A Game Sustained

162 an ‘amazing increase in the number of clubs at a time when least expected.’ The Yorkshire Council too was described by Elam as probably never before having been ‘in so sound a position’, being made up of four sections. Enthusiastic as ever, he wondered whether it would be possible to embrace the leagues in Huddersfield and Bradford so that there could be a genuine champion club of Yorkshire. The Yorkshire Cricket League was also considered to have ‘taken on a new lease of life’. At the end of the summer, Leeds won the Yorkshire Council and secured record receipts despite the bad weather, and Saltaire won its third championship in four years in the Bradford League. In other places, the season generated great confidence. At Todmorden, for example, the club celebrated an increase in its membership to 1,155, three times that of 1914, helped by a special recruitment campaign. Scarborough Cricket Club also announced record profits of £799, which put it in a very strong financial position for a change. As the club game returned to its old rhythms and practices in 1920, the revival of the game was also seen in other important ways. Greater efforts were made to provide opportunities for boys to play the game. In Sheffield, City Council officials undertook work to make the best use of public parks for organised games, and it was claimed that nowhere else in the country did junior cricket ‘retain such a hold on the affections of the young players.’ Further north in the county, the Wharfedale Junior League was established in January 1920. Some local authorities and parts of the education system also began to respond. The Leeds Schools’ Sports Association was formed in May 1920, and more than 250 school departments and 70,000 children were involved. The Association aimed to encourage athleticism amongst boys and girls in every elementary school in the city, foster school loyalty and esprit de corps , and eliminate what was considered as an unhealthy obsession with winning prizes. There was also a desire to try to prevent cases such as that of the boys in Sheffield fined 10s each in June 1920 for playing cricket on a public footpath. Renewed joy: 1920