The Patrons of Cricket

Then fill up your glass! He's the best who drinks most;

Here's the Hambledon Club! Who refuses the toast?

Let us join in the praise of the bat and the wicket,

And sing in the full chorus the Patrons of Cricket.

This became known as the Hambledon Club Song, sung after dinner after it was written in 1773 by the Reverend Reynell Cotton, the first President of the Hambledon Club. The song was printed and framed in the Club Room in 1790.

Reverend Cotton went on to write the following, immortal words;

And when the game's o'er and our fate shall draw nigh,

For the heroes of cricket, like others must die

Our bats we'll resign, neither troubled nor vexed,

And give up our wickets to those that come next.