Dimming of the Day

48 The centenary match at Lord’s, starting on 22 June, was effectively the biggest game of the season in a year with no Tests, with over 8,000 people watching. The Rest of England, batting against the MCC side that had toured South Africa, probably found life easier as Barnes had withdrawn with a strained thigh. The Rest scored 382-5 on the first day, several batsmen making it past 50 but only Edward “Punter” Humphreys of Kent getting to three figures. Cambridge University were playing H.D.G.Leveson Gower’s XI and did not bat very well, though Geoffrey Davies scored 92. At Horsham Hampshire scored 374-9, with Bowell managing another hundred. Yorkshire, not apparently themselves this season, were bowled out for 164 by Leicestershire at Bradford. The Times also gave the full score for the Household Brigade against the Band of Brothers at Burton Court, part of the grounds of the Royal Chelsea Hospital. On the second day at Lord’s the King turned up with the Prince of Wales and Prince Albert: there was some rain early on but then the Rest took their score to 467 and bowled the touring team out for 94, Hitch taking seven for 42. By the close, having followed on the tour team had lost Hobbs in taking the score to 60-1. At Horsham Alec Kennedy took six for 49 to bowl Sussex out for 146 in reply to Hampshire’s 396. In the middle of the game at Lord’s the MCC held a centenary dinner for 250 people, presided over by Lord Hawke. The list, dripping with peers, was headed by Prince Albert of Schleswig-Holstein. Prince Albert served in the Prussian Army though his elder brother Christian Victor had joined the British army. Albert was excused front-line duties against Britain during the war and spent it on the headquarters staff in Berlin. Lord Hawke proposed the toast of ‘Lord’s Cricket Ground and the MCC’. He regretted that the Press published the averages so often since it led to batsmen playing for their averages and so to slow cricket, and forecast the end of the tea interval since the public disliked it: but he believed that ‘unfair bowling had been banished from the game for all time’, which was perhaps optimistic. On 25 June it was noted that King Peter of Serbia was about to undergo a cure at the baths at Vranya and had passed responsibility to the Crown Prince Alexander. It had initially been reported that King Peter had abdicated – in which case Alexander might have faced a challenge from his elder brother Prince George. The Times commented that ‘a more inauspicious moment for the transfer of the royal dignity could hardly be imagined’, which was rapidly to turn out a great deal truer than they could have realised. There had been severe rioting in Italy, apparently formented by anarchists. Errico Malatesta was accused by The Times of being a ringleader: he was, in fact, living in London and ran an electrical workshop in Islington. On the cricket field the MCC South African team did better at the second attempt but still went down by an innings and 190. Bill Hitch took another five wickets to give him twelve in the match. Sussex had fought back June 1914