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Eighteen eighty-two, remark it,
year momentous, when the Ashes
were created – year when Spofforth,
‘demon’ bowler, skilled at off-breaks,
even two feet long his off-breaks,
aided by his stalwart colleagues,
Griffen, Boyle, G.F. Palmer –
noted for his yorker, Palmer –
took the honours at the Oval,
for the first time won a Test Match,
for Australia won a Test Match.

Of the side was Murdoch captain,
under whom the mighty Spofforth
captured seven English wickets,
such the feat that year accomplished,
deed, I dare say, told by Wisden.

In Penrith, though born in England,
in the harvest month of August,
in that year of wicket-taking,
lives a man (this put on record)
with a hundred years behind him,
yes, a ‘century not out’ reached
in the land of his adoption,
New South Wales his chosen homeland.
Nineteen eighty-two salutes him.

T. C. Hudson 1982.

© T. C. Hudson.

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