Rain
"Rain, midnight rain, nothing but the wild rain," wrote Edward Thomas in his poem, er, what was it called now, ah yes, "Rain", a fine work, although my favourite of his is the lovely "Adlestrop", possibly because I have played cricket at the pretty ground in that Gloucestershire village and once took a wicket there with a ball that turned three feet, though fond memories of the place are tarnished slightly by the mental scar left by once advancing to 42, in full flow, unfurling shots all round the wicket, only to be given out by 109-year-old Eric caught behind off my shirt sleeve, anyway Warwickshire cricket watchers can empathise with Thomas's lament about the rain as the Bears today lost their third successive whole day's cricket to it as the Pro40 fixture with Essex was washed out just as the last two days of the championship visit to Worcester were on Thursday and Friday so now it's all off to Leeds on Tuesday when, with promotion hopes gone for good, Warwickshire might experiment a little with selection and will certainly give a debut to Rikki Clarke and let's hope his Bears career has a bit more mileage in it than another chap who made his Warwickshire bow in a one-day game Headingley, one D.L.Vettori, it rained that day and will probably rain on Tuesday and, as it's a night match, I will turn to WM legend Mike Taylor, travelling back down the M1 with the windscreen wipers full on at 11.59 and 59 seconds and say: "Rain, midnight rain, nothing but the wild rain..."
3 Comments
Profile
Brian Halford - Brian Halford’s look at Edgbaston.
Yes, I remember Adlestrop –
The name because one afternoon
Of heat the express-train drew up there
Unwontendly. It was late June.
The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.
No one left and no one came
On the bare platform. What I saw
Was Adlestrop – only the name
And willows, willow-herb, and grass,
And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,
No whit less still and lonely fair
Than the high cloudlets in the sky.
And for that minute a blackbird sang
Close by, and round him, mistier,
Farther and farther, all the birds
Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.
It wasn't raining 20 minutes ago.
Rain has forced another cancellation Sept 9th The Under 17 club final is off. It may be rearranged at Kings Heath, not quite the hallowed turf of Fortress Edgbaston, but the beer is cheaper and the food good.