"When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease" is a track on the Roy Harper album '' HQ'', a prominent example of

cricket poetry The game of cricket has inspired much poetry, most of which romanticises the sport and its culture. Poems Cricket: An Heroic Poem :Hail, cricket, Glorious, manly, British Game! ::First of all Sports! be first alike in Fame. The poem by James L ...

. Released as a single twice, in 1975 and 1978, it is possibly Harper's best-known song. The song captures the atmosphere of a

village cricket Village cricket is a term, sometimes pejorative, given to the playing of cricket in rural villages in England and Wales. Many villages have their own teams that play at varying levels in local or regional club cricket leagues. When organised cric ...

match and is an elegy to the game as played during Harper's youth. It features Harper's 12-string acoustic guitar, and is backed by the

Grimethorpe Colliery Band The Grimethorpe Colliery Band is a brass band, based in Grimethorpe, South Yorkshire, England. It was formed in 1917, as a leisure activity for the workers at the colliery, by members of the disbanded Cudworth Colliery Band. Along with the Blac ...

Background

On his website Harper talks of the track as being one of the highlights of his ''HQ'' album:

My childhood memories of the heroic stature of the footballers and cricketers of the day invoke the sounds that went along with them. Paramount among these was the traditional Northern English brass band, which was a functional social component through all four seasons, being seen and heard in many different contexts. My use of that style of music on 'Old Cricketer' is a tribute to those distant memories."

Use as epitaph

An elegiac song, the last on the album, Harper uses the game of cricket as an metaphor for death, in its nostalgic sense for what has passed. This is underlined as the

who enter after two minutes, arranged by

David Bedford David Vickerman Bedford (4 August 1937 – 1 October 2011) was an English composer and musician. He wrote and played both popular and classical music. He was the brother of the conductor Steuart Bedford, the grandson of the composer, painter ...

. British DJ John Peel made an agreement with his producer, John Walters, that in the event of Peel's death, Walters would play the song on air. Walters died in 2001, three years before Peel, so the request could not be fulfilled. Peel, however, played it at the end of his own show when he announced the news of Walters' death, and the song was played by fellow DJ

Andy Kershaw Andrew J. G. Kershaw (born 9 November 1959) is a broadcaster and disc jockey, predominantly on radio, and known for his interest in world music. Kershaw's shows feature a mix of country, blues, reggae, folk music, African music, spoken word ...

at the end of his tribute to Peel on BBC Radio 3, broadcast on 31 October 2004. Peel's stand-in on his

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

slot,

Rob da Bank Robert John Gorham (born 24 June 1973 in Portsmouth, Hampshire), known by the pseudonym Rob da Bank, is an English DJ and co-founder of music festivals Bestival, originally on the Isle of Wight and now moved to Lulworth, Dorset and Camp Bestiv ...

, also played the song at the start of the final show before Peel's funeral. The song mentions two England cricketers in its lyrics - "And it could be Geoff and it could be John" refers to

Geoffrey Boycott Sir Geoffrey Boycott (born 21 October 1940) is a former Test cricketer, who played cricket for Yorkshire and England. In a prolific and sometimes controversial playing career from 1962 to 1986, Boycott established himself as one of England's m ...

and John Snow. The song is dedicated to both of them.

Track listing

#"When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease" – 7:13 #"Hallucinating Light" (Live)

Cover versions

The song was

covered Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of co ...

by Cantabile - The London Quartet as an a cappella track on their album for Signum Classics:- ''Songs of Cricket''.

References

External links

Roy Harper official website

When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease
at discogs.com
When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease
- song lyrics at last.fm {{Roy Harper Roy Harper (singer) songs 1975 singles Cricket on the radio 1975 songs Harvest Records singles Cricket poems Songs about cricketers Songs about death