THE English cricket season is in its last overs of the summer, a last innings that coincides with bat-and-ball enthusiasts The Duckworth Lewis Method’s tour.

Tonight finds Mr Duckworth and Mr Lewis, alias Irish dapper gents Thomas Walsh, of Pugwash, and Neil Hannon, of The Divine Comedy, on stage at the Leeds Brudenell Social Club tonight, celebrating the game of flannelled fools in song.

“I gather the Brudenell is so much more posh than York Minster,” says the ever irreverent Hannon, who played a solo show – “and talked too much,” in his recollection – at the Minster in May 2011 on his previous travels north.

“I’ve been informed by my good friend Mr Duckworth that I may have to wear my helmet,” says Hannon, who does not mean a cricket helmet.

“We do dress for the occasion; our band chums wear cricket whites; Thomas seems to dress as a Victorian funeral director these days, and for me, I think it’ll be the Boer War pith helmet and the braided military jacket that I found in the Harlequin vintage shop in Dublin. Anything for an occasion!”

Hannon and Walsh will be promoting their Sticky Wickets album, the second innings they initially never envisaged playing after releasing their self-titled debut during the previous Ashes home series of 2009.

“By the end of promoting the first album, we were sick of the sight of each other, as there’d been so much work for ten months and it’s just what happens in bands,” says Hannon. “But after two years apart, we decided we weren’t sick of the sight of each other after all.”

So much so that Hannon believes their second set of cricketing songs surpasses the first, even if Jiggery Pokery’s tale of the mystical powers of Shane Warne’s “ball of the century “to Mike Gatting was as wittily dextrous as Noel Coward.

“In many ways I prefer the second record, though that might just be because it’s newer,” he says. “We love the songs on the first one too, but we didn’t really know what we were doing. This time we were more in control.”

One notable progression was the glut of guest contributors, from commentators David “Bumble” Lloyd and Henry “Blowers” Blofeld to cricket-loving thespians Stephen Fry and Daniel Radcliffe.

“That was obviously partly down to having made the first one, so people were aware of us, so the opportunity was there this time, whereas before it was “What on earth is this?’. It’s a pair of chancers!” says Hannon.

“This time I pretty much wrote Boom Boom Afridi after listening to a Bumble commentary, as he has such an amazing turn of phrase, and he then sent his voiceover over the airwaves from New Zealand.

“With Stephen Fry’s contribution on Judd’s Paradox, I’d been doing the narration when Thomas said, ‘’Well, that’s all very well, but wouldn’t it be better to have Stephen Fry?’. He’s a hero of mine, and of course it was wonderful to have him on the record, though it was a bit scary waiting for him while he doing myriad voiceovers that day. I was very ‘I’m not worthy’ – who is?! – but he was very lovely when I met.”

Hannon has a confession to make, however. “Of course Stephen’s recording was perfect the first time, but I made him do it again, just to be naughty!” he says.

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe was the most surprising name on the guest list, in Hannon’s opinion. “I knew he was a cricket fan and I knew he was a Divine Comedy fan bizarrely, so we asked him and I then spent two hours chatting and we finally got round to recording his part for Third Man,” he says.

“I think what it says that they all said ‘yes’ is they realise we’re not a novelty act; we’re bone-fide songwriters. We really can write a tune.”

None of the album guests is on the tour, with Hannon and Walsh improvising in their absence, but the shows are a joy and Hannon envisages there will be more to come. “And we’ll probably make a comeback in 15 years’ time,” he joshes. “But we’re pretty sure that this will be it for Duckworth Lewis albums, as you can only take it so far.”

Why declare now, Neil? “Well, I think the phraseology we would prefer to use is that we don’t want to milk it.”