Billy Cooper | |
|---|---|
 Billy Cooper in 2012 | |
| Nationality | English |
| Education | Bachelor of Music (Hons) |
| Alma mater | Guildhall School of Music and Drama |
| Occupation | Musician |
| Known for | Trumpet player for Barmy Army |
Billy Cooper, also known as Billy The Trumpet, [1] is a cricket supporter best known as the trumpet player for the Barmy Army.
Cooper was educated at Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He has a Bachelor of Music honours degree and a performer's diploma from the Royal Academy of Music, [2] and plays as a guest trumpeter with several orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra and new music specialists Klangforum Wien, as well as in West End musicals. [3]
Cooper became involved with the Barmy Army in 2004 after following England on a tour of the West Indies and accidentally leaving his trumpet in a taxi in Barbados. It was later discovered by someone in the Barmy Army who was also at the same game Cooper was going to. When Cooper asked for it to be returned, the person asked for him to prove it was his by playing it. [4] Cooper then played The Great Escape theme tune, [5] which led to some of the Barmy Army offering to pay his air fare if he would join them on England's tour of South Africa. [1]
At matches Cooper usually plays theme tunes from popular television programmes such as the theme tunes from Blackadder , [2] Only Fools and Horses , [6] and Coronation Street . [7] Cooper also plays songs such as "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and "YMCA". [5]
During the 2010–11 Ashes series, Cooper played Jerusalem from the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge early in the morning of the last Test game of the series. [8] During the last delivery of the Ashes series, Cooper played The Last Post. [9]
Cooper also plays tunes appropriate to a particular passage of play. For example, during England's 2013 tour of New Zealand, he would play a passage of Wagner whenever the New Zealand fast bowler Neil Wagner began a spell of bowling.
In January 2020, he announced his retirement from touring matches after the South Africa tour. [10]
Cooper's actions have sometimes led him into trouble. In 2006, Cooper was thrown out of the Gabba and arrested for playing the Neighbours theme tune on his trumpet during the 2006–07 Ashes series due to playing a "banned musical instrument". [11] However, in 2010, Cricket Australia gave Cooper special dispensation to be the only person allowed into the Gabba with a musical instrument. [12]
In 2009, he was banned from attending a Test match at Headingley along with Barmy Army leader Vic Flowers for potentially being a distraction to people watching matches according to the operators of Headingley. [1] He was not permitted to enter Trent Bridge during the 2013 or 2015 Ashes series due to a stadium ban on musical instruments. [13] [14]
The Ashes is a men's Test cricket series played biennially between England and Australia. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, The Sporting Times, immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, its first Test win on English soil. The obituary stated that English cricket had died, and that "the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia". The mythical ashes immediately became associated with the 1882–83 series played in Australia, before which the English captain Ivo Bligh had vowed to "regain those ashes". The English media therefore dubbed the tour the quest to regain the Ashes.
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The Barmy Army is a group of British cricket fans known for supporting the English cricket team in both domestic and international matches.
Graham Alan Gooch, is a former English first-class cricketer who captained Essex and England. He was one of the most successful international batsmen of his generation, and through a career spanning 1973 until 1997, he was the most prolific run scorer of all time, with 67,057 runs across first-a class and limited-overs games. His List A cricket tally of 22,211 runs is also a record. In 1992, he became the first cricketer to lose 3 finals of the Cricket World Cup and is currently the only such player. He is one of only 25 players to have scored over 100 first-class centuries. He was a part of the English squads which finished as runners-up at the 1979 Cricket World Cup, as runners-up at the 1987 Cricket World Cup and as runners-up at the 1992 Cricket World Cup.
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The England men's cricket team represents England and Wales in international cricket. Since 1997, it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club since 1903. England, as a founding nation, is a Full Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) with Test, One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 International (T20I) status. Until the 1990s, Scottish and Irish players also played for England as those countries were not yet ICC members in their own right.
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Mitchell Guy Johnson is a former Australian cricketer, who played all forms of the game for his national side. He is a left-arm fast bowler and left-handed batsman. He represented Australia in international cricket from 2005 to 2015. Johnson is considered to be one of the greatest fast bowlers of his era and is referred as the most lethal bowler of all time. With his time representing Australia, Johnson won multiple ICC titles with the team: the 2007 Cricket World Cup, the 2015 Cricket World Cup, the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy, and the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy.
The England cricket team toured Australia during the 1990–91 cricket season to compete in a five-match Test series against Australia for the Ashes. While in Australia, England also played a number of tour matches against state and representative teams, and competed in the one-day international (ODI) World Series Cup against Australia and New Zealand. At the conclusion of the tour, England flew to New Zealand to participate in a three-game ODI series.
The history of the England cricket team can be said to date back to at least 1739, when sides styled "Kent" and "All England" played a match at Bromley Common. Over 300 matches involving "England" or "All England" prior to 1877 are known. However these teams were usually put together on an ad hoc basis and were rarely fully representative.
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Derek Turner, also known by the nickname of "Rocky", was an English World Cup winning professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, and coached in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. He played at representative level for Great Britain, England, Yorkshire and Great Britain & France, and at club level for Hull Kingston Rovers, Oldham and Wakefield Trinity (captain), with whom he won three Challenge Cup Finals, as a second-row, or more usually loose forward, and coached at club level for Castleford, Leeds and Wakefield Trinity.
The Neighbours theme song is the theme tune to the Australian soap opera Neighbours. Composed by Tony Hatch with the lyrics written by his then wife, Jackie Trent, it was once voted the world's most recognised television theme song. Neighbours was originally recorded by Barry Crocker, who also recorded the updated version. Subsequent versions have been recorded by a variety of artists.
Victor "Vic" Flowers is a cricket supporter from Oldham, England and is often referred to as the unofficial leader of the Barmy Army. He was also known as Jimmy due to bearing a resemblance to Jimmy Savile.
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