A Game Sustained

138 A wonderful relief: 1919 the Essex club made suppers available in the pavilion but this did little to temper the rising anger. The next game at Sheffield against Nottinghamshire was low- scoring but hard-fought. It was also notable for barracking from the crowd prompted by what many considered were unfair appeals by a visiting bowler. Such behaviour would attract growing criticism from teams visiting the ground in the coming years to the extent that some southern sides were said to be reluctant to play there. One suggestion was that the more vocal elements were newcomers to Sheffield who had moved to the city during the war to work in the factories. The second day’s play coincided with the signing of the Peace of Versailles which formally ended the war between Germany and the Allied Powers. This was acknowledged during play, but the Sheffield Independent felt that not enough was done to mark the occasion, commenting: we did think that at themoment when the firing of rockets announced that the Peace Treaty had been signed, and the spectators gave vent to their feelings by vigorous hand-clapping there might have been a putting aside of sport for a minute or so, and that the Englishman’s mode of signifying patriotism would have been resorted to in a verse of the National Anthem. 88 After an abandoned match with Kent at Leeds, Yorkshire visited Chesterfield, where Abe Waddington made his debut. Before joining the Bradford ‘Pals’, Waddington had been at Wakefield and, following demobilisation, he was professional at Laisterdyke. Against Derbyshire, he opened the bowling and took four for 26 in 26 overs, making the ball cut in frequently. July saw a sequence of victories which ultimately led to Yorkshire’s drive towards the Championship title. Waddington was particularly effective with the ball, taking 50 wickets in his first few weeks of county cricket, and the Sheffield Independent enthusiastically reported comments from another paper that ‘At the moment nothing in cricket is so interesting as the all-round form of the Yorkshire players.