Dimming of the Day

team of seven died on the Somme - and the tradition, usually carried on by a small group of people in a village, was in many cases not picked up again afterwards. Like the cases where cricket was lost, it contributed to the slow death of the English village 41 . Cricket in the North was almost entirely league cricket. The Newcastle Journal reported on the Durham Senior League, the NW Durham League, the North Durham Senior League, the Tyneside Senior League and the West Tyne League. Meanwhile the Middlesbrough paper covered the North Yorkshire and South Durham League. On 7 August it reported that ‘tomorrow is a critical day in the NY&SD League – Guisborough v Darlington, Redcar v Norton, Saltburn v Bishop Auckland etc. It also gave fixtures for the East Cleveland League, West Cleveland League, Cleveland Minor League, Stockton League, South Durham Combination and the Middlesbrough Church League. On 24 August the Newcastle Journal reported that the Durham Senior League had met and decided as far as possible to complete the league fixtures. On the same day the North East Daily Gazette carried reports on NY&SD and printed a table after 17 games (one to go). Norton had won the league by this stage despite losing to North Ormesby. A.Goodrick of Darlington took six for 4 (all bowled) against West Hartlepool (Ashley Goodrick was to have a substantial career for Durham after the war). There appears to be nothing in the paper the following week (but it was only a 4-page paper). On 27 August it was reported that G Company of the 4 th battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment had beaten Cockerton Ladies 59 to 40. On Tuesday 8 September there were still results of games in the West Tyne and Tyneside Senior Leagues and notice of a deciding match in the Northern Wednesday League (Tynemouth v Kimblesworth). On Thursday 10 September we have the table for the East Tyne League (some had games to play) and announcing for Saturday the final of the Durham Senior Cup between Westland (Sunderland) and New Brancepeth. Here at least cricket seems to have run to the end of the season. The Sports Argus was a weekly sporting paper published on Saturdays in Birmingham. On 1 August late news gives information about the war. It was keen about the forthcoming ‘derby’ between Warwickshire and Worcestershire. It reported Birmingham League games, suburban league games and friendly matches. It reported too on the final of the Aston Schools Trophy, where Gower Street had beaten Canterbury Road. There were league tables, too, from the Birmingham Works League and the Parks Association which ran to eight divisions: not to mention the Kidderminster League, the Prudential League and the Wesleyan League. The final of the Dudley works knockout was played by Palethorpe’s and 41 Jo Breeze, The Morris at War , Roots 372 Recreational Cricket 113