Richard Reeve’s NZ cricket poem Butterflies on Martin Crowe

Richard Reeve, a prominent poet of my generation in New Zealand, sent me a cricket poem for my journal broadsheet back in 2018. I sent it on to The Cricket Society News Bulletin. It’s an interesting poem that draws on the late Martin Crowe’s attributed quote by Ross Taylor, his batting protégé.

It’s a cricket poem in traditional structure and form. Reeves excels in word-magic and neo formalism as a poet, and not many poets in New Zealand compare to him. He has been represented in Best New Zealand Poems a number of times and published seven collections of his poetry. His collections are well worth seeking out at bookshops and public libraries in New Zealand.

RICHARD REEVE

Butterflies

‘If you see a butterfly out there, that’s me’
 ─ attributed to Martin Crowe

So he was, then was not. Martin Crowe dead,
a detail from his brief life resurrected.
This his protégé, novus homo, said,
our latest greatest ever. Undetected,

the talent grew inside him like a cancer;
he cultivated genius for the bat,
not contemplating any other answer
to elevate a sportsman’s requiescat.

Nor are answers in any case required
for life to be lived as it may be lived,
men having achieved what they have desired
incompetent yet eager in their shift.

Certainly, there are butterflies out there,
they flutter in the slips, or after games
superintend the crowds, in post-match air
inspiring fans with afterlives of names;

yet they are not our champion now gone,
not Crowe nor Cronje, Tendulkar, Taylor.
Fleeting ascendance, forewing, abdomen,
they float on dreams then sink in failure.

Poem © Richard Reeve

Reeve’s latest collection of poetry was released in 2024: About Now - Richard Reeve - General Editions Studio.

Also check out Best New Zealand Poems for 2024.

Day three at Lord’s

It seemed smart to refrain from commenting on the New Zealand first innings until the end of the third day. They were looking good at the end of day two but then wobbled, dismissed for 207 giving England a lead of 25 runs going into the second innings.

The New Zealand bowlers have done well to keep to England to just over a 200-run lead with four wickets remaining. Can the New Zealand batsmen chase down the runs?

Looking at the first innings effort, Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor were the standouts for New Zealand. They did all the hard work to draw the second test v England at the Basin in March too. Taylor was the aggressor in his 100th first class match and Williamson the grafter, prepared to wait for the bad ball and maintain his patience and concentration.

A look at these two since the Zimbabwe Test win in 2011 up to the conclusion of the recent England series at home reveals the following stats:

Ross Taylor 

v ZIM 76 & 76

v AUS 19 & 0

v AUS 6 & 56

v ZIM 122* (retired hurt)

v SA 44 & 48*

v SA 44 & 17

v SA 18* (retired hurt)

v WI 45 & 21

v WI 60 & 0

v IND 2 & 7

v IND 113 & 35

v SL 9 & 18

v SL 142 & 74

v ENG 31

v ENG 0 & 41*

v ENG 19 & 3

Total: 1146 runs at an average of 45.84. Three first innings hundreds (as captain).

Kane Williamson

v ZIM 49 & 68

v AUS 14 & 0

v AUS 19 & 34

v ZIM 4

v SA 11

v SA 0 & 77

v SA 39 & 102*

v WI 0 & 19

v WI 22 & 8

v IND 32 & 52

v IND 17 & 13

v SL 0 & 10

v SL 135 & 18

v ENG 24

v ENG 42 & 55*

v ENG 91 & 1

Total: 956 runs at an average of 35.40. One second innings hundred v South Africa.

I have not included the South Africa Test series in 2012/13 where they weren’t playing together on those occasions.

In the four matches New Zealand won (highlighted in bold) Taylor scored 552 runs at an average of 92.00 (two centuries), whereas Williamson scored 327 runs at an average of 46.71 (one century).

Stats are fun to look at and imagine that if these two are on song New Zealand will have a good chance of winning this Test in the second innings, you could say. (New Zealand have not won in England since the famous victory in 1999.)

The stats do show that Taylor has not made a century in the second innings of a recent Test, whereas Williamson did against South Africa with the pressure on. So, is Williamson’s grafting approach the key to a solid second innings at Lord’s?

Williamson averages 41.54 in the second innings of recent Tests played with Taylor and Taylor averages 36.00. Hundreds may not even be an issue if the 50s are the top scores in the Test to date.

Cricket followers know that the best bats don’t often perform when expected to, and the winning runs may come from any of the top seven on their day, including B J Watling the wicket-keeper or a lively cameo from Tim Southee in a potentially low-scoring contest. Yet I like to think that the signs are there for an important innings from Taylor or Williamson in the conclusion to this match.

Article © Mark Pirie 2013