A Game Sustained

73 Shocks to the system: 1916 The impact of Government interventions As the war continued into 1916, a range of impositions and restrictions on normal life were introduced. Most importantly, the Government increasingly pressed men to join up. Travel became more expensive, beer was watered down, and certain foodstuffs and other goods became scarcer. While all these restrictions affected cricketers as much as anyone else, specific shortages also began to be felt on the cricket field. For example, the Yorkshire Council decided that only one ball should be used in a match, rather than two. More significantly, however, the game was also directly affected by three government actions – a tax on entertainments, the introduction of daylight savings time and the cancellation of bank holidays. By February 1916, a tax on ‘amusements’ was expected in the coming Budget and many considered it hard to see why those who attended race meetings and football and cricket matches should be exempt. Observers also feared that once in place the tax would be so productive that it would not be withdrawn. In April 1916, the proposal was duly debated in Parliament, where the Financial Secretary to the Treasury said the aim was not to prevent people going to places of entertainment but rather to ask them to pay a little more for enjoying themselves. The government hoped to both maximise tax and minimise the reduction in the number of people attending such events. The following month, the committee of the Yorkshire Cricket Council discussed the new tax. Members heard that the government proposed to place a halfpenny tax on an admission ticket valued at twopence and a penny tax on tickets between two and sixpence. Taxes would be collected by stamps obtained from local Income Tax and Excise officials or from officials in London, who would issue pre- stamped tickets. Members’ tickets would be taxed according to the price paid. After some discussion, the Council decided to allow each cricket club to make its own arrangements, including whether it charged the tax on the admission ticket or paid it out of its own funds.