A Game Sustained

29 Keeping going: 1914-1915 Rhodes and Denton receiving £1 a week winter pay and £1 Investment Fund money while B.B.Wilson, Booth, Drake, Dolphin and Roy Kilner got £1 winter pay and 10s Investment Fund money. There was discussion about a Bradford Bowling Tide week match in 1915, and the committee also considered a proposal to help Somerset out so they could play in the north of England the following summer. 28 Two months later, however, the mood was far more sombre, and the club secretary was asked to check what each of the county’s players was doing in response to the war. At the January 1915 club committee meeting it was resolved to postpone the appointment of captains and not fix any percentages for payments to the county out-grounds to help with maintenance. It was also agreed to abandon all Second XI matches and to notify Percy Holmes (the 27-year- old batsman who had made his county debut in 1913), Ernest Smith (a spinner from Barnsley) and Haworth Watson (a wicketkeeper who had deputised for David Hunter) that their agreements were cancelled for 1915. A decision was made to print fewer copies of the yearbook than usual and the club dropped Worksmen’s Compensation Insurance payments for its players. 29 Despite this, it was later agreed that Hirst, Rhodes and Denton would receive £2 a week in the summer, with B.B.Wilson, Dolphin, Booth and Kilner getting £1 10s. Payments were to be abated in proportion to the days on which they took part in matches arranged by the county club, when ordinary fees would be paid. It was also determined that players should keep themselves ready to take part in any local matches the committee decided to support. 30 By this time, the reality of war became even clearer to those living in Yorkshire when on 16 December 1914 the German Navy bombarded Scarborough and Whitby, killing many people. According to reports, several people including the Yorkshire opening batsman, B.B.Wilson, who had played 185 matches for the county between 1906 and 1914, were bathing in the sea at Scarborough when the attack started. Shocked by the sudden proximity of the conflict, the Yorkshire