Mark Pirie’s new cricket book Poets XI published

In October 2026, I released my new cricket book Poets XI. Here’s the book info: 

About the book

Poets XI compiled by Mark Pirie cricket poet and editor and published by Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop is a collection of poems and unusual cricket XIs published to commemorate the Poets XI at the Longroom Basin Reserve, Sunday 31 October 2010.

Cricket historian and writer Don Neely launched the book.

The Earl of Seacliff himself was the MC at the event.

Pirie selected a team of poets on the day that had attended his launch of the book A Tingling Catch at the Basin. Poets are: Nicola Easthope, Tim Jones, Harry Ricketts, Michael O'Leary, John Ansell, Nelson Wattie, Niel Wright, David McGill, Richard Langston, Don Neely and Mark Pirie the captain.

An appendix offers some of the New Zealand literature XIs made by writers over the years. 

Poets XI is a unique piece of cricketing memorabilia.

The cover features a photo by Madeleine Slavick of Don Neely crossing the Basin taken at the event.

Poets XI is available internationally online at lulu independent bookstore Shop the Indie Online Bookstore | Lulu.

Keith St Cartmail’s 1985 NZ cricket poem

Keith St Cartmail (1930-1997) is a poet I don’t know much about. I was recently looking at his books in the Poetry Archive of NZ Aotearoa collection and found a cricket poem of interest.

The biographical note on the back of his book Yoshitoshi in Harlem states: “Robert Keith St Cartmail was born in England, scion of an oppressed working class family. After witnessing further social deprivation in Sicily, where he taught English, he came to the South Seas in search of the Promised Land and here he now lives with his wife and family. His passions include tribal art and learning to see.”

Yoshitoshi in Harlem was his fourth book of poetry in 1985. He also published on religion and philosophy, drama and history. His collected poems The World in Alphabetical Order appeared in 1993 from Brick Row. Craig Potton and the University of Hawaii Press published his Art of Tonga in 1997 the year that he died. “Authoritative and accessible, The Art of Tonga is lavishly illustrated with superb and important examples of Tongan art from throughout its history. It is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the magnificent cultures of Oceania.”

His poem on cricket describes his working class background in England where ‘my father carried coal’ and he notes the privileged class history of cricket in England. I will include the poem in the Tingling Catch archive.

KEITH ST CARTMAIL

Cricket

In England it’s not cricket
To take unfair advantage
To be unsporting
Dear boy

That’s why my father carried coal
To stoke the mill
My mother worked at twelve in
Why people
Dying before their time
Gave up their lives
For Albion Queen and country
The sporting thing to do
Dear boy

For cricket
Is not just bat and ball
It’s privilege and class
And where you were born
That kind of thing
Dear boy

No wonder then
I was pleased
The Aussies got the ashes back
And England lost

Poem © Keith St Cartmail

Ivy Marks Trembath’s NZ cricket poem

Ivy Marks Trembath (1896-1987) was a Tauranga poet. She was born in London as Ivy Marks and came to New Zealand from England in the 1960s with her husband D'Arcy Burral Trembath and became a widower. She remarried late in life. Her death name was Ivy Augusta Wilson.

During World War II she was a Sergeant at the ATS (Authority Territorial Service) Reception Centre in England and her poetry appeared in the Women’s Voluntary Services Bulletin.

A section of her poetry was written about London in her sole New Zealand collection Poems for You self published in 1984 in Tauranga. Her work was broadcast by the BBC and Radio New Zealand. She was a member of the New Zealand Women Writers’ Society and wrote short fiction and radio plays. In 1926 she had her first book of poetry Bells in the Wind published in New York. She was published in various places in England, the US and New Zealand. In New Zealand her poems were published in The Tablet, the Christchurch Star and New Zealand Holiday.

Ivy began writing poetry at age 12 and was the eldest child of the chief librarian of the famous Mudie’s Select Library. Her poetry mentor from her school years was Dr Campbell Morgan, former minister of Westminster Chapel, London, a pastor, preacher and Biblical teacher. Ivy’s poetry was written in traditional rhyme and rhythm and is classic poetry.

I found a cricket poem in her collection that I will add to the Tingling Catch archive.

IVY MARKS TREMBATH

The Fig Tree

The fig tree in St. James Park
Was old when I was small
And played beneath its leafy boughs
With little bat and ball,
And looked above with longing eye
To see the tempting fruit on high.

The fig tree in St. James Park
Still bends its laden bough
Beside the lake and little bridge
As luring then as now;
And as I stand, no longer young,
Beneath the hanging fruit
A childish hand outstretches, swift
To snatch the tempting loot.
And, suddenly, beneath the tree
I see the little ghost of me.

Poem © Ivy Marks Trembath

James Brown’s 2024 NZ cricket poem

James Brown contributed two poems to A Tingling Catch. His poem ‘The Outfield’ was included in the new cricket poetry anthology Catching the Light in England this year.

Brown has published nine collections of his poetry along with a Selected Poems and has been a prominent poet of my generation in New Zealand. His latest book is a book of prose poems released earlier this year.

His 2024 book Slim Volume is based on the idea of the traditional slim volume that poetry has been produced in over the years. While Brown’s book is a bit bigger than the Faber slim volumes I grew up with, I like the note on the back cover: “A slim volume of verse, like a bicycle, offers us fresh and joyful and sometimes troubling ways of seeing the world.” His own poetry is also not done in the traditional manner of English verse. Brown is one of the more innovative of our contemporary poets and his books are always a rewarding read. The book includes novel pauses in the book instead of section breaks in traditional volumes of verse. A critic once said of Brown’s work: “Poetry, but it doesn’t suck.” Brown’s books are well worth seeking out at bookshops and libraries.

One of his poems in Slim Volume is cricket-related and I will include it in the Tingling Catch archive.

JAMES BROWN

Bad Light

It’s very gloomy.
If this were a cricket match,
the light meter would come out,
the umpires would confer, then both teams
would leave the field due to bad light
because it’s unsafe and unfair
if batsmen and fielders are unable to
pick       out        the       red        ball.
It’s an uncertain, contentious time
when people’s rods and cones
dispute colour and intensity
and the boy on the red bicycle disappears
while the driver eager to get home
believes he has nothing before him
but open road.

Poem © James Brown

James Brown’s Slim Volume is available from Te Herenga Waka University Press: Slim Volume – Te Herenga Waka University Press