A Game Sustained

124 on until 7.30pm to take advantage of the Daylight Saving Act. Lunch would be 40 minutes and there would be no tea interval. The proposal for an eight-ball over (trialled during the war) was defeated, as was the move to limit the number of professionals per side to six. To save on expenses local umpires would be appointed. It was also agreed that the MCC would try to secure abolition of the entertainment tax and the tax imposed by the Finance Act on club grounds. Some notable names called for other specific actions. F.R.Foster, the former Warwickshire all-rounder who played between 1908 and 1914 before his career was ended by a wartime motor-cycle accident, called for every county to be able to include a man from a locally-based regiment without any other form of qualification. George Hirst expressed support for shorter boundaries, which he felt would create more interest in fielding, incentivise the batsman to hit out and encourage the ‘6d spectator’ who had been too far away from the action to see the finer points of the game. Many others though were unhappy about the proposals. In January 1919, P.F.Warner commented emotively that there was a danger of ‘Prussianising’ the game, and called for freedom of action on days of play, Saturday starts and tea intervals. He questioned whether there had really been an informed discussion at the Advisory County Cricket Committee, wondering why clubs were prepared to give up the third day’s gate money from matches such as Surrey- Middlesex or Yorkshire-Lancashire. Irritated, Lord Hawke (as MCC President) refused to accept there had been confusion at the Committee meeting and said he was happy to experiment even though he thought the days would be too long. The press gave all such arguments a good airing, but by the end of January 1919 ‘Old Ebor’ thought the man in the street probably just wished cricketers would decide what they wanted. Another area of contention was Sunday sport. In February 1919, the Sheffield Independent explained that some clubs had played football on a Sunday in the south of England before the war, while representations for an exemption Getting cricket back on its feet: winter 1918/19