[1] 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.

The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature states: "Spencer's poem celebrates the bushman's talents for devising ingenious but essentially harmless methods of besting a rival; it takes its place alongside A.