Dominion Post – Jack Perkins’s The Basin

The Basin Test petered out to a predictable draw on Wednesday evening with Pakistan not willing to push for victory. Fair enough, they had secured the series 1-0. NZ bowled two needless extra overs to make matters worse for frustrated spectators. A cricket law made play run till 6.15pm as the last hour started at 5.15pm, so two overs were bowled to make play finish at 6.15pm.

Jack Perkins’s poem from A Tingling Catch appeared in The Dominion Post’s “Thursday Poem” page today. The poem is a fine poetic portrait of the Basin Reserve. The poem like this week’s game ends in a draw.

JACK PERKINS

The Basin

Alchemy of sun, rain, grass and soil

the ground staff’s patient weeks of toil

will test two countries on a wicket

pampered by water and roller

prepared to be neither paradise

nor purgatory for batsman or bowler.

First morning of the Test Match sees

a flash of shiny red impact on green

and the ball like a rapier flick off the seam

to feather the edge and the catch is held

and so is the crowd by this eye-blink drama.

But – oh the surprise – the umpire’s finger

fails to rise.

Afternoon brings an easier pitch, the pace

more leisurely, measured by a century.

Looped between lunch and tea

the slow bowler’s web is finely spun

two batsmen ensnared for not many runs.

In the Long Room members watch players

enter and exit but recall a different cast

from earlier plays: Crowe’s majestic cut and hook

Sutcliffe’s grace or Hadlee’s record-breaking feat

all mixed with tonic or savoured neat.

The eastern bank’s bared-torso fans

toast boundaries and bouncers with cans

of beer and cheer women bravely parading

or salute a fieldsman’s diving save

arms upraised in Mexican wave.

A nor’wester gatecrashes the third day’s play

and dresses players in long-sleeved sweaters.

Into the bail-scattering gale

buffeted bowlers lean their shoulders.

Wind, gusting swirling twists their stride

balls misguided down leg side.

On the fifth, final day, the Test

proves no match for Wellington’s weather.

Curtains of rain, the stumps and the game

all drawn together.

January 2002

Poem © Jack Perkins 2009

(The poem was first published in Jack Perkins’s collection of blogs, Not Out! No Ball! Over!, Cricket Mystery, Wellington, 2009)