Mexborough & Swinton Times – Saturday 2 July 1904
Lyrics of the Sunlit Field.
Pride Goes Before a Fall.
The way of cricket’s friendly sportive strife
Is oft with perils and with pitfalls rife,
And here, as in all other walks of life,
Pride goes before a fall.
The cricket team, whom none it seemed could beat,
Will take the field with confidence complete,
Unknowing that awaiting is defeat,—
Pride goes before a fall.
‘Twas so with Denaby on Saturday,
When they at Wath, in style, arrived to play,
Their bearing such that I’m constrained to say,
Pride goes before a fall.
They, with a haughty mien, surveyed their foes,
Smiled a superior smile, turned up the nose,—
Fate keeps its secrets, and poor man ne’er knows—
Pride goes before a fall.
After the game, how pained and how surprised
The look which their discomfort advertised;
‘Twas plain that then at least they realised,
Pride goes before a fall.
Sad is the tale another will relate
Proving afresh the mystery of Fate,
How in its hands but humble are the great,—
Pride goes before a fall.
I might, if ever I indulged in chaff,
For Denaby compose an epitaph.
Even as it is, I cannot help but laugh,—
Pride goes before a fall.
If it be true that ignorance is bliss,
That in not knowing we much worry miss,
Then surely ignorance is bliss in this,—
Pride goes before a fall.
G. R. Tennyson-Sims.