Dimming of the Day

particularly the first Buckinghamshire game, were described in the Reading Observer on 15 August as follows, Berkshire has finished its matches for the present season … On Friday last [7 August] the Bucks team wired enquiring whether they were expected, and Sir Charles Y. Nepean [the Berkshire captain from 1903 to 1914] replied in the affirmative. On Saturday morning, however, another telegram was received saying the Bucks team regretted having to scratch owing to nine men of the team having been picked for the front. Berkshire have also lost eight or nine of their players, and in consequence no more matches will be played this year. The break-up of the ‘Reading Week’ [the two consecutive matches scheduled at Reading for 10 and 12 August] will no doubt adversely affect the finances. For Norfolk, in terms of cricketing activity, the month of July 1914 was no different from that of any other July. The county club played the bulk of its away matches in the Minor Counties Championship – comfortably beating Bedfordshire, but having to struggle to avoid defeat against Hertfordshire and Staffordshire – so that early August was left clear for the county’s home matches to constitute the 34 th Norfolk Festival. Surrey II met Essex II at the Oval on 26 and 27 August: Surrey should have played Wiltshire on the two previous days but this was cancelled. Hertfordshire played Cambridgeshire at Hitchin on 21 and 22 August and then Bedfordshire on 24 and 25 August. Cambridgeshire played Norfolk – these are played between neighbours. Most of the minor county matches from mid-August were cancelled, the first being Dorset v Buckinghamshire on 7 and 8 August. County second XIs found it easier, but then they were based on young professionals and they shared the first-class infrastructure. It was reported that Northumberland had cancelled fixtures with Lincolnshire and Cheshire because of the difficulty in raising a side because of members being mobilised. Lincolnshire v Durham which should have started on 12 August at Grantham was abandoned as the military authorities had taken over the ground. The Essex II game against Glamorgan due to be played on 20 and 21 August was abandoned because of the war – presumably at Glamorgan’s request, since Essex hastily arranged a replacement Club and Ground match against the touring Merion CC at Leyton on 19 and 20 August. The Essex side for this game was decidedly a scratch one – most of the team were not even 2 nd XI regulars. By the time of the last match against Surrey II at the Oval on 26 and 27 August, Charles Round and several of the older men had already enlisted, so Essex fielded a very young team. 29 July was the first day of a two-day friendly which Glamorgan had organised at The Gnoll in Neath against a combined Briton Ferry XI largely as a means of thanking the Town and Steelworks clubs for their help Minor Counties 102