The Duckworth Lewis Method are a

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

-themed Irish pop group formed by Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy and Thomas Walsh of Pugwash. The Duckworth Lewis Method is also the title of the group's first album, which was released on 3 July 2009, a few days before the start of the 2009 Ashes series. A

concept album A concept album is an album whose tracks hold a larger purpose or meaning collectively than they do individually. This is typically achieved through a single central narrative or theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, or lyrical. Som ...

about

, the album has 12 tracks, one of which is an instrumental. The album was mixed and recorded in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

and was mastered at

Abbey Road Studios Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a music recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, London, Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of ...

. Hannon and Walsh have described their album as "a kaleidoscopic musical adventure through the beautiful and rather silly world of cricket." The track "Jiggery Pokery" is a comic retelling of the Ball of the Century incident involving Shane Warne and Mike Gatting, and features guest cameo performances from

Phill Jupitus Phillip Christopher Jupitus (, ''Given name#Name at birth, né'' Swan; born 25 June 1962) is a retired English stand-up comedy, stand-up and Improv comedy teacher, improv comedian, actor, performance poetry, performance poet, cartoonist and podc ...

, Alexander Armstrong, Matt Berry and more. Berry also features on the track "Mason on the Boundary". On 9 September 2009 the band were put on hiatus. They wrote and recorded the theme song for the

ESPNcricinfo ESPNcricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a ...

video blog The Two Chucks. In April 2010 ''The Duckworth Lewis Method'' album was nominated for an

Ivor Novello Award The Ivor Novello Awards, named after the Welsh entertainer Ivor Novello, are awards for songwriting and Musical composition, composing. They have been presented annually in London by the The Ivors Academy, Ivors Academy, formerly called the Britis ...

. In an interview with the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, Neil Hannon confirmed that he and Thomas Walsh would be working together again in the future. In late October 2012 Hannon and Walsh confirmed they were working on a second Duckworth Lewis album. Recording sessions began in early 2013 with the intention of releasing the new recording in time for the Ashes series in the summer. In May 2013 the release date for '' Sticky Wickets'' was announced. The album came out on 28 June in Ireland and 1 July elsewhere. The release was celebrated with a short concert in Tower Records, Dublin, on 3 July. The album features cameo performances from

Stephen Fry Sir Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director, narrator and writer. He came to prominence as a member of the comic act Fry and Laurie alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring in ''A Bit of ...

, Daniel Radcliffe, Henry Blofeld, Matt Berry, and

Neil Finn Neil Mullane Finn (born 27 May 1958) is a New Zealand singer-songwriter and musician. He is best known for being a principal member of Split Enz and for being the lead singer of Crowded House. He was also a member of Fleetwood Mac from 2018 ...

Promotion

On 21 May 2009, ''Today'' on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

ran a short feature on the album, asking "Why aren't there more songs about cricket?" in which entertainment reporter (and 2006 ''

Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was foun ...

'' Fantasy Cricket champion) Colin Paterson interviewed Hannon and Walsh about the album. On 16 July 2009 the band appeared on the

's Test Match Special during the lunch break on the first day of the second Ashes Test match against the Australian team at

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...

. They sang a new song named "Test Match Special". "The Age of Revolution" was released as a download-only single on 28 June 2009. It was announced that a limited one-track physical promotional copy of the single would be available to press. The song reflects the spread of cricket to Britain's colonies, particularly India. Hannon and Walsh were interviewed for The Chap (Aug/9 Sep Issue) about the album and cricket. Amongst the points covered were a peerage for umpire Dickie Bird, the renaming of The Oval as The Ovaltine and the reduction of cricket beyond Twenty20 to just a coin toss.

Discography

Eponymous album

All songs written and composed by Neil Hannon and Thomas Walsh.

Track listing

''Sticky Wickets''

Track listing

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Duckworth Lewis Method, The Irish pop music groups Cricket culture Musical groups established in 2009 Cricket in Ireland 2000s in Irish music 2010s in Irish music 2020s in Irish music

Promotion

Discography

Eponymous album

Track listing

''Sticky Wickets''

Track listing

See also

References

External links