowbell (track 1)
Alexander L’Estrange – piano and vocal
percussion (track 1), stick bass (track 13)
The Cricket Choir – The London Quartet, David
Rayvern Allen, Richard Stilgoe and Robin Tyson (track 19)
Richard Stilgoe – tracks 5, 15 and 19
Tim Rice – track 4
Eliza Lumley – tracks 9, 10, 16 and 18
www.signumrecords.com
www.thelondonquartet.com
www.songsofcricket.com
THE LONDON QUARTET
Richard Bryan (Counter-tenor)
Steven Brooks (Tenor)
Mark Fleming (Tenor)
Michael Steffan (Baritone)
With Chris Hatt (piano)
And Alexander L’Estrange (piano)
Guest Artists: Richard Stilgoe, Eliza Lumley,
Rory Bremner and Tim Rice
polyphony, jazz and contemporary music.
Although essentially an a cappella group they
have appeared with a range of leading artists and
ensembles, from big band to symphony orchestra.
The London Quartet is one of Britain’s longest
established vocal ensembles. Since they became
widely known in the early nineteen-eighties they
have mastered a wide array of musical styles
which they have taken to a worldwide audience,
always remaining true to their core vocal texture
which is unmistakably rooted in the great English
choral tradition. The London Quartet’s origins at
Cambridge University, where they were founded
as Cantabile, lay in revue as well as in music, and
their flair for the stage continues to keep them
in demand in theatres and cabaret as well as
in concert halls and at festivals; indeed, they
featured for over a year in London’s West End.
They have appeared in an enormous variety of
venues, singing programmes encompassing early
“Mark, Mike, Richard and Steven have few
opportunities to play cricket, but take every
opportunity to sing about it, which they do
wonderfully well. They are now synonymous
with the game’s music.” — David Rayvern Allen
-4-
-5-
SONGS OF CRICKET
figures immortalised by innkeeper’s son, John
Nyren, in ‘The Cricketers of My Time’, form part of
its historical tapestry. Eton and Oxford-educated
song-writer Peter Warlock, pseudonym for Philip
Heseltine, and poet, journalist and wine merchant
Bruce Blunt, leaders of the bohemian Eynsford
set, collaborated on the ballad which was written
at the instigation of ‘The London Mercury’ as a
protest against the encroachment of football into
the cricket season. On New Year’s Day, 1929, a
match between the Hampshire Eskimos and the
Broadhalfpenny Brigands was arranged on the
elevated and windy Down. Later in the day, the local
hunt cavorted across the pitch and dropped into
the famous Bat and Ball Inn only to find the
cricketers had drunk it dry. Full of bibulous gusto
and enjoyable bombast, the song was originally
scored for brass band and heard in that form at
the end of the game. Warlock, who had a
predilection for riding naked on his motorbike,
was apparently not present – it was too cold.
1 Cricket Theme Medley: Composer and pianist
Alexander L’Estrange’s stunning Cricket Theme
Medley incorporates five numbers, four of which
are indelibly associated with cricket’s media
coverage. The Channel 9 cricket signature tune
based on Brian Bennett’s theme from ‘Bluey’, a
detective show in Australia, is followed by BBC
Test Match Special’s equivalent, Soul Limbo, the
invention of one of the first racially integrated
Memphis rock groups, Booker T. and the M.G.’s.
Next comes the official song of the 2011 World
Cup, De Ghuma Ke! (‘Strike it Hard!’), composed
by Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and
Loy Mendonsa with lyrics by Manoj Yadav, and
then the reggae-styled Dreadlock Holiday, 10cc’s
last hit from Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman,
where the sub-title ‘I don’t like cricket’ is a
misleading preface to a love of the game. Mambo
No.5, a jive dance song by Pérez Prado and
popularised by Lou Bega, which is Channel 4’s
cricket theme, leads into a reprise of the opening
to bring the medley to a close.
3 Schools Song Medley: For some there will
be memories of mucky white flannels and sweaty
jock-straps on the playing fields of some of
England’s prestigious academic institutions.
Much moral fibre, unashamed allegiance and
exaltation in evidence as provided by a plethora
of music masters and associates: Uppingham,
2 The Cricketers of Hambledon celebrates
one of cricket’s nursery slopes. Although the
game was played earlier in other places, it is
Hambledon in Hampshire where the legendary
-6-
Harrow, Banstead, Sedburgh and Eton to the fore,
don’t you know!
song, except perhaps for ‘hop, hop, hop’ which
refers to underarm bowling. Radnage is a
remote village in the Chiltern Hills, not far from
the Oxfordshire border and the song, later
arranged by Madeleine Campbell, is one of the
earliest recorded.
4 The Summer Game – from Cricket (Hearts and
Wickets): An extract from Tim Rice and Andrew
Lloyd Webber’s largely unknown mini-musical.
Commissioned by H.R.H. Prince Edward for Her
Majesty The Queen’s 60th Birthday, the world
première took place on 18th June, 1986 at
Windsor Castle in a private performance for the
Royal Family. The cast included Ian Charleson,
Sarah Payne, Alvin Stardust, Ian Savident,
George Harris and Prince Edward himself … and
nonpareil Tim Rice notwithstanding himself,
also said a few words…he thinks ..?
7 Four Jolly Bowlers: During the 1970s and
early 1980s an annual series of verse and music
programmes especially designed to fill the
intervals of Test Matches was heard on BBC
Radio 3. All the programmes were presented by
John Arlott, with readings from Robin Holmes
and Valentine Dyall and all the music was
provided by the Yetties. The Yetties – Bonny
Sartin, Mac McCulloch and Pete Shutler, three
sons of Yetminster in Dorset – were natural
exponents of the folk tradition and
complemented perfectly John’s lyrics which
reflected his insight into the mindset of cricketers
lauded and local. As producer of the programmes
and on behalf of the BBC, I commissioned a
number of songs, including this one. Eventually,
they formed the basis of an LP and cassette
recording which was issued by Charisma Records
in 1984.
5 Lillian Thomson: In the Ashes series of
1974/75, the pair of fearsome Australian fast
bowlers, Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson blasted
asunder England’s batting. Some consolation
was forthcoming in this highly original and
amusing take on the mayhem by Richard Stilgoe,
who performs it here …
6 The Radnage Cricket Song: From Horace
Harman’s book ‘Buckinghamshire Dialect’
produced in 1929, in which one learns that ‘cays
in the cayus’ meant ‘cows in the cowhouse’.
No such interpretation is needed in the cricket
8 The Rules of Cricket – A Psalm Chant:
With the unwitting assistance of that notable
-7-
19th-century hymn-writer, The Rev. William Henry
Havergal, one-time Hon. Canon of Worcester
Cathedral, who was born at the time MCC first
asserted their authority as custodians of the
laws of the game, The London Quartet supply a
helpful 21st-century addenda for the benefit of
confused converts in unlikely territories.
the 3rd June, 1993, Shane Warne bowled his first
ball in a Test match against England. Facing the
ball was Mike Gatting, renowned for his ability
against spin. Steven Lynch picked up the story in
‘Cricinfo Magazine’: ‘as the ball looped down, it
seemed to be headed harmlessly down the leg side.
The ball drifted even further down the leg side and
then it hit the turf. It fizzed back across Gatting – no
mean feat – and clipped the top of the off stump
… truly the Ball of the Century.’
9 You’ve Got to be a Cricket Hero (to
Get Along with the Beautiful Girls): Cambridge
theology and philosophy graduate, Eliza Lumley,
who memorably gave Radiohead the cocktail
jazz treatment, gives a delightfully cool rendition
of a foxtrot song that was originally written
about American football. The work of Al
Sherman, Buddy Fields and Al Lewis proved
sufficiently captivating to be adapted by Fred
Tupper and Cliff Nichols for Australian cricket.
Inserting the names of 16 leading players of
the day – we’re talking 1930s – with the photos
of a few of them on the cover of the sheet music,
guaranteed a sure-fire hit. The message of the
song is clear: score well at the crease, get noticed
and … well … you’ll score well at …
q The Village Rondo for the Pianoforte:
Arranged and played by West End MD/pianist
Chris Hatt, this sparkling Rondo was composed
by Matthias Holst between 1812 and 1815 and
sold for the princely sum of 2s 6d. The front cover
depicts a charming rural scene with musicians
and dancers in front of a tent and children
playing cricket with two stump wickets beside
a pub. It is thought to be the first ever visual link
between cricket and music. Holst, part German,
part Swedish, later inserted ‘von’ before his
surname, borrowed illegally from one of his
cousins who had been knighted for diplomacy.
He lived first in Riga and emigrated to London
in 1807. Holst died in 1854 and is buried in
Highgate Cemetery. He was the great grandfather
of Gustav Holst, composer of The Planets.
0 Jiggery Pokery: A catchy number from
Duckworth-Lewis’s (not the method-mathematicians!)
Thomas Walsh and Neil Hannon, about a single
delivery that revived the fading art of leg-spin. On
-8-
-9-
w Eton and Winchester: A Song of the Eton
& Winchester Match: The essential spirit of
cricket as promoted in R.T. Warner’s lyrics: ‘let
chivalry not victory sound loudest in our ears’
and ‘elevens ever friends!’ leaves no room for
much modern practice on and off the field.
The accompanying music by Frederick Septimus
Kelly has a similar contemporary feel: late
Victorian/early Edwardian and based on sound
harmonic principles à la Parry and Stanford,
the vitality and movement is never allowed to
flag. Besides being a brilliant pianist and
promising composer, Kelly was an outstanding
oarsman. The fourth son of an Irish father and
Australian mother and educated at Sydney
Grammar School, Eton and Balliol College,
Oxford, he took part in the 1903 Boat Race. A
winner of the Diamond Sculls in a record time
that stood for three decades, he was also one of
the Leander Crew that won the Grand Challenge
Cup at Henley for three successive years from
1903 and a gold medallist for Great Britain
in the Eights at the 1908 Olympics. A close
friend of poet Rupert Brooke, Kelly also died
tragically in the First World War. Having survived
Gallipoli though wounded twice and been
awarded the DSC, 35-year-old Kelly was killed
when rushing a German machine post during
the Battle of the Somme.
- 10 -
e I Made a Hundred in the Backyard at
Mum’s: Australia’s multi-award winning Country/
Folk singer/songwriter Greg Champion is to boot
a guitarist, radio personality and athlete. Here
he captures the beginnings of every lad’s
fantasy. Alright, it was only in Mum’s backyard
and his own folks’ bowling wasn’t too testing, but
it is a start. Soon or perhaps one day, it could be
at the WACA or the MCG, or even at Lord’s …
r Australian Cricket Medley: Two songs
mentioning Bradman, another in which he was
co-writer, a further ditty urging a kangaroo to
keep its tail aloft – as if it needed to be told –
and an infectious, bouncy closing number to
maintain Australia’s triumphalist tone in this
musical jaunt down under.
t The Barmy Army: Richard Stilgoe’s stirring
anthem salutes those loyal and unquenchable
followers of the national team, whose
cacophonous chants continue to crush
opposition supporters even – or should it be,
especially? – when England manage to
regularly snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
But after retaining the Ashes, that’s all going
to change isn’t it …?
y That’s Not Cricket – from At Home Abroad:
A 1935 Broadway musical revue starring Beatrice
Lillie, Eleanor Powell and Ethel Waters. Music and
lyrics came from that redoubtable pair, Arthur
Schwartz and Howard Dietz, with direction from
Thomas Mitchell and Vincente Minnelli, who
was making his first outing on the Broadway
stage. There were a number of exotic locations
represented on this musical holiday cruise, as
well as the more mundane. A London store was
the setting for Eleanor Powell to have fun with
At Home Abroad, an idiomatic summation of
the manners and mores of the British.
u Cricket Tea Towel: The Ins and Outs of
Cricket: The London Quartet’s recognition of
Estonian sacred music composer Arvo Pärt’s
minimalist style, in this appealing demisemi-drone which was put together at a stopover
in Sandpoint, Idaho, on February 2nd, 2007.
The towel – still available – was manufactured
to explain to foreigners the fundamental
comings and goings on the field of play. Game
for a laugh …
i Andy Flower Duet: ‘The Flower Duet’ from
Act 1 of Lakmé by Léo Delibes, has, in its time,
been purloined by a Dutch hip hop group, the
makers of a Korean drama and for a film where
- 11 -
two women are swimming naked under a
glass-bottom boat in a piranha-infested lake.
In this version, the roles of the daughter of a
Brahman priest and her servant, normally sung
by two sopranos, are taken by one soprano and
a fella with a falsetto voice. And the tenor – or
should it be counter-tenor? – of the libretto
has been slanted rather cleverly by Mr. Stilgoe
to warn of the potential perils that lie in wait
for any England cricket manager …
o Jerusalem: Once more into the breach,
dear friends – foreign fields and all that, eh?
Wait a minute. Hold on! Richard Stilgoe is still
here. Bowling leg-spin and doosras, don’t you
know? Dirty tricks. Altered the lyrics. Still. Rather
splendid. What?
p When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease:
In essence, the cricket song. Composed by
Roy Harper and released in 1975 with a
haunting melody, simple uncluttered guitar
accompaniment and comforting brass band
cushion. The ‘Geoff ’and ‘John’ in the lyrics
are Messrs. Boycott and Snow to whom the
song is dedicated. Harper has related how
inspiration came from two people: ‘my
grandfather Frank Harper (who) allegedly once
turned out for Lancs 2nd XI, but his mother
made him give it up because there was no money
in it. Thereafter, he played in the Lancashire
League and had a successful career in cotton’.
And the other? ‘While listening to ‘Test Match
Special’ on the radio one day, I heard John
Arlott waxing lyrical about the time when every
old cricketer must leave the crease … and a
song was born on the spot. To both of these
people I owe a deep gratitude’.
a ‘Stop it, Aggers!’: An unexpected bonus.
The inimitable Rory Bremner mimicking the
imitable …
If I may be allowed a personal note. Over the
years Cantabile – The London Quartet – and I
have worked together many times, in broadcasts
and in concerts, particularly cricket concerts. Of
the latter, the repertoire therein is mostly the
repertoire herein. One led to the other. To
have had an association with such talented
performers whose music gives continual delight,
has been a great privilege and enrichment. I
only hope all those who listen to this CD, which
has been superbly produced by Nigel Short,
will derive as much pleasure and enjoyment
from it as it deserves.
David Rayvern Allen. May, 2011.
- 12 -
- 13 -
SONG TEXTS
1 Cricket Theme Medley
Various, arranged by Alexander L’Estrange
New Horizons: Theme from “Bluey” (Channel 9 Cricket)
Brian L. Bennett
© KPM Music Ltd / EMI
Soul Limbo (Test Match Special, BBC)
Steve Cropper / Al Jackson Jr. / Booker T. Jones / Duck Dunn
© Irving Music / Al Jackson Jr. Music / BUG Music
De Ghuma Ke (2011 ICC World Cup Theme)
Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy
© Universal Music India
Dreadlock Holiday (10cc)
Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman
© EMI
Mambo No.5 (Channel 4 Cricket)
Lou Bega and Zippy Davids / Pérez Prado
© Peer Music
A medley of modern cricket themes.
*****
De Ghuma Ke
Jiyo Khiladi Wahe Wahe
Strike it Hard!
Long Live the Wonderful Player!
*****
I’ll make a song of Hambledon, and sing it at
“The George”,
Of balls that flew from Beldham’s bat like
sparks from Fennex’ forge;
The centuries of Aylward, and a thousand
guineas bet,
And Sueter keeping wicket to the thunderbolts
of Brett.
I was walkin’ down the street
Concentratin’ on truckin’ right
I heard a dark voice beside of me
And I looked round in a state of fright
I saw four faces one mad
A brother from the gutter
They looked me up and down a bit
And turned to each other
Then up with every glass and we’ll sing a
toast in chorus:
“The cricketers of Hambledon who played
the game before us,
The stalwarts of the olden time who
rolled a lonely down,
And made the king of games for men, with
Hambledon the crown.”
And I say, I don’t like cricket oh no – I love it
*****
A little bit of Monica in my life
A little bit of Erica by my side
A little bit of Rita’s all I need
A little bit of Tina’s what I see
A little bit of Sandra in the sun
A little bit of Mary all night long
A little bit of Jessica here I am
A little bit of you makes me your man
Although they sang the nights away, their
afternoons were spent
In beating men of Hertfordshire and flogging
men of Kent,
And when the flow’r of England fell to Taylor
and his peers,
The fame of Hambledonians went ringing
down the years.
2 The Cricketers of Hambledon
Bruce Blunt / Peter Warlock
© Augener Ltd.
Composed for the Hampshire Eskimos’ New Year
cricket match at Hambledon, 1929.
The sun has left Broadhalfpenny, and the
moon rides overhead;
- 14 -
So pass the bottle round again for drinking
to the dead
To Small and his companions all who
gathered, lose or win,
To take their fill of Nyren’s best when Nyren
kept the inn.
’Tis a goodly company,
Merry England.
Let foes say what they will,
Whilst Cricket we play
Each summer day,
’Tis Merry England still
3 School Songs Medley
*****
Cricket Song: ‘Tis Merry England Still (Uppingham) Edward Thring / Christian Reimers
Willow the King is a Monarch grand;
Three in a row his courtiers stand:
Every day when the sun shines bright
The doors of his palace are painted white,
And all the company bow their backs
To the King, with his collar of cobbler’s wax.
Willow the King (Harrow)
E.E. Bowen / John Farmer
On Surrey Hills (Banstead)
J. M. Bastard / Orton Bradley
Cricket Song: Hail to the Name
of the Brave old Game (Sedburgh)
R. St. J. Ainslie / P. A. Thomas
So ho! So ho! May the courtiers sing:
Honour and life to Willow the King.
*****
Cricket Song: Cricket is King (Eton)
A. C. Ainger / Sir Joseph Barnby
’Neath summer suns we learn to watch
The wily spinning slow:
To cut, to drive, to hold a catch,
To trundle out the foe;
The neat pick up, the straight return.
For slackers nought but shame,
So long as Banstead hopes to earn
A lease of cricket’s fame.
Five old School Songs to stir the spirit – from a
more innocent age.
*****
The Wickets are set, the field is met,
Oh, the royal game and free!
The School shall win,
Short out, long in,
- 15 -
Lustily sing the song
Sing it once more,
What ho for a halfer!
Cart it for four.
until a match is won.
*****
If you’ve England in your veins,
And can take a little pains,
In the sunny summer weather when to be indoors
is sin,
If you’ve got a bit of muscle,
And enjoy a manly tussle,
Then go and put your flannels on and let the fun
begin –
And hail to the name of the brave old game
Wherever men are English and the flag’s unfurled
You will there find cricket
And the willow and the wicket,
And there’s not a game to lick it in the whole
wide world!
You must leave your honoured self,
In the shed, upon the shelf,
Nor think about your average, but do your level
best;
Keep your temper and be jolly
And away with melancholy,
And shut your mouth, and play the game, and never
mind the rest:
*****
The highlands of Harrow,
The lowlands of Eton,
The meads of old Winchester level and gay,
Have witnessed whole days that can never be
beaten,
When two smart Elevens have met in the fray.
You may talk of your tennis, your rackets and fives,
The skill they demand, and the pleasure they bring;
But you’re bound to admit in the course of
your lives,
They all have their merits, but Cricket is King
Let the lazy talk of luck,
It was perservering pluck
That saved the day at Waterloo and made the
winning run!
And the men with most of that’ll
Be the men to fight the battle,
For a match is never lost, my boy,
4 The Summer Game
– from Cricket (Hearts and Wickets)
Tim Rice / Andrew Lloyd Webber
© M.S. / Really Useful Group
- 16 -
Commissioned by H.R.H. Prince Edward for the
Her Majesty The Queen’s 60th Birthday.
A sweet English rose whose hopes
Stride out there with him
Act 1 Scene 1
Cricketers:
Another golden afternoon
An idyllic sporting scene
A tapestry in green
Willow heroes
And in pavilioned splendour nationwide
The game and its laws bestride
The best of England
Now the test
Of character and application
At his best
He’s man enough for any cause
Round the ground
In civilised appreciation
Comes the sound
Of dignified informed applause
Bat on ball
The noblest of all competition
Players all
In attitude and drive the same
Steeped in grace
And mindful of the game’s tradition
They embrace
The glory of the summer game
Bat on ball
The manly thwack of blade on leather
Players all
So worthy of the crowd’s acclaim
And although
Protected in their regions nether
Batsmen know
The dangers of the summer game
5 Lillian Thomson
Richard Stilgoe
Sung and played by Richard Stilgoe
© Richard Stilgoe
And walking bravely to the crease
A man with much to do
Earl: [Tim Rice]
We’re 23 for 2, needing 90
A timeless piece of satire from a Master.
Cricketers:
And watching bravely from the boundary ropes
Every morning on the radio the news comes
- 17 -
from Australia,
The English batsmen once again have had
a ghastly failure,
’Twas Lillian Thomson’s bowling once
again caused the collapse,
I always thought test cricket was intended
just for chaps!
But Lillian Thomson is Australia’s finest flower,
A maiden bowling overs at a hundred miles
an hour,
She’s the fastest lady bowler that the World
has ever seen,
Her bumper’s awe-inspiring and her language
far from clean.
’Cause under Lillian Thomson’s arm it’s like
a chicken farm.
For to cricket we will go, will go, to cricket
we will go.
This terrifying lady, what is more, is quite a looker,
No wonder she demoralises every English hooker,
No wonder every time the Pommie batting strength
she trounces,
Would you like facing up to Lillian Thomson’s
massive bouncers?
We’ll go out on the common, boys,
And there we’ll choose our ground:
But first we’ll choose our umpire
And then we’ll choose our men.
Lillian Thomson – a terrifying sight,
Sometimes she swings them to the left, sometimes
to the right,
Sometimes you have to duck as they whistle
through the air,
In Lillian Thomson Australia had the World’s best
opening pair!
Just imagine the reaction of Gooch or Gower
or Gatting,
As this six foot six of sheila runs up, do you wonder
they hate batting?
She hit Randall on the ankle,
Then she hit him on the forehead,
If she finds the happy medium
She could hurt him something horrid.
6 Radnage Cricket Song
Traditional Song
from Buckinghamshire
Song collected by Horace Harman – this is the first
complete recording of one of the earliest songs
connected with cricket.
She’s Lillian Thomson, the first of cricket’s Dames,
A mixture of Joan Sutherland, Rolf Harris and
Clive James,
Don’t let Lillian Thomson bowl at you underarm,
Come all ye jolly cricketers whoever ye may be,
I’ll have you pay attention and listen unto me.
And we have won the ball,
The very next time we come this way
We’ll give this house a call.
7 Four Jolly Bowlers
The Yetties (Sartin / Shutler / McCulloch)
© The Yetties
From the John Arlott / The Yetties poetry and music
album, ‘The Sound of Cricket’.
Well played my pretty partner,
Be sure to bat upright;
And when she comes with a hop-hop-hop
We’ll cut her out of sight.
It’s of four jolly bowlers, four bowlers you shall hear,
And we have been a bowling for many a long year,
So we travel all the counties of England and around
And all of our delight is to find good bowlin’ ground
Well played my pretty partner,
See how she tips the bail;
And if you keep them to that length
I’m sure we shall not fail
One of us is very fast, one more bowls by strength,
But the other two just use their brains and bowl
with spin and length
Our true delight is bowling, bowling without
a doubt
But our almighty treasure is to bowl them
batsmen out
Well thrown my pretty partner,
See how she nips the wind;
And when she goes by the bowler
We’ll all back up behind.
And now the game is ended, boys,
We’ll merrily drink and sing
Good health unto our cricketers
And glory to our Queen
The batsmen’s pleasure, boys, is the making
of their runs
The bowlers hate them having them – even made
in ones
We’ll bowl and bowl at them in village and in town
And now the game is ended, boys,
- 18 -
- 19 -
But most of all our treasure is to bowl their
castles down
2. With more than one hundred nations now
playing the wonderful | game of | cricket:
it is necessary to write specific | rules for |
cer-tain | territories
Sometimes we have money, boys, sometimes
none at all
But we can have good credit, boys, for we do
bowl a ball
We’ll quaff our beer most merrily and drink
the health all round,
Here’s a health to the batsmen’s wicket we
knocks out of the ground
3. These rules must be taken with | all due |
seriousness: honour, gentility, | and a | pinch
of | salt.
4. The first MCC tour took place to the
United States of America in eighteen | fifty |
nine: nevertheless, they are still hopeless at
the sport, | Ha ha | Ha ha | ha.
Down on the village green, me boys, we bowl
the days away
Faster, slower, swerve and spin, a work that’s
truly play
Oh hadn’t you been a bowler, that’s the man to be
For of all the trades in England, it’s the bowler’s
life for me
5. France, despite being silver medal holders
of the Olympic | cricket | title: have | little . to be
| proud of | either.
6. No suggestions shall be heeded from America
as to how to “liven | up the | game”: things
perhaps have gone far enough already, we are
now playing at night, to piped music, in pyjamas,
with dancing girls, white balls, no, scrub that,
pink balls; that reminds me, | must | go and |
wash my | box.
8 The Rules of Cricket – A Psalm Chant
The London Quartet / W.H. Havergal
Some helpful tips for the perplexed.
1. Addenda to “The Laws of Cricket”, as
written by the | M. C. | C.: Two thousand code,
second e-|-ditión . two | thousand . and | three
7. My beloved spake, and | said un.to | me:
“Oy you! You’re going to the cricket again, me
and the | kids, we | ne-ver | see you..!”
- 20 -
8. In Europe, it is important that each side
respect one a-|-nother’s | territory: occupation
of the crease will not be achieved by the laying
down of towels, even in the morning session, and
remember to polish the | bat, not | bat the | Polish.
9. The cut will be the most effective stroke in
the | Middle-| East: Nota bene – some of the
English team | shall be | half-| cut.
10.If, at the behest of the captain, any player
should bowl re-|-pea.ted | no balls: the umpires
shall have the power to empty their | pockets.
of their | bundles. of cash.
| W G | Grace
9 You’ve Got to be a Cricket Hero
(to Get Along with the Beautiful Girls)
Al Sherman / Buddy Fields / Al Lewis
Sung by Eliza Lumley
Adaptation: Fred Tupper / Cliff Nichols
© Leo Feist, Inc. N.Y.
Song taken from the USA to pre-war Australia and
filled with Test names.
Someone to love
If you haven’t got a sweetie
Here’s the reason why you haven’t got
Someone to love
Gentlemen from over all Australia
Give us your attention while we hail ya
You’ve to be a cricket hero
To get along with the beautiful girls
You’ve got to be a good run getter, you bet,
If you wanna get,
A sweetie to pet,
The fact that you are rich and handsome,
Won’t get you anything in curls.
You’ve to be a cricket hero
To get along with the beautiful girls
Every girlie just raves over
Woodfull, Wall, McCabe, Ponsford, Grimmet,
And Chipperfield
Barnet hits for all he’s worth,
They are the rulers of the earth,
The girls – they love ‘em so
If the girls are what you want to get, man
You must be a Brown or a Don Bradman
You’ve to be a cricket hero
To get along with the beautiful girls
Imagine Oldfield keeping wickets so true,
If you haven’t got a sweetie
And you wonder why you haven’t got
- 21 -
And Eb’ling, Bromley,
And O’Reilly too,
Our honour will be in safe keeping
The pennant these boys will unfurl.
You’ve to be a cricket hero
To get along with the beautiful girls
You’ve to be a cricket hero
To get along with the beautiful girls
Just think of Darling Kippax and Fleetwood Smith,
For they are the boys,
Girls love from the jiff,
Although they’re far away in England,
They are the pride of the Test Match World,
You’ve to be a cricket hero
To get along with the beautiful girls
0 Jiggery Pokery
Neil Hannon / Thomas Walsh
Sung by The London Quartet with
Eliza Lumley
© Sony/ATV Music Publishing
A modern re-telling of ‘that ball’ to Mike Gatting.
’Twas the first test of the Ashes series 1993
Australia had only managed 289 and we
felt all was going to plan
that first innings at Old Trafford.
- 22 -
Then Merv Hughes and his handlebar moustache
dismissed poor Athers.
So I stuck my left leg out
and jammed my bat against it.
I took the crease to great applause,
and focussed on me dinner.
I knew that I had little cause
to fear their young leg spinner.
He loosened up his shoulders
and with no run up at all,
he rolled his right arm over
and he let go of the ball.
But the ball it span obscenely
and out of the rough it jumped,
veered across my bat and pad,
clipping my off stump.
It took a while to hit me,
I momentarily lingered,
but then I saw old Dickie Bird
slowly raise his finger.
It was jiggery pokery, trickery, jokery.
How did he open me up?
Robbery, muggery, Aussie Skullduggery.
Out for a buggering duck.
What a delivery,
I might as well have been
holding a contra bassoon.
Jiggery pokery who was this nobody,
making me look a buffoon?
Like a blithering old buffoon.
It was jiggery pokery, trickery, jokery.
How did he open me up?
Robbery, muggery, Aussie Skullduggery.
Out for a buggering duck.
What a delivery,
I might as well have been
holding a child’s balloon.
Jiggery pokery who was this nobody,
making me look a buffoon?
Like an accident prone baboon.
At first the ball looked straight enough,
I had it in me sights,
but such was its rotation
that it swerved out to the right.
I thought “Well, that’s a leg break,
that’s easily defended.”
How such a ball could be bowled
I don’t know, but if you asked me
if it had been a cheese roll,
it would never have got past me.
How did he open me up?
Robbery, muggery, Aussie Skullduggery.
What in the buggery
was his delivery?
I might as well have been
holding a cob of corn.
Jiggery pokery, who was this nobody
making me look so forlorn?
I hate Shane Warne.
q Village Rondo
Matthew Holst, arranged by Chris Hatt
Played by Chris Hatt
This piano piece has the first known published
picture of cricket on its title page.
w Eton and Winchester
R.T. Warner / F.S. Kelly
A Song of the Eton & Winchester match.
Though Itchen flows apart the Thames,
Our Hearts flow to one sea;
And rose and lily bind their stems
In Friendship’s heraldry;
For Winton smiled upon the child
When Eton first arose,
It was jiggery pokery, trickery, jokery.
- 23 -
Who, greater grown, yet calls her own
That first of friends and foes
As long as Thames is Thames, as long
As Hills look down on Meads,
Our hearts shall join in thought and song,
Our bands shall vie in deeds!
Let but our glance as far advance
As backward it extends,
Down Time’s long aisle we’d see them file,
Elevens ever friends!
On Upper Club, elm-girded round,
Now let the play begin;
Let “Floreat Etona” sound,
And may the best side win!
To match in lists those Wykehamists
Your weapons wisely wield,
For, sooth, although they cannot row,
’Tis said that they can field.
e I Made a Hundred in the Backyard at Mum’s
Greg Champion
© J. Albert & Son
A brilliant depiction of back-garden cricket
in Australia.
You sons of Wykeham, each a man,
Whom Wykeham’s manners make,
Now score your “centuries”, if you can,
For your five centuries’ sake!
And they who yield on fair New Field –
Or be it guest or host –
Need not resent the strife’s event
When victors never boast.
As I went out to have a bat just the other day
I had no idea what was coming my way
I played a chanceless innings and I earned
every run
and I made a hundred in the backyard at Mum’s
As light blue sky and dark blue sea
Horizoned blend their hues,
So, light and dark, each year may we
In Friendship join our blues.
Let Chivalry, not Victory,
Sound loudest in our ears;
For generous foes give lusty blows,
But still more lusty cheers!
Oh, I made a hundred in the backyard at Mum’s
I clobbered and I crunched every fabulous run
I toiled and I sweated and when the day was done
I’d made a hundred in the backyard at Mum’s
I started out real shaky-like just poking around
me sister with her off-breaks well she had
- 24 -
me pinned down
but when me little brother bowled I gave him
the clout
and when we stopped for lunch I was twenty-four
not out
Bowl a Ball, Swing a Bat
Daniel Boone / Rod McQueen
Five songs from Australia, one by Bradman himself
and the final one from the 1972 team.
*****
Well then me Uncle Nev came on bowling
his quicks
but I was scoring freely with deflections and flicks
as I passed me fifty I paused for a beer
and when I hit the roof next door they all
began to cheer
I used to sing about blackbirds, singing the blues
all day,
But now I’m in clover, now it’s all over, blue days
be on your way,
Sometimes the dark clouds gather, sometimes the
skies are grey,
But I’m all right when I see the light of a rainbow,
then I’ll say –
I took some on the body but they didn’t hurt a bit
I only hit the ball that was there to be hit
I hooked ’em off me eyebrows and I tried to
keep me head
and the ton came up with a straight drive through
the window of the shed
Every Day is a Rainbow Day for Me
Jack Lumsdaine / Donald Bradman
Every Day is a Rainbow Day for Me,
Since you came along it’s easy to smile you see,
I never hurry, worry, when you are near,
I know that soon I’ll see my rainbow appear,
Like a hue from a beautiful sunset sea,
There’s a light in your eyes, I’m happy as I can be,
On your way, Mister Gloom, for you I’ve got no room,
Every Day is a Rainbow Day for Me.
Our Eleven
Jack Lumsdaine
*****
r Australian Cricket Medley
Take off your Hats to Bradman
Edmund Luke / Dunbar Carey
Our Eleven, they did their best,
Our Eleven, to win each test.
Gee! But how Don Bradman wields the willow,
Seems as light to Woodfull as a feather pillow,
Keep your Tail up Kangaroo
Neil McBeath
- 25 -
How they can bowl,
How they can bat,
Knock ’em round and never care for this or that
Our Eleven, they’ll be in heaven when they’re
bringing the Ashes home!
*****
We’ve got a little song to sing,
It’s just the very thing,
Now cricket is on the wing
We’ve got a little song to sing,
And when the Tests commence we’ll sing together
*****
The Lion whispered softly to the Aussie Kangaroo –
“Who is this wonder batsman creating
records new?”
The ’roo responded proudly as they watched
the thrilling game –
“He’s the pride of all Australia – Don Bradman
is his name!”
Gee! What a lad!
What a score!
Cheer until your lungs are sore
Take off your hats to Bradman, Don Bradman
Letters gold spell his name
Master of Old England’s game
Take off your hats to Bradman.
Keep your tail up, Kangaroo
Keep it up in the air and you’ll come smiling
through
Keep your tail up, Kangaroo
Keep it up in the air, that’s all you’ve got to do
Lancashire, Gloucestershire, Yorkshire, Surrey and
Kent,
Show them all with the bat and ball that you’re one
hundred per cent
Oh, keep your tail up, Kangaroo
Keep it up in the air and you’ll come smiling
through
Don’t you think we play real fine?
Come and cheer us on you’re welcome anytime
There’s a light shining bright on the
Aussie cricket team every day when we play
We’ll have them in a fix, when we hit the ball
for six ‘cos we’re out to win the game
Any fool can cheer a winning side
But singing while you’re swallowing your pride
Takes a certain character – a certain sort of guy
It’s just as well it’s England who always make
us cry.
Other nations couldn’t stand the strain
Of watching their team losing once again –
t The Barmy Army
Richard Stilgoe
played and sung by Richard Stilgoe,
with The London Quartet
© Richard Stilgoe
The English glorying in public failure …
So paint a Union Jack upon your face
And put your bet on England for a place.
If it all goes pear-shaped and if the fates combine
And we triumph by one run against the might
of Lichtenstein,
Twice as loud you’ll hear our voices ring
Teaching our opponents how to sing –
The Barmy Army marches round the World
With banners saying “Hallo Mum” unfurled
Out there in the middle, our team is on the floor
Nothing but a miracle can help us scrape a draw.
But we support our country, right or wrong
Which means we need a special sort of song.
The Barmy Army marches on
Ev’ry hope of victory gone
The Barmy Army stands the test
Happy that when it comes to losing,
When it comes to losing,
When it comes to losing,
We’re the best.
*****
Smiling on his conquering way,
Smashing records every day
Say – hear them yell,
Hear them shout –
“Blimey, can’t you get him out?!”
Take off your hats to Bradman.
Bowl a ball, swing a bat, we’ll show the others
where it’s at,
Every time we play our game,
Hold a catch, win the match, even through the rain.
Bowl a ball, swing a bat, tell us what you think
of that,
- 26 -
It isn’t easy when your team
Makes a nightmare out of a dream
It isn’t easy patiently
Watching them snatch defeat from the jaws
of victory.
- 27 -
y That’s Not Cricket – from At Home Abroad
Howard Dietz / Arthur Schwartz
sung by Eliza Lumley
© Chappell & Co Ltd / Arthur Schwartz Music Ltd
administered by Bienstock Publishing Company in the USA
and British Reversionary Territories – Used by permission
of Carlin Music Corp., London NW1 8BD.
A piece of musical cabaret from the 1930s … and
still up-to-date …
It was in ten sixty-six,
That’s the date historians fix,
If you know your statistics,
The British nation won a famous war.
How the Empire grew and grew,
All the way to Timbuctoo!
Little England, was the Kingland
Every mariner’s return would bring land
For Mother England
All hail her great dominions here!
All hail her sporting blood!
There can’t be two opinions here,
Her statecraft is a great craft,
I’m proud to be allowed to
Kowtow to Great Britain,
A nation I am one of!
A patriotic son of…
- 28 -
That’s Not Cricket!
It has a blatant air of brass
It isn’t British upper-class
To kick a fellow in the…
Would you do it to the Prince of Wales?
Would you do it to the Duke of York?
That’s Not Cricket!
It positively isn’t done
The sort of thing to shun you will demur
If you are a Britisher!
Would you do it in Trafalgar Square?
Would you do it on the Thames Embankment?
Would you think of it in Windsor Castle?
That’s Not Cricket!
and tries to get those coming in, out.
Sometimes you get men still in and not out.
When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out
try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in
and the next man in goes out and goes in.
There are two men called umpires who stay out all
the time
and they decide when the men who are in are out.
When both sides have been in and all the men have
been out,
and both sides have been out twice after all the
men have been in,
including those who are not out…
That is the end of the game.
u Cricket Tea Towel:
The Ins and Outs of Cricket
Anon. / The London Quartet
With apologies to Arvo Pärt. All efforts have
been made to trace the author of the text; any
information would be very welcome!
i Andy Flower Duet
Richard Stilgoe / Léo Delibes
Sung by Richard Bryan and Eliza Lumley
Words © Richard Stilgoe
Mr. Stilgoe explores the pain of Andy Flower, with
help from Delibes.
You have two sides, one out in the field and one in.
Each man that’s in the side that’s in goes out,
and when he’s out he comes in
and the next man goes in until he’s out.
When they are all out, the side that’s out comes in
and the side that’s been in goes out
Dear Andy Flower, Andy Flower,
Poor Andy Flower, Andy Flower,
Sitting on the England balcony for hour after
bloody hour,
Dear Andy Flower, Andy Flower,
Poor Andy Flower, Andy Flower,
Finding out the hard way Managers have really very
little power.
Ah, all that practice,
Ah, but the fact is,
Ah, once they’re playing,
You’re just praying,
K.P. comes down the track – the ball gets thumped,
Next ball same again but this time stumped
Poor, poor Andy Flower,
Poor Andy Flower,
Who picked this shower?
Don’t look so sour …
Dear Andy Flower, Andy Flower,
Poor Andy Flower, Andy Flower,
Have they told you if we lose the Ashes,
They send England Managers to the Tower.
o Jerusalem
Richard Stilgoe / C. Hubert Parry
Sung by the Cricket Choir
Words © Richard Stilgoe
A stirring rendition of Jerusalem from the Cricket
Choir, with additional Stilgoe wit.
Bring me a ball that’s really old
Bring me a pocket full of grit.
- 29 -
And it could be me and it could be thee
and it could be the sting in the ale,
the sting in the ale.
I’ll slice and gouge (oh! Seam, unfold!)
And soak the shiny side with spit –
When one side’s rough, and one is smooth
I’ll use my double-jointed hand,
I and will bowl the doosra then
And break the England opening stand
When the moment comes and the gathering stands
and the clock turns back to reflect
On the years of grace as those footsteps trace
for the last time out of the act
Well this way of life’s recollection,
the hallowed strip in the haze
The fabled men and the noonday sun
are much more than just yarns of their days.
p When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease
Roy Harper
© District 6 Music Publishing
A multi-London-Quartet version of the 1970s
classic for voice and brass band.
a ‘Stop it, Aggers!’
Rory Bremner
Rory relives some glorious commentary moments …
When the day is done and the ball has spun
in the umpires pocket away
And all remains in the groundsman’s pains
for the rest of the time and a day
There’ll be one mad dog and his master,
pushing for four with the spin
On a dusty pitch with two pounds six
of willow wood in the sun.
When an old cricketer leaves the crease,
you never know whether he’s gone
If sometimes you’re catching a fleeting glimpse
of a twelfth man at silly mid on
And it could be Geoff and it could be John
with a new ball sting in his tail
The London Quartet would like to thank:
David Rayvern Allen, Jonathan Knowles, Robin Tyson, Adam Chadwick and all at Lord’s Cricket Ground,
The Lord’s Taverners, Katie Hickey-Walders, Jeremy Richardson at Jaded, Annick-Patricia Carrière,
Thomas Van der Spiegel, Peter Martin Jacob, Dominique Dumond, Bertrand Henrion, Silvan Isenring,
Sofie Haag, Ilker Ersil, Carole Sterckx, Lucy and all at The St. Bride Foundation, Michelle Greef, Sian Hatt,
Clare Knowles, Hugh Wooldridge, Ashley Giles, Rupert and the annual Brocket / Market Porter match, the annual
Tinkler / Porter-Thomas match, Woody and the Occasionals, the Rev. O. Wadell – and of course our families.
Lord’s Taverners
The Lord’s Taverners is the official Charity of
recreational cricket and the UK’s leading youth
cricket and disability sports Charity.
www.lordstaverners.org
Cantabile - The London Quartet is managed by
Edition Peters Artist Management.
www.editionpeters.com/epam
Recorded at: Air Studios, London – 24th, 25th and 28th February 2011 • Floating Earth, London – 1st March 2011
Mastered at - Floating Earth
Producer - Nigel Short
Recording engineer - Jake Jackson
Assistant engineer - Chris Barrett
Edited and mixed - Dave Rowell
Post-production assistant - Craig Jenkins
Programme concept - David Rayvern Allen
Cover design and concept - Jonathan Knowles
Photography - Jonathan Knowles
Photographic post-production - Gareth Pritchard
Photographer’s assistant - Rowan Fee
Design and Artwork - Woven Design www.wovendesign.co.uk
P 2011 The copyright in this recording is owned by Signum Records Ltd. © 2011 The copyright in this CD booklet, notes and design is owned by Signum Records Ltd.
Any unauthorised broadcasting, public performance, copying or re-recording of Signum Compact Discs constitutes an infringement of copyright and will render the infringer liable
to an action by law. Licences for public performances or broadcasting may be obtained from Phonographic Performance Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this booklet may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from Signum Records Ltd.
SignumClassics, Signum Records Ltd., Suite 14, 21 Wadsworth Road, Perivale, Middx UB6 7JD, UK.
+44 (0) 20 8997 4000 E-mail: [email protected] www.signumrecords.com
- 30 -
- 31 -
ALSO AVAILABLE
on signumclassics
Lullabyes & Goodbyes
Cantabile – The London Quartet, Malcolm Martineau
Swimming Over London
The King’s Singers
SIGCD055
SIGCD192
“As to the singing ... that’s all first class. The four voices
blend beautifully and there isn’t a sour note to be heard. Diction is
consistently crystal clear ... the contribution of Malcolm Martineau
is first rate”
Musicweb International
“… beguiles with rich close harmony arrangements of jazzinspired songs“
Classic FM Magazine, August 2010
Available through most record stores and at www.signumrecords.com For more information call +44 (0) 20 8997 4000
COLOURS
CYAN
MAGENTA
YELLOW
BLACK
CTP Template: CD_INL1
Compact Disc Back Inlay
THE LONDON QUARTET
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
0
q
w
e
r
t
y
u
i
o
p
a
Cricket Theme Medley
The Cricketers of Hambledon
School Songs Medley (five school songs)
The Summer Game – from Cricket
Lillian Thomson
Radnage Cricket Song (Bucks. folk song)
Four Jolly Bowlers
The Rules of Cricket – A Psalm Chant
You’ve Got to be a Cricket Hero …
Jiggery Pokery
Village Rondo
Eton and Winchester
I Made a Hundred in the Backyard at Mum’s
Australian Cricket Medley
The Barmy Army
That’s Not Cricket – from At Home Abroad
Cricket Tea Towel: The Ins and Outs of Cricket
Andy Flower Duet
Jerusalem
When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease
‘Stop it, Aggers!’
Arr. A. L’Estrange
Peter Warlock
Various
Tim Rice / Andrew Lloyd Webber Richard Stilgoe
Trad. collected by Horace Harman
The Yetties
The London Quartet / W.H. Havergal
Sherman / Fields / Tupper / Nichols
Neil Hannon / Thomas Walsh
Matthew Holst, arr. Christopher Hatt
R.T. Warner / F.S. Kelly Greg Champion
Various
Richard Stilgoe
Dietz / Schwartz
Anon. / The London Quartet
Richard Stilgoe / Léo Delibes
Richard Stilgoe / C. Hubert Parry
Roy Harper
Rory Bremner [5.24]
[2.42]
[5.48]
[3.39]
[2.04]
[2.00]
[2.24]
[2.34]
[2.39]
[3.13]
[3.41]
[4.10]
[2.29]
[5.42]
[3.21]
[2.26]
[2.19]
[2.04]
[1.18]
[7.00]
[2.02]
Total timings: [69.00]
THE LONDON QUARTET
SONGS OF CRICKET
THE LONDON QUARTET
SONGS OF CRICKET
LC15723
Signum Records Ltd, Suite 14, 21 Wadsworth Road,
Perivale, Middx UB6 7JD, United Kingdom.
www.signumrecords.com
SIGCD217
P 2011 Signum Records
© 2011 Signum Records
DDD
24 bit digital recording
6
35212 02172
9
SIGCD217
SIGNUMCLASSICS
SONGS OF CRICKET
SIGNUMCLASSICS
SIGCD217
Customer SignumClassics
Catalogue No.SIGCD217
Job Title Songs of Cricket
CTP Template: CD_INL4
Compact Disc Inside Inlay (clearcase)
Customer: SignumClassics
Catalogue No.SIGCD217
Job Title: Songs of cricket
COLOURS
CYAN
MAGENTA
YELLOW
BLACK