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A Good Innings

It was fun while it lasted

Now it’s time to leave the crease

Take the plaudits, raise your bat

Let the innings cease

 

No need to hang around for tea

Just take your bag and shuffle off

And please, don’t go near the cakes

With that painful, hacking cough

 

Looks like rain, did you check the covers?

And coil up the boundary rope

Without proper preparation 

I’m afraid there was little hope

 

Reaching fifty can be hard enough

You’re hardly in your prime

Over seventy’s a bonus

After that, well, it’s borrowed time

 

So, don’t be glum, rejoice

There’s no cause to wistfully linger

You really don’t have any choice

When the umpire lifts an index finger

 

Move along, make way

Don’t stare from behind that glass

At other members of the team

Who bow their heads and pass

 

And as you undo your gloves

And wheeze to catch your breath

Pack your pads and imagine it was

Some other person’s death

 

Who edged and lost their wicket 

A straightforward catch at slip

One more collateral victim

Of Bozball - “Let it all rip”

 

🌷(9)

Boris Johnsoncovid-19

◄ Rewilding the golf club

An Old Etonian’s advice to his son ►

Comments

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Stephen Atkinson

Sun 3rd Dec 2023 14:46

Howzat! Superb

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Stephen Gospage

Fri 1st Dec 2023 20:06

Great writing, RA. I suppose that retired (terminally) hurt must come into this somewhere.

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Greg Freeman

Fri 1st Dec 2023 13:21

Bozball! Like it, RA.

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M.C. Newberry

Fri 1st Dec 2023 11:06

In politics, two things are quickly spent....
Empathy and sentiment!!

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R A Porter

Fri 1st Dec 2023 09:38

Thank you all, reading Michael Rosen’s accusatory Johnson poem & seeing a YouTube clip of Stanley Johnson got me thinking… I watched some of Hancock at the enquiry yesterday & worthy as it is, it all feels hollow, with no real jeopardy for that cabal of self-serving, inhumane people. What happened & why should never be forgotten.

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Manish Singh Rajput

Fri 1st Dec 2023 09:04

Superbly written! A nice tribute to Boris Johnson.

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John Coopey

Fri 1st Dec 2023 08:43

“On borrowed time” then, RAP. I should have seen it coming, What with me having trouble with the googlies in recent years.

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Steve White

Fri 1st Dec 2023 08:38

Excellent!

You've captured the callousness of Johnson's off the cuff policy-making hidden behind his use of sport as a metaphor for life perfectly, and right in time for his appearance at the Covid Inquiry.

Well played!

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