Poetry NZ review of A Tingling Catch

A brief review of A Tingling Catch appeared in Poetry NZ, ‘New Zealand’s foremost poetry magazine’, No. 42, March 2011, p. 106:

ALISTAIR PATERSON

Review of ‘A Tinging Catch’: A Century of New Zealand Cricket Poems 1864-2009 (edited by Mark Pirie with a foreword by Don Neely; HeadworX, 190pp, $34.99)

‘A Tinging Catch’: A Century of New Zealand Cricket Poems 1864-2009 is an unusual anthology in the present climate on account of its being based on a specific sports theme – cricket – and poetry about it. As such, it’s an impressive achievement, remarkably inclusive, spanning virtually the full period in which cricket has been played and including 125 poems by 75 poets. In cricket terms, it’s not only a tingling catch, but a remarkable and cleanly taken one as well. As Pirie implies, cricket has been here virtually as long as the Pakeha and has almost always been a sinuously seductive part of the New Zealand psyche. William Pember Reeves poeticised it, Thomas Bracken took time off from the national anthem and other work for it as, in this collection, Mark Pirie himself has. This is a book that will delight cricketers and poetry enthusiasts alike.

Review © Alistair Paterson 2011

This issue of Poetry NZ features the Trans-Tasman poet Mark Young and comment by Alistair Paterson on 'Poetry as a survival mechanism'. For more information on Poetry NZ, see their website: www.poetrynz.net/