Picked up a fantastic CD the other day. The Duckworth Lewis Method is a cricket concept album (by, strangely enough, a couple of Irishmen including Neil Hannon from The Divine Comedy). Well, how long have we been waiting for one of those?
Anyway, the best song is called Jiggery Pokery, and it's all about Shane Warne's infamous ball to Mike Gatting in the 1993 Ashes, as seen from the perspective of the portly English batsman:
The chorus consists of a terrific bit of Rhyme Jockeyism:
It was jiggery pokery, trickery, jokery. How did he open me up?
Robbery, muggery, Aussie skulduggery, out for a buggering duck!
What a delivery, I might as well have been holding a contra bassoon,
Jiggery pokery, who is this nobody, making me look a buffoon?
Like a blithering old buffoon?
On one of the rare times I went to watch Test cricket, I was sitting behind the slips when that ball was delivered, watching it through my binoculars. Took five minutes before the crowd realised what had happened. Must go and buy that album to see if I'm mentioned.
ReplyDeleteThe Strauss ball in 2005 was better, he did it under pressure with the game hurtling away for the Aussies.
ReplyDeleteSend John Dyson a copy.
I'm not convinced either that Mike Gatting - very good county player though he was - was Warney's most prized scalp.
ReplyDeleteNeil Hannon is the son of an Anglican bishop, so maybe his interest in cricket is not so bizarre :-)