Snapshots #390: A Full Innings of Cricketing Songs

Howzat! Hope I didn't catch you out yesterday. As the new cricketing season gets underway, here are a bunch of songs about the gentleman's game...

15. Named after Big Daddy and one of the Majors.

Big Daddy's real name was Shirley Crabtree. Lee was one of the Majors. Shirley Lee was formerly the lead singer of Spearmint, but here he is with an excellent solo tune all about one of John Peel's favourite songs... which we'll come back to at the top of this countdown...

Shirley Lee - An Old Cricketer (For John Peel)

14. TV serial killer, gone in a Flash.

The TV serial killer is Dexter. Mix him up with Flash Gordon and you get...

Dexter Gordon - Sticky Wicket

13. Model airplane engine.

Model airplane engines used to generally be 10cc...

10cc - Dreadlock Holiday

(They don't like cricket... they love it!)

12. A bit tighter than Number Eight.

Tighter than an Embrace...

Squeeze - It's Not Cricket

11. Don't go around...

...go between!

The Go-Betweens - I Just Got Caught Out

10. Symbol found inside the Safari Park.

Prince became a symbol.  Safari Park.

Prince Far I - Cricket, Lovely Cricket

9. Time can't erase the memory of these magic guys.

Time can't erase the memory of these magic moments...

Moments - Dolly, My Love 

Cricket fans will know that a Dolly is an easy catch.

8. We welcome them with open arms...

Embrace - Ashes

7. Place a wager on half a stolen horse.

Sher(gar)? You bet!

Sherbet - Howzat

6. Everything lines up for them.

They're just so in synch...

*NSYNC - Bye Bye Bye

"In cricket, a bye occurs when the ball passes the batsman's wicket without touching their bat or person, and the batsmen score runs from that delivery." 

5. Querying the identity of Number One.

I suggest you approach today's Number One act and ask him, "U Roy?"

U-Roy - Hat Trick

4. The King's favourites.

Apparently, Sheila Ferguson reckons that King (formerly Prince) Charles ruined her love life. Men didn't ask her out because they knew she was the Prince's favourite.

The Three Degrees - The Runner

3. Biden... you're fired! (Twice!)

Joe... Joe... get your gun.

Jo Jo Gunne - Run Run Run

2. Gastropub lurkers have it in them.

Gastropub lurkers

Blur - End Of A Century

1. HR are ropy in this disorganized organisation. 

"HR are ropy" is an anagram...

Roy Harper - When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease

Watch out for the twelfth man at silly mid-on...

Don't worry - this old cricketer isn't leaving the crease just yet. I'll be bowling more Snapshots your way next Saturday...

My Top Ten Cricket Songs

Summer is coming and with it, the sound of leather on willow will echo again through country villages. I'm not really a cricket fan, but I'd rather sit and watch it on a hot day than be anywhere near a football stadium, that's for sure. Here's ten songs about cricket... with no songs about crickets and nothing by Buddy Holly's old band, I'm afraid.


10. The Duckworth Lewis Method - Jiggery Pokery

Neil Hannon of the Divine Comedy and Tom Walsh from Pugwash (pictured above) recorded two complete cricket-themed albums (or "kaleidoscopic musical adventures through the beautiful and rather silly world of cricket"). Their band was named after a mathematical formula used to calculate cricket scores.

This particular song is about the infamous "ball of the Century" played by Aussie cricketer Shan Warne against English batsman Mike Gatting in 1993.

I took the crease to great applause and focussed on me dinner.

I knew that I had little cause to fear their young leg spinner.

He loosened up his shoulder and, with no run-up at all,

He rolled his right arm over, and he let go of the ball.

9. Squeeze - It's Not Cricket

OK, maybe this one's not about cricket, just the expression. Still, it's always good for a chuckle.

She used to do a topless down at the Surrey Docks 

With tassels on her whatsits she did a t'riffic job 

Of raising all the eyebrows of every lunchtime mob 

She went with all the tossers who kick about a ball 

They say their club's the greatest, and she has kissed them all 

At the Arndale Center, she's up against the wall 

I can't name names cause that's not cricket 

See also Electric Trains.

8. Sherbet - Howzat

The famous cricketing expression turned into a love song by Australian band Sherbet... became an anthem at cricket grounds around the world.

Howzat?

You messed about

I caught you out

Howzat?

7. The Go-Betweens - I Just Get Caught Out

Here's another song about getting caught out, from another (albeit far superior) Aussie band.

6. Half Man Half Biscuit - Fuckin 'Ell, It's Fred Titmus

A song about bumping into a cricketing legend in your local shop while looking for ten pence off Lenor...

Oh, Dracula comes from Transylvania

Stevie nicks books about kleptomania

Johnny looked out of his bedroom window

And shouted to his mum: “Fred Titmus!”

5. The Kinks - Cricket 

The Kinks, of course, being a quintessentially English band, mentioned cricket rather a lot in their songs. See also Do You Remember Walter? and, of course, The Village Green Preservation Society.

4. Pet Shop Boys - Can You Forgive Her?

Speaking of quintessentially English bands...

Remember when you were more easily led

Behind the cricket pavilion and the bicycle shed

Trembling as your dreams came true

You looked right into those blue eyes and knew...

3. 10CC - Dreadlock Holiday

I don't like cricket...

I love it!

I've explained the origins of this song (and its rather odd video) before, in My Top Ten Hairstyle Songs. It's amusing that the video wasn't filmed in either Jamaica or Barbados... but Charmouth, Dorset.

2. Shirley Lee - When An Old Cricketer

A song about our Number One song today, which also happened to be one of John Peel's favourites. Here Shirley takes the theme of Roy Harper's classic and adapts it into a heartfelt tribute to the legendary DJ.

1. Roy Harper - When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease

Quietly heartbreaking. A song about nostalgia and how it was never quite as good as we remember it. More apt than ever given current events.

When the moment comes and the gathering stands and the clock turns back to reflect

On the years of grace as those footsteps trace for the last time out of the act

Well, this way of life's recollection, the hallowed strip in the haze

The fabled men and the noonday sun are much more than just yarns of their days.

Any cricketers in your collection?