Dimming of the Day

26 Chapter Four Opening Moves There could possibly have been no cricket in 1914 at all. In April the cricket ball makers of Kent, where most balls were made and had been made for 150 years, went on strike in a protest against falling pay and their conditions. Highly skilled workers were earning only 30 shillings a week and they sought an increase of five shillings per dozen balls. Their union was the Amalgamated Society of Cricket Ball Makers who, despite the grand name, were essentially confined to the Wisden’s, Duke and Readers workshops in Kent which still employed several hundred people, the figure of 200 to 300 being quoted. The manufacturers’ original contention was that ‘retailers refuse to allow a sufficient margin to allow the payment of a fair wage’. The South Eastern Gazette reported the strike on 21 April: on the same day the Daily Express was saying that there was to be a meeting with the employers and an early end to the strike was hoped for. A.C.MacLaren in World of Cricket was disapproving, moaning that the strikers had persuaded the men at Duke’s to join and saying that ‘to meet the men’s demands would cut the manufacturers’ profits’ unless they could charge an additional 6d a ball. In the 9 May issue Readers had an advert saying that ‘owing to the regrettable ball-makers’ strike we are unable to announce particulars of the cricket ball we are making for schools, colleges, etc’. By 5 May Dukes had written to the Amalgamated Society of Cricket Ball Makers offering to pay the new rates (which had been agreed) from 31 August. The Daily Herald (from a rather different perspective) reported on Monday 11 May that ‘the cricket ball Bosses are beginning to climb down from their high pedestals. Offering the increase from September rather than 1 January: but the men want it now’ and ‘success is certain if the men stick to their guns.’ It was settled, presumably on those terms. What this does show is the growing strength of the trade union movement, especially among skilled workers – three-quarters of the workers in the industry were said to be union members. So for the time being cricket went on and at all levels people attended to their various preparations for the season. The reference to World of Cricket is significant. Cricket , which had given substantial coverage to the game since 1882, had closed and MacLaren, in partnership with the new proprietor J.N.Pentelow, had launched World of Cricket as its successor. It lasted for the one year; whether it would have