Song · Roy Harper
“When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease” by Roy Harper
From the album HQ (1975)
“When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease” by Roy Harper appears on 1 radio countdown from 1 station in 1976. It was first released in 1975 on the album HQ. Its best result is #47 on the John Peel's All-Time Festive Fifty (1976). In the combined RockLists rankings it is #7,218 alternative song of all time.
Roy Harper saved "When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease" for the very end of HQ, his 1975 album for Harvest, and it may well be the song he's best remembered for. Harper wrote it and Peter Jenner produced it, and it's about as English as a rock record gets: the feel of a village cricket match conjured in sound, and a lament for the game the way it was played when Harper was growing up.
His 12-string acoustic guitar carries the tune, and the Grimethorpe Colliery Band brings in the brass, the traditional sound of the North that Harper tied to his boyhood memories of the footballers and cricketers he looked up to. Under the nostalgia, the old batsman walking off the field stands in for death itself. It came out as a single twice, in 1975 and again in 1978.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | 47 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's All-Time Festive Fifty (1976) | 50 |
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