Dame Fortune, that Sphinx of the riddle-cum-diddle sex,
Crowns not with success the crack Batsmen of Middlesex.
Spite of Shrewsbury, Gunn, and such cricketing pots,
Her Song for this season is "No, not for Notts!"
And, although "runner-up" (if like greyhounds one rank a shire)
She's just missed first place, has stout Hornby-led Lancashire.
Thanks—in chief—to young Lohmann, whom fate cannot flurry,
The Championship once more comes South. Bravo, Surrey!
