A Game Sustained

136 cricket was that of Herbert Sutcliffe, now aged 24, who was one of a generation who had lost much of their early career to the war. He immediately made up for lost time by scoring 1,000 runs in his debut season and cemented a place as Yorkshire’s opening batsman by mid-summer. Sutcliffe had been developing in local cricket since 1908, when he first appeared for Pudsey St Lawrence. Following a switch to Pudsey Britannia in 1911, he was invited to attend Yorkshire county practices. In June 1914, he appeared for a Bradford League side against Yorkshire Second XI, where he made 73 out of 179 in a tightly fought match, and by the end of the season had made 249 runs at 35 for the county Second XI. In the Bradford League he broke the record for the highest season aggregate and it was clear that when the war ended Yorkshire had a talented batsman. 84 Sutcliffe was called up for war service in 1915 and was stationed near York in the Royal Ordnance Corps. He was transferred to the Sherwood Foresters and there absented himself without leave on Saturday afternoons to play cricket under an assumed name. 85 After the opening match with Gloucestershire, Yorkshire played MCC at Lord’s, where Hirst made 180 not out, Kilner 120 and Holmes 99 to save the match. There were ample reminders of the war at Lord’s as wounded soldiers cheered Hirst andhispartners enthusiastically. The side then travelled to Cambridge to take on the University, where Sutcliffe secured his maiden first-class 50. The match ended in a tame draw and subsequently Burton was tasked by the club committee with speaking to Holmes and Rhodes for failing to pursue a victory. 86 During the game, further tragic news was received, this time of the death from wounds received in action of another former player, J.W.Rothery, despite him having appeared fine on a recent visit to Headingley. At Leyton against Essex, Hirst scored another 120 to make it 458 in four innings before Yorkshire and Lancashire played the first Roses match since August Bank Holiday 1914. The Yorkshire Evening Post reflected that the cricket was: very much the same as before the war. The cheery crowd A wonderful relief: 1919