A Game Sustained

9 Cricket, war and the ethical dilemma question we can ask now because it was one asked by many people during the war itself. For some, the simple answer was that it was not acceptable and indeed, increasingly disrespectful to those sacrificing their lives for their country. As Gerald Howat put it, for many it was ‘unpatriotic to play during the war and W.G.Grace had said so.’ 5 For others, watching or participating in sport was a reasonable response to the exhortations from the government to carry on, and a recognition that in an age of a long drawn-out ‘total war’, some semblance of normality was required to sustain the morale and health of those back home. As the Star Green’un newspaper in Sheffield commented in April 1916: The present surroundings with our darkened streets and heavy strain of daily toil, of loved ones leaving home for distant lands, and the grave tension of news from the front, make any relief in the form of bright and topical reading doubly welcome. As a result, the paper said it would continue to cover cricket and claimed it could ‘almost hear the boys in the trenches cheering this announcement!’ Hundreds of copies of its ‘Sports Special’ were delivered ‘along with Tommy’s rations, and each are eagerly devoured, and pass from hand to hand and travel along miles of trench every week.’ 6 Such divergent opinions surrounded cricket throughout the conflict. After Britain declared war on 4 August 1914, many men volunteered immediately, although it was only after disturbing early defeats that large-scale recruitment began. Within a week of news of the Battle of Mons on 23 August, an average of 20,000 men enlisted every day, with 33,000 on 3 September the largest for any single day in the war. 7 Other people, however, took time to appreciate that this war was different. The conduct of past conflicts had been the duty of a small, professional army and as a matter of deliberate policy successive governments had avoided keeping a large standing force in Britain. It was therefore unsurprising that even though news now carried faster than before, it was still