Norman Gale

Summary

Norman Gale Cricket Songs

What so good when time is sunny, [22]
And the air as sweet as honey,
As the game of crease and wicket,
England's proper pastime—Cricket?
[23]
A TOMBOY
That long-legged darling, Alice James,
Plays cricket with the Johnson boys;
A dozen engines could not make
So shrill a noise.
She's only twelve, and so, unfrocked
Beyond her sometimes shameless knee;
And never maiden longed so much
A boy to be.
She puts on gloves and pads to bat,
And makes young Johnson bowl her slows.
Good heavens! How she pulled that ball!
Source: Gutenberg

Norman Gale Cricket Songs

So far Old Time has said 'Not out!'
But one day he will change to 'Over!'
God bless the grilling days of Cricket!
They're gone, but I shall bless them ever,
For good it is to guard a wicket
By sudden wrist and big endeavour.
Source: Gutenberg

Norman Gale Cricket Songs

For Cricket is played again, again,
At freezing time in Hull or Bath;
When Summer's done the game's not gone—
There's Cricket on the Hearth!
[64]
DARK BLUE
O Statesmen who devise and plot
To keep the White above the Black,
Who tremble when your bolt is shot
Lest love and loyalty grow slack,
There's not a deed of craftsmanship,
There's not a thing Red Tape can do,
Shall knit the Hindoo with the Celt
As much as this—the Cambridge Blue!
No million acres of Despatch,
No tanks of governmental ink,
Can force a native not to watch
For days when England's star may sink.
Source: Gutenberg

Get perspective with Kwize: daily news enlightened by great literature