Book Review: Charles Randall
Imagine a schoolboy representative two-day match at Lord's involving the best players in the country at the age of 16, 17 and 18. Within four years five boys are dead.
That is just a snapshot example from those ravaged years from 1914. On 4 August, the evening of the final day of Lord's Schools versus The Rest, war was declared on Germany. Four years later cricket clubs would be mourning scores of members; schools would lose hundreds of former pupils. Clifton College fatalities, for example, numbered 578 boys.
An intriguing idea for a book, the summer of cricket before the shadow of war, has been expertly developed by Christopher Sandford in The Final Over: The Cricketers of Summer 1914. His work has now been reprinted in paperback. There are thumbnail biographies seemingly on every page. A strength and weakness is that the author unashamedly changes course at a tangent if the story is unusual enough. People's lives are indeed interesting, though everyone has to die at some stage.
The Rest, winners by two wickets at Lord's watched by a crowd of 8,650, had several outstanding schoolboy players, including Arthur Gilligan, a future Test player. A check in www.cricketarchive.com shows that The Rest opener John Howell scored 82 and 78 not out as the game's outstanding batsman, and Sandford's research tells us that, as a youthful soldier, Howell was killed on night patrol at Hooge only a year later. Angus Pearson, 16, took 5-32 as the Lord's XI were skittled for 91, and he fell on the first day of the Somme offensive. Rex Sherwell scored 69 at No 9 as Lord's tried in vain to save the game after following on – he died in 1918 with the Royal Flying Corps over Menin. And so on, the sombre tale continues. Don Denton was luckier in that he was severely wounded and lost a leg, later batting for Northamptonshire with a runner. This is certainly a different world to what most of us could imagine.
All the participants at Lord's would have played club cricket and only very few rose to a higher level. The war ensured many aspiring young players everywhere never had the chance to test themselves. Many more opted not to join a county. Take Arthur Collins, the orphan who scored 628 in a house match at Clifton (and took 11 wickets). He joined the Army from school and, when newly married, he was killed at Ypres at the age of 29 in the early months of the war. Even worse for the family, two of his brothers were also killed.
The book naturally concentrates on county cricketers with anecdotes pouring out in rapid fire. The story of the whole 1914 summer unfolds as a normal season until the awful probability of war emerges in July. A good insight is provided by the memoirs of Lionel Tennyson, the Hampshire captain, who survived the war emotionally scarred. Colin Blythe, the Kent left-arm stalwart, was killed at the relatively advanced age of 38.
Sandford's admirable work is so rich in anecdotes. Take this one about Alan Luther, the Sussex player serving as a major with the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. Retreating from Le Cateau, he was blown off his feet by a shell but was only dazed and bruised as the position was over-run by the Germans. “He played dead,” writes Sandford. “A hand reached in to remove identity papers and then a voice said to him in immaculate English: 'You are a fortunate man. I see you are a member of the MCC. You can go back to your lines.' The German soldier had lived in England and fallen in love with cricket before the war.” Luther, later secretary of Berkshire and ground superintendent at the Oval, lived to the age of 80.
The Final Over: the Cricketers of Summer 1914 by Christopher Sandford
(Paperback £12.99; The History Press)
www.thehistorypress.co.uk
Imagine a schoolboy representative two-day match at Lord's involving the best players in the country at the age of 16, 17 and 18. Within four years five boys are dead.
That is just a snapshot example from those ravaged years from 1914. On 4 August, the evening of the final day of Lord's Schools versus The Rest, war was declared on Germany. Four years later cricket clubs would be mourning scores of members; schools would lose hundreds of former pupils. Clifton College fatalities, for example, numbered 578 boys.
An intriguing idea for a book, the summer of cricket before the shadow of war, has been expertly developed by Christopher Sandford in The Final Over: The Cricketers of Summer 1914. His work has now been reprinted in paperback. There are thumbnail biographies seemingly on every page. A strength and weakness is that the author unashamedly changes course at a tangent if the story is unusual enough. People's lives are indeed interesting, though everyone has to die at some stage.
The Rest, winners by two wickets at Lord's watched by a crowd of 8,650, had several outstanding schoolboy players, including Arthur Gilligan, a future Test player. A check in www.cricketarchive.com shows that The Rest opener John Howell scored 82 and 78 not out as the game's outstanding batsman, and Sandford's research tells us that, as a youthful soldier, Howell was killed on night patrol at Hooge only a year later. Angus Pearson, 16, took 5-32 as the Lord's XI were skittled for 91, and he fell on the first day of the Somme offensive. Rex Sherwell scored 69 at No 9 as Lord's tried in vain to save the game after following on – he died in 1918 with the Royal Flying Corps over Menin. And so on, the sombre tale continues. Don Denton was luckier in that he was severely wounded and lost a leg, later batting for Northamptonshire with a runner. This is certainly a different world to what most of us could imagine.
All the participants at Lord's would have played club cricket and only very few rose to a higher level. The war ensured many aspiring young players everywhere never had the chance to test themselves. Many more opted not to join a county. Take Arthur Collins, the orphan who scored 628 in a house match at Clifton (and took 11 wickets). He joined the Army from school and, when newly married, he was killed at Ypres at the age of 29 in the early months of the war. Even worse for the family, two of his brothers were also killed.
The book naturally concentrates on county cricketers with anecdotes pouring out in rapid fire. The story of the whole 1914 summer unfolds as a normal season until the awful probability of war emerges in July. A good insight is provided by the memoirs of Lionel Tennyson, the Hampshire captain, who survived the war emotionally scarred. Colin Blythe, the Kent left-arm stalwart, was killed at the relatively advanced age of 38.
Sandford's admirable work is so rich in anecdotes. Take this one about Alan Luther, the Sussex player serving as a major with the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. Retreating from Le Cateau, he was blown off his feet by a shell but was only dazed and bruised as the position was over-run by the Germans. “He played dead,” writes Sandford. “A hand reached in to remove identity papers and then a voice said to him in immaculate English: 'You are a fortunate man. I see you are a member of the MCC. You can go back to your lines.' The German soldier had lived in England and fallen in love with cricket before the war.” Luther, later secretary of Berkshire and ground superintendent at the Oval, lived to the age of 80.
The Final Over: the Cricketers of Summer 1914 by Christopher Sandford
(Paperback £12.99; The History Press)
www.thehistorypress.co.uk