A Game Sustained

122 6: Getting cricket back on its feet: winter 1918/19 ‘the essential thing is that we are to have first-class cricket next season. After the hateful and mournful memories of the past four years, this is indeed something to look forward to .’ Old Ebor’, Yorkshire Evening Post, 17 December 1918 Death and injury continued right up to the final moments of fighting. Lieutenant Gilbert Tunnicliffe, the son of the former Yorkshire opener, lost his left arm in the final days. The Armistice brought the war to a halt but began a long period of reconstruction and recovery which would take many years. The damage done to the British economy and to overseas trade presented enormous challenges which successive governments struggled to tackle during the 1920s. The sense of relief and gratitude expressed by ‘Old Ebor’ was widespread but within days of the Armistice thoughts turned to those things that had been impossible or neglected. For some, this meant cricket and a week after the war ended Yorkshire secretary F.C.Toone confirmed that the county intended to play as much as possible in 1919 – ‘championship preferred’ – with Saturday starts and holiday play, although he conceded that nothing could be decided until after the next Advisory County Cricket Commitee meeting. Toone was keen that things should be very much the same as in 1914 and hence was opposed to the proposal for two-day games which had been suggested. The debate about the future of the game, which had gone on during the conflict, now grew in intensity, with the Yorkshire Post noting at the end of November that there was no lack of suggestions put forward by people with the best interests of the game at heart. Very quickly though the debate revealed the tensions between those people who wanted to ‘brighten’ cricket and those who wanted to return to what they saw as the