This piece is taken from Issue 3 of Wisden’s The Nightwatchman

I. Wilfred Rhodes (1877-1973)

Tha can’t put in what God left out.
Heaven sent, then, those few short strides,
an unwavering rhythm, and the loose, lovely arc
of the arm. A trajectory looping from Golden Age

to Bradman. And being White Rose born and bred,
never was a legacy better spent. Every ball an interrogation,
every over a conspiracy of art and science.
But land a ball on a sixpence?

Nay, lad, I can hit a newspaper, spread reight out
at that, and if the batsman thinks as I’m spinning it,
then I am.

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