Skip to main content

MAY DAYS POEMS-'Hat Tricks' May 22

 



May 22

In all the years I played cricket I never manged to take a hat trick as a bowler. I did once take a hat trick of catches while fielding, but that was as close as I came.


However, on this May day in 1907, the charismatic cricketing all-rounder Albert Trott became the first man to score two hat-tricks in the same innings of a first class man. A particularly rare feat, it must be said.


Trott played test matches for both Australia and England and till now is the only player to hit a ball over the top of the Lords’ dressing room. His test average for Australia is 102.50, even higher than Bradman.


The match in question was also the benefit match for Trott played at Lords’. The teams were Middlesex, for whom Trott was playing against Somerset. The record came in the fourth innings of the match. Middlesex won the toss and decided to bat. They put up 286 in their first innings with Trott contributing just one run. Somerset conceded a 50 runs lead as their first innings concluded with 236. Middlesex scored 213 in their second innings as Trott contributed with valuable 35 runs in the middle order.


With a target of 264 in front of them, Somerset started well as the openers added 56 runs. They lost their second wicket at 74. The match turned soon after as Trott got in a tremendous bowling form. With the score showing 77, he got the wicket of Lewis as leg before. Poyntz, Woods and Robson, all three were bowled in next three deliveries as Trott completed a brilliant four-in-four. Somerset slumped to 77 for six and their chase was derailed. But Trott was not yet done. After Frank Tarrant took the seventh Somerset wicket Trott picked the last three wickets with the score at 97. Again the batsmen Mordaunt, Wickham and Bailey were gone on consecutive deliveries and Trott completed his second hat-trick and finished with 7-20 in the second innings.



=



 









Hat-tricks

Albert Trott
I kid you not
Took two hat-tricks
On the spot.
He sent the Somerset team into a spin
Wickets tumbled
Albert grinned
Seven for twenty
-now that’s plenty
That day Albert Trott
Believe it, or not
Achieved a lot
A rare sporting feat
Let me repeat
How’s that?
 
©Alan j Wright

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poetry Inspired by Images and Objects

There are many ways pictures and photographs can be conscripted to support the writing of poetry. Allow me to share a few ideas with you: Old photographs are a great source of inspiration. Cynthia Rylant explored this idea with great success in her book 'Something Permanent' where she employed the Depression era photographs of Walker Evans to add a new voice to the starkness to the lives of people experienced under extreme circumstances. I have used this strategy to spark many individual poems. In ' I Bet There's No Broccoli On The Moon,' I used a photo I had taken in 2004 while living in New York to inspire a poem. The poem was based on a story related by a friend who grew up in New York.  I regularly combined poetry and pictures in my writer's notebook, drawing on inspiration from the photograph and my personal memories. We can also utilize existing cartoons and illustrations to create ekphrastic poems. I frequently use the illustrations of Jim Pavlidis to co...
20 comments
Read more

Opposite Poems

O pp o s ite P oem s In his book, ' How To Write Poetry,'  Paul Janeczko presents the idea of opposite poems. Paul suggests they could also be referred to as antonym poems. This is wordplay and it's fun to try. Here are some examples Paul provides to help us see very clearly how these short little poems work. I think the opposite of chair Is sitting down with nothing there What is the opposite of kind? A goat that butts you from behind Paul Janeczko You will  notice the poems are written in rhyming couplets. They can be extended so long as you remember to write in couplets. Paul shows us how this is done. What is the opposite of new? Stale gum that's hard to chew A hot-dog roll as hard as rock Or a soiled and smelly forgotten sock You might notice that some of Paul's opposite Poems begin with a question. The remainder of the poem answer the question posed. Opposite poems are a challenge, but it is a challenge worth trying. N...
26 comments
Read more

Powerful Poetry, 'Refugees' by Brian Bilston

  This week, Poetry Friday is hosted by Janice Scully  @ Salt City Verse where Janice shares some original words and offers us a taste of Thomas Carlyle to ponder. I encourage you to join a host of poets from all around the globe and visit Janice's page... Almost two years to the day, I wrote a post featuring the poem 'Refugees' by Brian Bilston. The poem was included in Brian's first book of poetry, 'You Took The Last Bus Home.' A very powerful Reverso poem and technically brilliant.  A Reverso poem can be read from top to bottom or bottom to top. It will often express opposite opinions depending on which way you read it. Such poems really make us think. A Reverso poem is like a picture turned upside down, a frowning face upended to reveal a smiling one. The poem read in reverse, contradicts itself with an opposing message. In 'Refugee' Brian Bilston focuses on a societal issue that tends to polarize feelings and the opposing views are clearly in eviden...
14 comments
Read more