You can read Harry's story here: John Henry Boswell
ORIGINAL POETRY.
THE CRICKETERS.
All hail to the grandest pastime,
All hail to the cricket field,
No sterner fight was ever fought
Upon the battle field
Than that between the leather
And the bit we love to wield.
We fight the fight of keenness
Which comes to those who are free,
With a bounding heart we drown our cares
In the waters of ecstasy
As we take the field of battle
Against our friend the enemy.
Through our veins the blood goes coursing
As we wait with bat ln hand,
With a bold tumultuous feeling
We prepare to take our stand,
With a drive, or a pall, or a hit to leg,
Or a glance that is simply grand.
Our score mounts gally upward,
For our spirit it never fails,
As we cut the ball to the boundary
Or lilt It over the rails,
With a snick to the slips, to the off, or on,
Over the turf the leather sails.
When the opponents are a-batting
The bowler takes his place,
And a look of steely keenness
Illuminates his grim set face,
As he presses the attack with swifts and slows
And skillfully mixes his pace.
With a slow leg break or swerve from the on
He fairly beats the bat
And scatters the stumps with a dazzling swift
And mechanically calls "How's that"?
When out in the field we pounce on the ball
With the spring of the agile cat.
Our politicians talk and fume,
But we of the wlcket band
Have done more to advertise Australia
And to glorify our land.
The deeds of our cricket heroes .
Are engraved upon fame's sand.
Our blood will bound in tumult
With a wild consuming flame,
To emulate the roaring nineties
And the deeds of cricket fame
That the champions round our district;
Wove around old Beechworth's name.
J Harry Boswell
Stanley.
[The writer of the above was awarded
2nd prize In South Street competitions
Ballarat, for 'original poem, "Australia
— the grandest of the grand." ]
Source: ORIGINAL POETRY. (1911, November 18). Ovens and Murray Advertiser (Beechworth, Vic. : 1855 - 1955), p. 3. Retrieved October 9, 2023, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article209503206
