Dimming of the Day

83 August 1914 Twice, it was claimed, the Germans had asked for an armistice and that their losses were very heavy. This, despite the fact that it was admitted that Liege was now completely surrounded. Heavy rain had prevented or severely restricted play in all Saturday’s matches, and none of them produced results. The Times showed the top six in the Championship, with Surrey leading, Middlesex second and Kent third. Seven matches were due to start today. Middlesex had decided at one point to call off the match with Yorkshire at Bramall Lane, but then managed to scrape a team together. The Somerset v Northamptonshire game at Taunton which should have started on 10 August was called off ‘because of the war’ but details are vague and The Times never mentions it. It is likely to have been due to amateurs disappearing for military duty, as Somerset were heavily dependent on their gentlemen members. In the Yorkshire Post Old Ebor felt things should carry on, One of the normal features of British life is, of course, the support of such pastimes as cricket and football, and it does seem a question whether it is wise to remove these from a sphere of activities just at a time when many thousands of the public will have too many hours for idleness and fretting on their hands. All the war news on 11 August appeared to be good. 500,000 to 600,000 men had been mobilised for the Army with recruits ‘pouring in faster than they can be examined.’ The Russians were said to be advancing. The French were moving into Alsace. Liege was untaken and could probably hold out for some time. There was a call for young men to take temporary commissions, asking that ‘Cadets or ex-cadets of a University Training Corps or members of a University should apply to their commanding officer. Other young men of good general education should apply to the officer commanding the nearest depot.’ They would serve for the duration of the war. Surrey were playing Kent at Lord’s (The Oval having been requisitioned) and it was Jack Hobbs’ benefit match. Hobbs later wrote that all that time he had been looking forward to his benefit match which would be against Kent. He felt that he had every reason to anticipate a good match. Surrey were prospective champions and centuries were coming freely. He recalled how when Surrey played Nottinghamshire at the Oval on the Bank Holiday Monday the papers were full of war talk but that a crowd of 17,000 followed the game with the keenest interest. He said, ‘ I made 226 with never the thought of war. Those were the days when nobody had any idea of what it was all to mean.’ On the next day the Secretary told him that the Oval had been commandeered. Hobbs continued, The Committee were very sympathetic, and told me that the Kent and Yorkshire matches would be played at Lord’s in the following week. They gave me the option of postponing my benefit until after the War,