Guitar Transcriptions

When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease (Roy Harper)

Transcription by Gordon Walker.

When the day is done, and the ball has spun
          C                   Fmaj7
In the umpire's pocket away,
       C                Dm
And all remains, in the groundsman's pains,
    C                    Fmaj7
For the rest of time and a day.
    C                       G
There'll be one mad dog and his master, pushing for 4 with the spin.
             C                   Em      C                      Dm
On a dusty pitch, with two pounds six, of willowwood in the sun.
      C                Fmaj7              C                 G

When an old cricketer leaves the crease, you never know whether he's gone,
        C             Fmaj7                  C                      Dm
If maybe you're catching a fleeting glimpse, of a twelfth man at silly mid-on.
    C                       Fmaj7                 C                        G
And it could be Geoff, and it could be John,
        C                     Fmaj7
With a new ball sting in his tail.
       C                     Dm
And it could be me, and it could be thee,
       C                   Fmaj7
And it could be the sting in the ale.........sting in the ale.
       C                         G           Fmaj7

Solo on verse

Verse 2 (chords as above - sorry don't have the words to hand)

Chorus (as above)

Chord notes for beginners

All chords played as normally given in any book in standard tuning in 1st position (i.e. at the bottom of the neck - which is physically the top if you're holding the neck upwards!). Note that Roy plays G with 4 fingers - fingering D on the B string, which makes the chord sound nicer (you don't get the jump from B up to G for the top two strings - if any notes are to be missed out of a chord, better to miss the 3rd (B) than the 5th (D) in general), i.e.:

        ............playing D instead of open B
        :
       \/
===========
|_|_|_|_|_|
|_1_|_|_|_|
2_|_|_|_3_4
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And for complete beginners the rest of the chords:

   Fmaj7            C             Dm             Em
x==========    ===========    ===========    ===========
|_|_|_|_1_|    |_|_|_|_1_|    |_|_|_|_|_1    |_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_2_|_|    |_|_2_|_|_|    |_|_|_2_|_|    |_1_2_|_|_|
|_|_3_|_|_|    |_3_|_|_|_|    |_|_|_|_3_|    |_|_|_|_|_|
|_|_|_|_|_|    |_|_|_|_|_|    |_|_|_|_|_|    |_|_|_|_|_|