A Game Sustained

27 Keeping going: 1914-1915 Maltby headed the Doncaster Cricket League without losing a match, and Slaithwaite won the Huddersfield and District Cricket League despite having to play a Kirkheaton side which included George Hirst and Wilfred Rhodes. Bradford won the Bradford League, where there was a record-breaking season for a young Herbert Sutcliffe of Pudsey Britannia. Elsewhere, the normal processes of league administration continued into the autumn. For example, Bolton-on-Dearne Cricket Club was suspended until it paid outstanding league fees. At Elland there was a vote of no-confidence in the committee, which resigned, and at a meeting of the Bradford League, allegations were examined that money had changed hands between the captains of Baildon Green and Windhill second elevens, to help a Windhill batsman top the batting averages. During September 1914, more cricketers and cricket clubs responded to the calls to prepare for war, including forming rifle clubs. Hull Cricket Club’s field and Hull City’s nearby football ground were turned into an extensive military estate and recruits were drilled very visibly during a home football match. In Leeds, a large group of sportsmen met in the Grand Central Hotel to discuss forming a volunteer company of athletes to learn the rudiments of rifle shooting and drill, while Driffield Town Cricket Club donated money towards towels and socks for men of the 5 th Cyclists Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment. In Huddersfield, George Hirst – who was now 43 – joined the 700-strong Civilians’ Corps. Elsewhere, many cricket meetings heard details of those signing up; for example, representatives of the Norton and District Cricket League announced that 23 of the league’s 46 clubs had sent 132 players between them to join the army. Similarly, when officials of the Bird League in Sheffield met, it was announced that 36 of their cricketers had already volunteered. At the same time, some clubs started to face the reality of war as grim news came through of men who only recently had appeared on the cricket field. At the start of October 1914, for example, there was news that a Rastrick Cricket Club player, Private Hanson Hirst of the King’s Royal Rifles, had been injured at the Battle of Aisne.