LONG-lost cricket poems, which bowled over history fans, have been published in a new book launched by the Black Country Society.

Penned by former Halesowen Grammar School headmaster Thomas Disney - the poems were originally published in a booklet called Cricket Lyrics at the turn of the 19th century.

Forgotten about for many years, they left Black Country history buffs fascinated after they were unearthed in a collection of archived material hoarded up late Stourbridge journalist Jack Haden.

Such was the interest in the 17 poems - the Black Country Society decided they should be reproduced in a new book also called Cricket Lyrics, which was launched at a bash at Halesowen Cricket Club on June 23.

Stan Hill, past president of the society and the brainchild behind the project, said: “It’s the most interesting and exciting thing I’ve ever been involved in.”

As well as the poems, the book features a foreword by Black Country Society chairman James Morgan who found the collection while sifting through 38 large boxes left by former County Express reporter Jack Haden who died in 2005.

Blackcountryman writer and retired headteacher Angus Dunphy OBE contributed a chapter on former headteacher Disney’s reign at the long gone grammar school which was replaced by Earls High School.

There are also chapters on Disney’s lasting cricket legacy by Stan Hill; a critique of the poems by former Brierley Hill Grammar School teacher Ron Simpson; and a look by Dr Michael Hall at Halesowen author Francis Brett Young’s unflattering references in his early novels to the headmaster of the local grammar school - believed to have been Mr Disney who died in 1921.

The book is available, priced £6.99, from the Black Country Bugle shop in Cradley Heath High Street; Ashwood Nurseries, near Kingswinford; or by sending a cheque payable to the Black Country Society to PO Box 71, Kingswinford, DY6 9YN.

For more information about the society and its publications check out http://blackcountrysociety.co.uk/