Dimming of the Day

28 Opening Moves College playing against public school sides. Haverford College’s website today lists many sports clubs but not, sadly, cricket. The Gentlemen of Philadelphia had toured England with some success in 1908 and Bart King had topped the English bowling averages, but by 1914 Philadelphia cricket was on its last (first-class) legs and nowhere else in the USA counted. There were many reasons for this, but one contributory factor may have been their exclusion from the top table with the formation of the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909. The second of May, as it happened, was Budget Day: the Budget had been postponed twice and total spending was expected to pass £200 million for the first time, partly due to increasing naval expenditure for the construction of more Dreadnoughts. The Times forecast increases in income tax, which would not have been a problem for professional cricketers whose income would in almost all cases have fallen below the threshold, and in any case taxes on earned income had not increased under the Liberals until you reached surtax levels (which the Chancellor was going to set at £3,000 a year). No professional cricketer was going to reach that level (and it seems uncertain whether benefits were taxed at that time – the case of Reed v Seymour, which gave the answer which has prevailed to this day, was not decided until 1927). The Daily Express , true to form, had a front-page cartoon showing the taxpayer being squeezed through a mangle. On 31 March the Advisory County Committee had met at Lord’s and agreed (against some opposition) that from 1915 onwards all county championship matches should start on Saturdays and Wednesdays: several counties would try this in 1914. Others saw it as dangerously radical. At the start of the season County Cricket [is] on Trial, opined The Times . It said,’ this season sees county cricket trembling in the balance, for without popular support it must die.’ It worried about the increasing popularity of football and the fact that you could watch a day’s cricket without seeing a result. It continued, Cricket is voted dull nowadays because there are not the overwhelming personalities on every county side that spectators have been accustomed to in great matches. With good wickets and “swerve” bowling, first-class cricket of the present day is the dullest of all games unless the spectator really understands the game and takes an intelligent interest in it. At a more local level, on Wednesday 29 April, the Derby Evening Chronicle reported that Mr.G.Curgenven had announced that he would arrive in Britain from British Columbia on Monday and would have time to practise before the county’s first match. It referred to him as the “famous” Derbyshire cricketer - a little strong for a man who altogether played 95 games in 20 years. He did, however, play 18 of them in 1914 (with no great success – 565 runs at 18.83). But then the Victoria Daily Times in British Columbia reported that he was going back to play as a professional, which would have been sensational if it was true.