A Game Sustained

53 Keeping going: 1914-1915 they saw as the frivolous behaviour of the English, who played football and cricket while their officers organised hunting parties. However, he felt that the ‘Tommies’ were more relaxed and refreshed than the French when they returned to battle. As a result, a number of soldiers told those back home that cricket was a significant form of relaxation which they enjoyed when they could. In June 1915, for example, the Yorkshire Evening Post published a letter from a ‘Leeds Rifleman’ who recounted his dangerous experiences in detail but added that ‘when we come out of the trenches we clean rifles and play cricket and football, taking things as easy as possible.’ William Tyldesley, the Lancashire batsman who was later killed in action, reported that after a week in the trenches he and his fellow soldiers were pining for a game of cricket. And a Private Stubbs of the RAMC and former member of the Featherstone Main league team told another ‘paper that cricket was ‘the only thing I miss. I have had a little practice on a wicket on a ploughed field, and quite enjoyed it.’ One man who clearly loved his cricket was Private John Yeadon of the Leeds Pals, who had played for Guiseley and Bowling Old Lane before the war. He saw active service in France and Egypt before returning to play cricket for Guiseley again and take up a teaching career. Yeadon’s war diaries still exist and indicate that he played a lot of football, rugby and cricket at the front. For example, on the first day of the Battle of the Somme in 1916 – when he reported news of a great ‘Push’ – he was involved in a cricket match, where he took four for 17 against the Cadet School. Two days later he had a half hour of cricket practice and took five more wickets and made 27 in a match against the A.S.C.Depot, and six for 12 in another against the Cadet School. Later in the summer he made 104 not out and took four for 12 against an Officers’ Team, and in August recorded that he had had ‘a good time this month on the whole...Plenty of cricket.’ It was clear that the game helped keep this soldier happy. 45