Dimming of the Day

86 August 1914 the day at Edgbaston, Warwickshire 111 and 78, Kent 111. A.P.Freeman in only the second championship match of his astonishing career took seven for 25 (five bowled, none stumped!) in the first Warwickshire innings. The report in the (Birmingham-based) Evening Despatch said that Freeman mainly achieved his result by flight ‘though strangely enough turning the ball where Blythe and Woolley could not.’ Fielder took seven for 34 in the Warwickshire second innings. Lancashire were all out for 342 against Middlesex (Sharp 120). Hampshire, sliding away after good early-season form, were all out for 91 at Chesterfield. The Yorkshire Post reported that Yorkshire Seconds had a season with seven finished matches, but that the main object of developing players for the 1 st XI was disappointing. The only batsman newcomer, who has shown any pretension to county form is Sutcliffe, a 19-year- old right-handed batsman of the Pudsey Britannia club….In Sutcliffe they have a capable right-handed batsman with youth on his side. In his movements on the field he looks every inch a cricketer, and possessing as he does a variety of good strokes, it would seem to be policy to persevere with him. In 1914 he scored 249 runs averaging 35. His top score was 59. The British Expeditionary Force would arrive in France today (though official control of the news meant that it was not reported anywhere). The Times said on 15 August that it too was preparing a history of the war in weekly parts (there were eventually several of these). It also ran a leader on false rumours which could be regarded as a coded notice to the War Office that it might be more forthcoming. Once again the paper planned to print a Sunday special – more precisely three editions. This might be felt to make up for the fact that it contained very little solid news about the war, not reporting the arrival of the BEF in France. The Daily Express carried a big front-page warning, The public are warned against the slightest reliance on the many rumours that are current daily regarding alleged British victories or defeats and the arrival of wounded men or disabled ships in this country. These are, without exception, baseless. The public may be confident that any news of successes or reverses to the British Army will be communicated officially without delay. Clearly the War Office press team had dropped some hints. At this stage the War Office, drawing the wrong lessons from the Crimea and South Africa, was determined to keep all information in its own hands and release it as and when it wanted and spun as it wanted. This, of course, meant that it was distrusted and that people listened to rumour and urban myths, whether it was a graphic account of German atrocities or Russians marching through Britain with snow on their boots. But the official news gave no cause for alarm, and so no reason to stop whatever