Dimming of the Day

Giving Yorkshire a lead of 56. In their second innings Yorkshire reached 123-5 when Rhodes was caught by Street off the bowling of Vincett; his partner Hirst was left undefeated with 18. A.W.Pullin later wrote, the seriousness of the war had been brought home to everybody by this time. When the players were assembling for their game at Brighton (sic), I had a conversation with Major Booth and Roy Kilner, and they told me that they had decided to enlist directly they returned home. 37 Oddly enough, the last game to finish in 1939 was also between Sussex and Yorkshire at Hove. The Times announced that ‘all the counties had now completed their fixtures for the season.’ Surrey had cancelled their last two matches, one of which was at the Oval against Leicestershire and might have been a problem and the Scarborough Festival had been cancelled, but that was all. The paper had published nothing about future intentions. The final championship table was published, showing Surrey as champions, Middlesex second, followed by Kent, Yorkshire and Hampshire (Hampshire’s best-ever finish at that point). The Newcastle Journal , on the other hand, said on 7 September that, Probably to everyone’s relief, the cricket season is at an end, the County Championship being won by Surrey, though the confirmation of the MCC is, under the special circumstances, necessary before the title is bestowed. They did not actually make that decision until November. First-class cricket might be over, but the war carried on. On 4 September The Times still says, ‘the military situation in France is not very easy to define from any published information’: it still talks of a great Russian victory against Austria-Hungary. So far there had been 260,000 volunteers. On 5 September, remarkably enough given its financial position, the Worcestershire club had placed an advert in the Sports Argus for young cricketers (preferably bowlers) who might want to join the staff for the next season. Football had started and cricket disappeared almost entirely from the Daily Express before the end of the season. On 7 September under the heading ‘Patriotism before Sport,’ The Times lists eight Hampshire professionals who had joined the 5 th Hampshire Territorials. It also lists eleven Hampshire amateurs either on active service or accepted for service. Outside the first-class game cricket carried on. On 10 September the Newcastle Chronicle published a table for the East Tyne League (some had games to play) and announced for Saturday the final of the Durham Senior Cup between Westland (Sunderland) and New Brancepeth. As late as 20 37 A.W.Pullin, History of Yorkshire Cricket 1903 to 1923, Chorley & Pickersgill, 1923 August 1914 98