When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease

Roy Harper wrote and recorded this elegiac song for his ninth album HQ, released on the Harvest label in 1975, as a single in that year and again in 1978. It was arranged by David Bedford and featured Harper's acoustic guitar backed by the Grimethorpe Colliery Band. It was included on the 2005 double album compilation Counter Culture (Science Fiction HUCD039).
Harper uses the game of cricket as an overwhelming metaphor for death, emphasising this by making it the last track on the album. He implies that, though a loved one may be dead, the memory never fades, and they can often be imagined to be alive, or still in the game, as he has it ("If sometimes you're catching a fleeting glimpse/Of a twelfth man at silly mid on.") Death has no favourites ("it could be Geoff and it could be John" - the song is dedicated 'to John Snow and Geoff Boycott and to England, my dear home'), but acknowledges that this is maybe just slightly drunken musings ("it could be the sting in the ale"), finally realising that it comes to everyone ('it could be me and it could be thee'). Harper states on his website that the inclusion of the brass band was a tribute to the heroic stature in his childhood memories of footballers and cricketers. He recorded no less than ten Peel sessions between 1967 and 1978, and his 1975 session (first broadcast 23 June 1975 on Top Gear) was no doubt intended to promote HQ, as he included versions of 'Referendum', 'Hallucinating Light' and 'The Spirit Lives', all of which are on the LP, but 'Cricketer' was not recorded.
The song's intended childhood homage gained an added sombre overtone following a chance remark during the 1984 Festive Fifty, when JP remarked that John Walters intended to play the song during an oration at Peel's funeral service, jocularly remarking, "He's got it all worked out." See 19 December 1984 for the exact context. Ironically, it was Walters who died first, and Peel's first show following his death (31 July 2001) featured the song at the very end. JP, although understandably low-key throughout, deals with Walters' death and the listener tributes (including some who thought John should have taken some time off) extremely well. However, just before the track is played, his voice finally cracks with emotion as he says, extending the cricket metaphor:
"I always expected that John Walters, despite his illness, would outlive me because he was absolutely determined to be at my funeral in order to deliver the eulogy which would have been enormously long but very, very funny and I suspect would have reflected a great deal of credit on him and not nearly so much on me. But one of the things he was determined to do was to play at some stage of the ceremony Roy Harper's record 'When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease'. I'm sorry you didn't have the much longer innings you deserved, old pal."
After Peel's death, Andy Kershaw's tribute programme to him also ended with this song.
== Festive Fifty Entries ==
*1976 Festive Fifty, #47.
==Song Plays==
*19 December 1975 as part of John's top 15 singles of the year
*27 December 1976 1976 Festive Fifty, #47
*31 July 2001 for John Walters, as explained above
*11 November 2004 hosted by Rob Da Bank: the day before Peel's funeral
== External links ==
*Wikipedia
*Guardian reprint of 1975 article on Harper and the song
*Yes No Wait: Best Cricket Song Ever?
*Extracts from first Peel show after John Walters death
;Footnotes
Category:Festive Fifty
Category:Songs
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