Dimming of the Day

51 the war, not one of brighter promise than John Howell can be named’. The Tsar and his family visited Admiral Beatty’s flagship, the Lion , at Kronstadt, where the First Battle Cruiser was visiting. On the cricket field Yorkshire had held out for a draw against Notts. Fred Bowley, who played for Worcestershire from 1899 to 1923, scoring over 20,000 runs, scored 276 against Hampshire at Dudley out of 474- 6. The Royal Navy beat the Army and Eton and Winchester drew. Most significantly Middlesex and Surrey, the top two, now met at the Oval and Surrey scored 502-6 despite a rare failure from Hobbs. There were hundreds from Andrew Ducat, later an FA Cup Winner with Aston Villa, and Cyril Wilkinson, later an Olympic hockey gold medallist. On 30 June The Times reported on a meeting of the House of Commons Channel Tunnel Committee. Lord Wolseley had been worrying about the hypothetical tunnel being used for invasion. Lord Sydenham thought it unlikely. Since the attempt to dig a tunnel had been abandoned in 1882 this all seemed a little fanciful. The paper continued to deal with the assassination as a blow to the House of Hapsburg, but not as something that could mean anything at all to Britain. Much more problematical, of course, was the continuing danger of civil war in Ireland, and yet again the main editorial addressed itself to the subject. In a report on the state of the Ulster Volunteers The Times talks about gun running with no note of condemnation. The parliamentary report opened by saying that a Labour member, Mr John Hodge, had entered the house wearing ‘a very light brown summer suit and a brown straw trilby hat’. Despite this wild eccentricity he was not expelled. He was to volunteer for the Army but be rejected because of his age (he was 59). The main thrust of the day’s debate was Persia and in particular Anglo-Persian Oil: now that the Royal Navy had many oil- burning ships, maintaining supplies was a matter of importance. At the Oval, with a crowd of over 10,000 again, Surrey were out for 544 and Middlesex scored 267 in reply. The Times referred to ‘plucky batting’ though it is not entirely clear why as there is no suggestion that the wicket was in any way difficult. Mr C.O.H.Sewell, the South African-born captain of Gloucestershire, made 102 against Kent. At Dudley Worcestershire went on to 494 and Hampshire reached 362-7. The Hon A.E.Mulholland made 132 for the Household Brigade against the Green Jackets. Andrew Mulholland was to die at Ypres in November. Lionel Tennyson, having just played for The Army, turned out for the Green Jackets, his military duties mostly seeming to consist of playing cricket. Yorkshire failed again, bowled out for 150 by Essex at Leeds, Essex making 130-6 in reply. At Brighton Nottinghamshire scored 426-2 with Joe Hardstaff unbeaten on 180. There was a letter in The Times warning about the white slave traffic: according to the writer, women dressed as nuns frequented continental ports and stations pretending that they were there to take care of young June 1914