Dimming of the Day

40 Chapter Five June 1914 On 2 June The Times was reporting a political crisis in France, where an election had been held and had produced a landslide for parties of the left which took 475 of 601 seats in the Assembly (though they didn’t necessarily talk to each other). Monsieur Doumerge had originally taken office, but felt that his job was merely to get things organised and so resigned. The various parties of the left were circling round each other. On the same day the parish church at Wargrave, near Henley, was burnt to the ground: militant suffragettes appeared to be responsible. It was Whit weekend and on the Monday there were about 10,000 spectators at Bramall Lane, Sheffield, for the Roses Match. Yorkshire batted all day and made 381, the highest score being Roy Kilner’s 93: Kilner played for Yorkshire until 1927, dying in the following spring from enteric fever contracted in India. For Lancashire, James Tyldesley managed six for 129. Wisden tells us that he ‘died in a nursing home in Bolton while under an anaesthetic’. A reminder, perhaps, that there were other tragedies than war. On 3 June The Times had reported the continuation of a hearing of charges against five suffragists: they were charged with being persons having committed or being about to commit a felony and also conspiring together to commit malicious damage to property. Also reported was an arson attempt near Market Harborough and a charge of insulting conduct against some young men who had tried to break up a suffragist meeting and throw the women into a pond: they were discharged and warned but the magistrate was more concerned by the behaviour of the women. It is clear that the behaviour of the suffragists and especially their refusal to behave themselves in court worried the establishment as much as what they had done. For Leicestershire against Northamptonshire Sammy Coe had made an unbeaten 252, a county record until beaten by Phil Simmons in 1994 (and subsequently by Brad Hodge and Hylton Ackerman). It remains the highest score made for Leicestershire by an English player. It was not, however, the highest score in this round of matches as Frank Foster made 305* for Warwickshire against Worcestershire. For Marlborough against Liverpool (again, the scores given in The Times ) three young batsmen scored centuries in a total of 451. J.R.Barnes was to go on to play first-class cricket for Lancashire for some years, though he was not always available as he was a cotton merchant. R.D.Busk played a couple of games for Hampshire in 1919 and then played regularly for