Dimming of the Day

29 In one of those events where there is little more to be said, on 22 April for no good or obvious reason, XIX of Bromley had played XII of England. It was a pretty good England XII at that – Tarrant, Hobbs, James Seymour, Hardinge, Woolley, Douglas, Hitch, Huish, W.Kennedy 21 , E.W.Dillon, Fielder, J.T.Hearne – and unsurprisingly won by a wide margin. The match was reported by World of Cricket without comment. But an indicator of the way the wind might blow could be seen in the Daily Mirror for 27 April which showed pictures of the FA Cup Final on the front and back pages, together with a match report. Even if it devoted more space to the King than to the football it was a lot more coverage than cricket would get in the Mirror where football and boxing were given considerably more space. The Manchester Guardian for 1 May 1914 gives a couple of scores – one is Manchester v Sale (at Old Trafford) and it also mentions the Surrey trial in which J. Howell of Repton made 109. Later in that trial Goatly and Abel apparently scored 168 in 48 minutes for the sixth wicket. On 2 May World of Cricket featured S.J.Pegler who at this time was engaged by Lionel Robinson. Sid Pegler had taken 189 wickets on tour with South Africa in 1912 and would do well again in 1924. In 1914 he played a handful of games for MCC and various gents’ pick-up sides, but did take 39 first- class wickets. Though the reference books call him an amateur, he was employed by Robinson whose ground at Old Buckenham in Norfolk was an attempt to improve his social standing. After the war Archie MacLaren filled much the same position as Pegler. On Saturday 2 May the first ball at the Oval was bowled by Bill Hitch to William Denton of Northamptonshire, one of three brothers who played as amateurs for the county (though J.S.Denton was missing from this game because he had scarlet fever). All survived the war, though Arthur, also not playing in this match, lost a leg. “Bill’itch”, as ever the mainstay of Surrey’s bowling, had taken 174 wickets in 1913. The papers of 4 May were reporting on Saturday’s play: the novelty of starting games on a Saturday indicated that some counties did have one eye on the spectators. At another level, on Monday 4 May the Daily Herald gave notice that the Daily Herald Cricket Club would begin its fixtures on Wednesday with a match against the District Railway. All newspapers, like most other factories or substantial offices, ran their own cricket teams (and mostly played in leagues). The Times gave as much weight to the Seniors’ matches at Oxford and Cambridge as to the county games, naming the teams for matches commencing that day. The practice was to hold trial matches separately for seniors and freshmen. When it turned to reports in The Times , the Seniors’ trial matches took priority over the ongoing county games. 21 But who was W.Kennedy? Opening Moves