A Game Sustained

114 Struggling through to the end: 1918 little play and restarted on the following Monday. There was then some controversy when it was discovered that there was no-one from the Council committee to present the cup, which instead had to be handed over by the captain of the losing side. Despite the growing optimism, it was hard not feel that the game could not take many more years of wartime conditions. Travel was harder and more expensive, equipment was scarcer or in a bad state, and facilities were clearly in decline after years of neglect. At the end of the season, for example, the Todmorden Cricket Club annual report gloomily noted that in 1918: cricket prospects became less and less favourable, especially with regard to the arrangement of games of suchmerit as would ensure the interest of our supporters. This outlook never brightened...The genuine loyalty of our subscribers has been almost the only encouraging feature to us in a year of unusual difficulties and many disappointments. The club then noted that it had tried to arrange matches with neighbouring clubs but the Military Service Act made it impossible to find players. Instead, effort was put into a new organisation – the Elementary Schools League – and 29 matches were arranged for young cricketers. 73 At Beverley, the club’s annual report also highlighted that just one ordinary club match had been played all season, with only junior cricket and games involving the local RAF taking place. The club had struggled to keep the wicket in ‘passable condition’ and the financial situation was serious. 74 Even ‘Old Ebor’ was pessimistic, commenting at the end of the season that it was increasingly difficult to keep up the supply of talent despite clubs’ commitment to professionalism. Changes during wartime – women, workplaces and baseball Wartime saw novelty in many aspects of life and cricket was no exception. One development in the second half of