Lord Bateman's Motorbike

Lord Bateman runs an inn out on the A65

Sort of place where everybody drinks before they drive

Weekends runs a motorbike to Scarborough and back

He's not too many brandies from a second heart attack

John Barleycorn he works the land and drinks at Bateman's Inn

And every evening toasts to all the things that might have been

Tells the world that once he had a trial for Hull KR

Now he watches them on TV in the corner of the bar

Bateman gets up early lifts the latches on the gate

Seven horses stabled and the family sleeping late

Fourteen hundred acres two daughters and a son

He'll ride the eastern coast and back before the morning's done

Barleycorn he's up at dawn and working off the beer

Same thing every day of every week of every year

Hears Lord Bateman racing by along the county lanes

And pulls his jacket tight against the coming of the rain...

Lord Bateman meets the storm that's coming in from the shore

Speeding over Quarry Hill at 85 or more

There's rain to take the wheels away rain among the glass

And rain to wash the blood into the tarmac and the grass

In the months to come John Barleycorn he sits and drinks his fill

Measures out his life between his pocket and the till

So down the generations Bateman's son behind the bar

While Barleycorn he sips his beer and watches Hull KR.