A Game Sustained

130 meeting of the Pudsey Britannia Cricket Club, however, the secretary said the cost of professionalism should be limited as it was clear that using such players had been a failure and Pudsey was spending as much as it could afford. ‘Old Ebor’ praised the club for being realistic and said that the extravagance of the Bradford League was leading to disaster, which would only worsen once there were lots of other attractions to tempt people away from the game. There were also complaints about what was termed ‘semi- professionalism’ which had reportedly been going on in the Bradford, Leeds and Hudderfield leagues for many years, with amateurs who did not want to be called professionals offered Saturday afternoon payments. In the Bradford League, it was rumoured that payments were made to almost every player, and consequently, those on the fringes of the Bradford area also asked to be paid. Other efforts were made to get cricket off the ground again and extend its appeal. A new silver challenge cup was bought for the Heavy Woollen District competition to replace the one won outright by Ossett in 1918. 78 In April, another silver cup was awarded for an annual competition under the cricket scheme of the Boy’s Welfare Department in the Bradford area, recently inaugurated for 1,000 boys. F.W.Elam, as President of the Yorkshire Cricket Council, announced that a scheme to encourage junior players was also being considered in Leeds, and hoped other clubs would take the matter up seriously so that youngsters were properly coached. Also in Leeds, the Education Committee made a grant of £50 towards the purchase of cricket equipment for elementary schools. This was an encouraging development but weeks later many schools still had not received the money, with poorer ones only able to continue by using their opponents’ kit. In late July, the Yorkshire Evening Post regretted that boys would now be on their summer holidays with little opportunity to play cricket, called for every park to have an ‘expert organiser’, and suggested that passes be granted to watch Yorkshire county matches. In contrast to these faltering initiatives in Leeds, new efforts in Hull to train young players reportedly met with conspicuous success. Getting cricket back on its feet: winter 1918/19