Dimming of the Day

had been tried in Club & Ground matches in 1913 but was not thought worth taking on the staff; this performance changed minds 23 . He took 100 wickets in 1914 and played with some success until 1931, though his only international recognition was for England in New Zealand in 1929/30, when England are recorded as playing two separate Test series, still leaving most of the best players at home. The comparison with Barnes suggested a wish for a bowler who might be as effective as him but rather more respectful to his social betters. There was an exhibition billiards match at the Leicester Square Hall, where Inman and Reece were throttling the life out of the game, with the score at close of play Reece 7509 and Inman (in play with a break of 163) 6612. Billiards as a sport was about to collapse under the weight of point scoring, where you might see one player occupying the table for a complete session, and would virtually disappear as a spectator sport, replaced eventually by snooker. In the Freshman’s match at Cambridge L.C.Leggatt (Eton and King’s) made 116 and took six for 25 bowling slow leg-breaks. The Manchester Guardian was not altogether impressed: it suggested that Leggatt (whose innings took two and a half hours) played a ‘cautious game throughout…. He hardly made enough of his physical capabilities.’ He played only one first- class match for the University, against Yorkshire, though in June he scored 76 at Lord’s for Old Etonians against Old Harrovians in a two-day game. On Saturday 9 May MCC played Kent and Frank Woolley scored 94 in 75 minutes. At the Oval it was reported to be ‘bleak and wintry’. In the Freshmen’s match at Oxford Mr M. Howell scored 121 and the bowling of Mr J.Heathcote Amory was commended. Heathcote Amory played a few games for the university in 1914, but after the war played for some years for Devon. Miles Howell returned to Oxford after the war, won a blue again in 1919 and played a while for Surrey. He would also play football for the Corinthians and England Amateurs. The opening of the season in the Lancashire League saw some low scoring with Church bowled out by Rishton for 20 and Nelson for 29 by Rawtenstall. There was trouble in the Balkans, but at this point between Greece and Albania, local Greeks having declared the autonomous Republic of Epirus. But there was always trouble in the Balkans and nobody paid much attention. The Times announced the team for Oxford’s opening match, a team containing five Old Etonians. The next day the letters column featured, rather splendidly, letters from Professor A.V.Dicey KC, the Bishop of Zanzibar, Professor Kirsopp Lake, Mr Rollo Appleyard, Professor Silvanus P.Thompson, and Ritter von Pollaky, though not about cricket. None of them was played by Groucho Marx. On 12 May The Times reported the landing of machine guns in Ulster, 23 Peter Wynne-Thomas, Trent Bridge , Notts CCC 1987 33 Opening Moves