A Game Sustained

90 Running out of steam: 1917 Club reported a large decrease in membership and a loss of £194. There were total liabilities of £473, as well as an outstanding balance on the covered stand of £295. Halifax Cricket and Football Club also sustained a loss of £365, with the Entertainment Tax totalling £51. The club appealed for 1,000 subscribers at 3s per year just to keep cricket going. In other parts of the county clubs were even more stretched. Harrogate Town Cricket Club announced it would restrict matches to its home ground to keep travel expenses down, playing principally with local military teams. In York, the city club and the Yorkshire Gentlemen were still suspended for the war, and in the Airedale and Wharfedale district, none of the clubs had enough members to raise even an elderly side. The clubs were ‘now in a worse position than [before], as practically every eligible man is on active service, and the fields are meadows and pastures. There are a few junior clubs among the lads, who are preparing for the time when there will be a revival of cricket, and when new blood will be wanted.’ There was also little cricket of an organised character in the Doncaster area. Although the game had been very popular there before the war, the Yorkshire Evening Post commented in April 1917 that ‘the war altered everything. Last year there was practically no cricket played locally and, as since then, more and more men have been called up and “combed out” it is certain there will be even less this year.’ Asked by the paper for comments on prospects for the game, one local enthusiast commented, ‘Let’s get the war over first before we think about cricket.’ Elsewhere, the early season press reflected on the precarious state of affairs. The Hull Daily Mail commented that cricket would ‘be confined to schoolboys, military teams and those Saturday afternoon League clubs of Yorkshire who decline the advice of the county authorities and close down.’ Despite some challenges, the Bradford League continued to be in a very different situation to most of the other local leagues. Although Idle had lost Jack Hobbs, they now had Crowther Charlesworth (who played for Warwickshire between 1898 and 1921) in his place, who also acted as club