Dimming of the Day

54 July 1914 The Manchester Guardian carried a score in the Mayo-Robson Challenge Cup, a game between Liverpool and Manchester Universities: but Leeds won the trophy (which appears to have been played between these three). You would not have known from anything in the London press that there were other universities than Oxford and Cambridge. On 2 July the Northants v Surrey game remained poised. In a low-scoring match Northants needed 154 to win after S.G.Smith took five for 12. At the close they were 17-2. At Hull Hampshire managed to bowl Yorkshire out for 152 but were themselves 34-3 at the close, having lost all three to Alonzo Drake. It was Speech Day at Harrow with the Headmaster’s comments reported at length by The Times : most of it a complaint that the universities expected some knowledge of Greek for those who were to read Classics, saying that this meant those boys had to be ‘crammed’ for the entrance exams. The article headed ‘Day of British defeats’ turned out on this occasion to refer to Henley and Wimbledon. At Henley ‘on every side one heard French and German and American spoken’. On Monday 6 July there was a small item to say that the Army had decided to allow certain reservists to return to the colours to complete their engagements: they had to be unmarried and would return with the rank of Private. Note that there is no pressure here, no suggestion that they are actually needed. As far as cricket was concerned, this was the first day of the University match and The Times went through the prospects in some detail on the news pages as well as on the sports pages. In the Championship Middlesex gained some ground by beating Worcestershire by an innings despite the loss of the second day’s play to rain. Tarrant (110) and J.W.Hearne (103*) were, as usual, the main exponents as the county went from 80-3 to 314-6 declared at some considerable speed, then both took wickets as Worcestershire were bowled out for 114, losing with ninety minutes to spare. On the same day there was a long report in the Daily Mirror on the AAA Championships at Stamford Bridge: there were only summarised cricket scores. A small headline said,’ Fine batting by G.O.Gauld’ (note that the Mirror did not add “Mr”). Gauld had made 90 (his career best) for Nottinghamshire against Derbyshire. An occasional player, he was captaining the county as A.O.Jones was ill. There were pictures from the tennis final at Wimbledon (which also got a write-up) and of the pole vault from the AAA Championships. The editorial talked about Joseph Chamberlain (and the pictures on the front page were of his funeral). The paper does mention that the Commons was ‘on the edge of a storm over Ireland.’ The following day – Tuesday 7 – was a Joseph Chamberlain funeral special for the Daily Mirror . ‘Umbrella forest at cricket match,’ it said, reporting on Oxford v Cambridge. There was a brief description of the day’s play and