A Game Sustained

97 Running out of steam: 1917 and district were invited. Such provision had its limitations, however, and a letter in the Yorkshire Post reported that wounded soldiers ‘are to be seen in the centre of the city, killing time in an aimless sort of way.’ The letter appealed for further assistance from the citizens of Leeds. Of war charity games during the summer of 1917, some were at local level such as at Whitby between an East Lancashire XII and Whitby and District for the local Bravery Fund, others almost of county standard. At the end of May, a Lancashire-Yorkshire match at Todmorden was organised to raise funds for the Castle Vale Hospital, as part of a fete and gala. Whilst this was a success, the Yorkshire Post looked enviously at arrangements for such matches in Lancashire, commenting that: the functions in the Haslingden, Church, and Oldham districts in the past two years, for instance, were much more enthusiastically taken up than similar events were in the broad-acred county...So far, the best in Yorkshire has been given by the Halifax Club...There should be more of these war charity games. They serve the double purpose of raising much-needed funds, and of keeping the interest in the national game alive. 66 On 6 August, Yorkshire played a Yorkshire Council XII at Leeds. The Council side made 161, more than half of which was scored by F.W.Elam, who made 83. Drake, with five for 64, was the best county bowler. Yorkshire, with the in-form Denton topscoring on 94, took a first innings lead, declaring at 302 for five, with Percy Holmes 74 not out, but the game was left drawn with Yorkshire Council 81 for three. Holmes impressed ‘Old Ebor’, who considered that he showed a ‘distinct advance in defence and style of attack’ since his pre-war season with Yorkshire when he had only made 222 runs in 17 innings. He had played for Spen Victoria in the early part of the conflict alongside his war work, and later appeared for Great Horton in the Bradford League. Fitter Roy Kilner was given permission by his commanding officer to play in the match, and both Holmes and Kilner were well received by a good crowd who enjoyed having