Further selection
Sir: May anyone join in selecting the Com- posers' XI? I think room should be found for Britten, not only because he must be the only composer to have been captain of his prep school 1st XI but because he would be very quick between the wickets. For sheer stylishness, Ravel would be sure to bring in the crowds — the R.H. Spooner or Tom Graveney of music — and if you want someone to do an Atherton and bat for two days to save the game, then Gus Mahler must keep his place as easily the best quali- fied in long adagios.
No one has mentioned the need for umpires. I suggest that those idealists, Vaughan Williams and Schoenberg, would make an incorruptible pair. It would be tempting to rope in Sir Thomas Beecham, who played cricket at Rossall (and did com- pose a bit), but I think his lbw decisions might be rather temperamental.
Edward Pearce makes a good case for including Bruckner in the XI, but with Bruckner's well-known obsession for count- ing, might he not be better employed as scorer?
Michael Kennedy Music critic,
Sunday Telegraph, London E14
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