How M'Dougal Topped the Score

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"How M'Dougal Topped The Score"
by Thos. E. Spencer
Written1898
First published in The Bulletin
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
Full text
Wikisource-logo.svg How M'Dougal Topped the Score at Wikisource

"How M'Dougal Topped The Score" (1898) is a poem by Australian poet Thos. E. Spencer. [1]

Contents

The poem was originally published in The Bulletin on 12 March 1898, and subsequently reprinted in the author's major collection of poetry, How M'Dougal Topped The Score and Other Verses and Sketches (1906), as well as other poetry anthologies. [1]

Synopsis

The poem tells the story of an historic cricket match between the small towns of Piper's Flat and Molongo. Piper's Flat is challenged by Molongo to a single-innings cricket match, with the loser to pay for a slap-up lunch at McGinnis's pub. However, on the day, Piper's Flat can only field 10 players, so they reluctantly recruit McDougall, the old Scotsman from Cooper's Creek to make up the numbers. He and his dog Pincher contrive to score the required runs for victory, after Piper's Flat were in a perilous position.

Critical reception

The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature states: "Spencer's poem celebrates the bushman's talents for devising ingenious but essentally harmless methods of besting a rival; it takes its place alongside A. B. Paterson's accounts of the stratagems of drovers to outwit squatters and of racehorse owners and jockeys to outwit bookmakers." [2]

Publication history

After the poem's initial publication in The Bulletin [1] it was reprinted as follows:

Film adaptation

The poem was adapted for the screen in 1924 written and directed by V. Upton Brown and starring Leslie Gordon, Ida Gresham and Dorothy May. [17]

See also

Notes

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Austlit — "How M'Dougal Topped The Score" by Thos. E. Spencer". Austlit. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  2. ↑ The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature edited by Wilde, Hooton and Andrews, 2nd edition, p354
  3. ↑ "How M'Dougal Topped The Score and Other Verses and Sketches (N.S.W. Bookstall Co.)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  4. ↑ "Favourite Australian Poems (Rigby)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  5. ↑ "From the Ballads to Brennan (A&R)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  6. ↑ "Complete Book of Australian Folk Lore (Ure Smith)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  7. ↑ "The Penguin Book of Humorous Verse (Penguin Books)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  8. ↑ "The Illustrated Treasury of Australian Verse (SL of NSW Press)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  9. ↑ "My Country : Australian Poetry and Short Stories, Two Hundred Years (Lansdowne)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  10. ↑ "Old Ballads from the Bush (Angus & Robertson)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  11. ↑ "The Bushwackers Australian Song Book (Sphere)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  12. ↑ "A Collection of Australian Bush Verse (Peter Antill-Rose)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  13. ↑ "A Return to Poetry 2000 (Duffy and Snellgrove)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  14. ↑ "100 Australian Poems You Need to Know (Hardie Grant)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  15. ↑ "Australian Poetry Since 1788 (UNSW Press)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  16. ↑ "The Best Australian Yarns : And Other True Stories (Allen & Unwin)". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  17. ↑ "How McDougall Topped the Score". IDMB. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
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