A Game Sustained

17 Cricket, war and the ethical dilemma competitive cricket with prizes. In early 1915, for example, there was a debate about whether the Sheffield Thursday Cricket League should continue. A correspondent to the Sheffield Evening Telegraph urged men to come forward to play, commenting ‘you will not do the lads in khaki any good by moping at home on the Thursday afternoons of the summer.’ Advocates of competitive cricket often argued that soldiers at the front supported the continuation of sports at home. In 1916, one writer commented that it had been said that ‘our gallant soldiers and sailors hold more generous views on sport in war-time than some of our home critics.’ There was anecdotal evidence to support this. In April 1917, a member of the Windhill team, recovering in the Leeds Infirmary from injuries sustained in France, commented that: I would just like some of those people who croack [complain] about cricket in warfare to see these chaps when the sporting papers arrive. I should like these people to understand that there are men out there, face to face with death every day, who, when they have half an hour to spare, are discussing the merits etc. of their favourite clubs. If the Bradford League does nothing else in 1917... it will take away for a short time from the horrible nightmare of war. 20 Thus, the history of cricket in Yorkshire during the First World War is one of divided opinions, and of guilt and uncertainty about the correct way to behave. But it is also the story of attempts to sustain sporting tradition, morale and some sense of normality at a time of huge upheaval and crisis.