Cricket at the start of World War One

One can only imagine the atmosphere as the 1914 Canterbury Week approached. The threat of all-out war was getting closer and although the Canterbury Week Committee decided just days beforehand that the traditional social events of the Week would go on, there must have been many who doubted that any of the much looked-forward to events would take place.

In the event, despite a communication from the Canterbury Week Committee and Stewards of the Balls going out on 25^th July, announcing arrangements for the Balls on the Wednesday and Friday of the Week, an emergency meeting of the Committee held on 3^rd August received a report from Lord Guildford that only 40 tickets had been sold, that no officers would be able to attend, that the Government had taken over the railway and that the Austrian Ambassador’s Band, which had been engaged, would probably not be available. The decision was taken to cancel the Balls.

Nevertheless, the cricket went ahead in what must have been an air of foreboding, the visitors being Sussex and Northamptonshire. On the second day of the opening match against Sussex, the announcement of war came. But the cricket went ahead and in that first match Kent, being set 172 in just two hours and ten minutes, failed to hang on for the final twelve minutes and were beaten by 34 runs.

By contrast, before 4.30 on the second day of the Northamptonshire match it was all over. A decisive win for the home side by an innings and 52 runs. In Colin Blythe’s final Canterbury Week appearance (but not his last game at the ground) he took eight wickets and, with Frank Woolley, demolished the Northants. batting in the two innings, taking eighteen wickets between them.

It was during the Sussex game that Lord Harris received a telegram from Pelham Warner, down in Southampton captaining Middlesex, suggesting that all games be cancelled. The firm response from the Committee was that they “…….will not at present cancel fixtures, they dislike the idea of their employees having to suffer”. This, and the subsequent determination to carry on to the season’s end, caused much comment and criticism. Kent completed their final eight matches after the Declaration of War.

Within the Kent Committee there was controversy. Several letters criticising the decision of the Committee to complete the programme had been received. At the suggestion of Lord Harris a common form letter was agreed as a response to the critics. This emphasised that the Committee was responding to Government appeals that people “……should endeavour as far as possible to live our normal lives…..” and to prevent any interference with the employment of labour. The Committee further observed that “……..His Majesty has approved of racing being continued and the War Office of football being played….” The decision resulted in heightened controversy within the Committee and an exchange of correspondence between Lord Harris and Committee member the Hon. Major J.S.R. Tufton, the latter tendering his resignation from the Committee.

So cricket continued to the season’s end, although the Surrey Committee decided on 31^st August to cancel its two final games against Sussex and Leicestershire.

Dover Week was cancelled at the request of the town’s Mayor and the Commandant as the town was under Fortress Regulations. The matches were transferred to Canterbury where Kent entertained Lancashire and Worcestershire. The Lancashire match was dominated by the batsmen with Jack Tyldesley scoring 253 in Lancashire’s only innings and centuries by Harry Makepeace, and Kent’s Wally Hardinge, Ted Humphreys and Frank Woolley. It also saw the home debut of “Tich” Freeman. Colin Blythe’s farewell to Canterbury was yet another virtuoso performance. For the sixty-fourth and final time for Kent he took ten or more wickets in a match. Blythe’s final appearance in the Championship came just two days later, against Warwickshire at Gravesend. Not for the first time, he headed the County’s bowling averages in his final season with 159 wickets at an average of 15.03.

By the end of 1914 there were 43 past and current players “under arms”, 17 in local (Kent) regiments. Of the 43, 40 had appeared in the 1^st XI.

Just ten weeks after the start of the Conflict came news of the first Kent cricketer to die. Lance Sergeant Frederick Stanley Lowe, serving with The Buffs, was killed on 18^th October near Radinghem, to the south of Armentieres.

David Robertson– Honorary Curator