The Summer Field

54 Who Was A Cricketer? not so a town club with one professional. For instance, Denis Hendren (elder brother of Patsy) asked Durham City for ‘fresh terms’ in April 1911, ‘in view of his having taken over the management of a public house in Sunderland’. According to club minutes, the committee first wanted Hendren to keep to his agreement; then offered him a pay cut, in return for less work off the field. The details of the negotiation are lost to us; at one meeting, the committee proposed to give Hendren one week’s notice. In the end Hendren took the terms. In 1912 the club offered a raise; Hendren wanted more; and the committee decided ‘they could not go beyond their previous offer’. By September 1912 Hendren had evidently had enough, ‘thanked the club for their kindness during his engagement’, and next season played for league rivals Burnmoor. Hardly a ‘loyal servant’. Nor was the man Durham City hired instead, Charlie Milam, who in January 1913 asked the club to find him winter work. The club fobbed him off by replying members were ‘trying their best for him’ and if anything turned up ‘he would be informed’. Cricketers, like other sportsmen, actors and musicians, were odd because they did their work in public. Thatmade it genuinely hard for thosewatching to appreciate that the players had a right to a private life like anyone else. Cricketers had lives off the field; in Daft’s case, cricketers might enjoy other sports. Despite the idea that cricket was good for building character, even those playing cricket the most made their characters off the field: through friendships, disappointments overcome and triumphs shared, and reputations used. The private hours of cricketers off the field – which even in the summer outnumbered the hours on the field – should take us to the heart of cricket. Looking east towards the castle, Hastings cricket ground about 1913; since the 1990s a shopping centre.