More Wodehouse

In the rather rare editions of P.G. Wodehouse’s poetry one finds his fascination with the game becoming more manifest.

In a small poem titled MCC, he writes:

In speaking of our cricketers,

                This maxim guideth me,

If they win a match the’re England,

                If they lose they’re MCC.

There are some delightful humorous poems about cricket – The Outcast – A Tale of a Ladies’ Cricket Match, Missed, The Umpire...

However, it is in one quaint little poem entitled The Cricketer in Winter that his affection and romanticism for the game is most apparent.

Things of the past are drive and cut,

With which erstwhile we would astound men;

The gay pavilion’s doors are shut;

The turf is given up to groundsmen;

Gone is the beautiful length ball,

Young Wodehouse as a cricketer

Gone too the batsman who would snick it

Silent his partner’s cheery call.

Football usurps the place of cricket.        

...

Or, if in vein for gentle toil,

Before he seeks a well earned pillow,

He takes a flask of linseed oil

And tends his much-enduring willow,

Feeling the while, what time he drops

The luscious fluid by degrees on,

Given half-volleys and long-hops,

How nobly it will drive next season.

There are editions of PGW's poetry?  I've never seen any.