Dimming of the Day

85 August 1914 reintroducing them. The Daily Express was full of advertisements from railway companies and seaside towns imploring people to go on holiday, but cricket was still only a single column. There was an advertisement for the ‘standard history’ of the Great War, to begin in weekly sixpenny parts next Monday. It would be edited by H.W.Wilson, the author of With the Flag to Pretoria . Wilson was the chief leader writer of the Daily Mail and co-author with William le Queux of a novel called The Invasion of 1910 (published in 1906). The Times reported that the Germans had marched on Liege wearing uniforms stolen from the bodies of dead Belgian soldiers. Yorkshire (who had started the season badly) attained their eighth consecutive victory, beating Middlesex by two wickets. Only an innings of 121 by Hendren had set a target at all, and it was only 89, but they just made it. Ashley-Cooper’s History of Middlesex complained that’ there can be little doubt that, but for some of its members having answered the call to arms upon the outbreak of war, Middlesex would have been champion county’ Before the game the Middlesex committee had wired Yorkshire to say that ‘so many of their essential players being otherwise engaged on account of the war’ they would be unable to fulfil the engagement, but changed their mind the same day. 34 The players missing would appear to have been W.P.Robertson, E.S.Littlejohn, F.T.Mann and N.E.Haig (all amateurs). Littlejohn (a doctor) only played in six matches and did not reappear after the war, but the others were regulars and serious losses to the team. Apart from Harry Lee, the replacements were all amateurs – G.L.Hebden, C.A.Saville and C.A.Saville. Clifford Saville’s three games in August were his only first- class appearances; he was killed on the Western Front in 1917. Sussex beat Leicestershire by 221 runs and Worcestershire drew with Essex. Yorkshire had moved up to fourth, but Surrey were now looking difficult to beat. It was reported on 14 August that the Mayor of Deal had been arrested on Dover cliffs on suspicion of being a spy, but was identified by a local tradesman. The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway had resumed the sale of cheap tickets. The Daily Express headline was ‘Do not shout until you are out of the wood’. This appears to be a suggestion that the Germans are being beaten in Belgium. The paper also suggested that valuable racehorses stabled at Newmarket and owned by foreigners could be liable to seizure (what use highly strung thoroughbreds would have been is another matter). Following numerous reports of Belgian victories, it was admitted that the Germans were a lot closer to Brussels. At Lord’s, on 13 August, Surrey scored 434-3 against Yorkshire, Hayward and Hobbs opening with 290 (Hayward 116, Hobbs 202). 30 wickets fell in 34 F.S.Ashley-Cooper, Middlesex County Cricket Club 1906-1920 ,