A Game Sustained

171 the lives of thousands of people, filling conversations in workplaces and public houses, and providing hours of entertainment and excitement. 117 One consequence of this love for the game was that cricket imagery and references were in everyday use and so could be deployed in wartime to make simple and often patriotic points. At a recruitment meeting in Huddersfield in August 1914, for example, a clergyman told 4,000 people that he had bought a rifle, and just as when Yorkshire were in need, ‘George Hirst had come to the rescue, so our country in the time of need had now arisen and asked us to go to the rescue.’ In November 1915, Yorkshire Evening Post reporters visited munitions workshops. There were 500 in the Leeds area alone and in one, a journalist noted each shift ‘has its “star” performers – its Dentons and Haighs, and Rhodes’s – and if a side’s score is “down” when stumps are drawn the shell men will say their Denton was “off form,” or that their Haigh had hard luck with a “faulty one” or that some muffer had sent down a “no-shell” which just did the team out of a win.’ Readers could be assumed to know what was meant because the game was so deeply rooted in the culture. A second reason the game survived was because – as ever – it could be adapted to fit different circumstances. During wartime, clubs were able to operate at a lower level of activity and expenditure, and with a demeanour and tone which was suitable for the times. The form of the game could be adapted to the circumstances of much less free time and more pressing priorities – one-day games including for the best players, time-limited matches, reduced programmes of fixtures, friendlies including between players of the same club, matches with local military teams, leagues with fewer and closer opponents requiring limited expenditure on travel and equipment, and increasingly, matches on neglected grounds and making use of restricted facilities. Clubs and leagues were also able and willing to relax regulations relating to many aspects of how the game was played such as eligibility requirements. It became harder to play as the war went on – with petrol shortages, rail fare increases and the Entertainment Tax – but the game was given a boost by Concluding thoughts: Cricket, Yorkshire and the Great War