Jack Hobbs, The Oval in 1914 after the Army took over, and the Kitchener poster urging young men to die in order to resolve conflicts of old men.
3 Aug 1914 was Bank Holiday Monday.
In the morning, Surrey member Andrew Kempton was parading with thousands of others on Whitehall, awaiting the declaration of war with Germany.
However, by midday he was at The Oval among the 14,000 gathered to be regaled by Jack Hobbs. The Surrey master hit 226 in less than four and a half hours as the hosts ended at 472 for 5 against Nottinghamshire.
Hobbs was suffering from migraine that day, but he did not have the heart to deny the huge crowd the entertainment they craved.
“What mattered if we did have a silly old war, so long as Jack Hobbs gave us something worth looking at?” wondered Kempton.
However, things were not that simple.
At Old Trafford usual rain prevented the Roses match from starting till 3.00. By then captain Albert Hornby had been called away by War Office and Reggie Spooner had to take over the reins. Hirst, Rhodes and Drakes skittled them for 162.
At Derby, John Chapman fielded against Essex for a while before he was answered a call from the War Office ‘in connection to the purchase of Army horses.’ Harold Wild, who replaced him, was also allowed to bowl. Extraordinary circumstances.
At 7.00 pm that evening Germany delivered ultimatum to Belgium offering to respect Belgian neutrality if the country allowed the passage of German troops.
“What happens now?” asked Winston Churchill to Edward Grey as they left the Commons together. “Now we shall send them a sharp note to stop the invasion of Belgium within 24 hours,” answered Grey.
Hobbs had scored the runs without a thought of war. That same evening he was among the thousands who lined the Mall as Lord Mayor’s coach rattled by, taking Asquith to Buckingham Palace for the fateful meeting sanctioning the proclamation of the War.
The following day’s papers announced movement of French troops to the frontier and skirmishes to the East.
On 5 August the news was doing rounds that war had been declared. Daily Express announced, “England expects that every man will do his duty … [in] … stopping the world’s bully.”
After the win over Lancashire, Archibald White, the Yorkshire captain, was called away to his regiment. During the Sussex-Middlesex match, Plum Warner had already joined his regiment. Sussex captain Herbert Chaplin was bowled by Nigel Haig for 18 and left for War effort. He never played first-class cricket again.
On 6 August, there was some upbeat news. It was reported that the German invasion of Belgium had been repulsed. The reports announced, “We are completely victorious.”
But, obviously there was more to it. Lord Kitchener was appointed Secretary of State for War. And as Surrey travelled to New Road to take on Worcestershire, Hobbs was mulling over the bad news. The previous day the committee had talked about his scheduled benefit game that was to be against Kent. But, the army had requisitioned The Oval, and plans needed to be changed. It could be postponed till the end of the war or shifted to Lord’s
On 7 August, Kitchener’s call for 100,00 men topped front pages. Able bodied men, thus far limited those under 30, were now stretched to include all under-35. Heavy fighting was reported from the Belgian town of Liege.
When 10 August arrived, the fighting at Liege was still going on. Phillip Larkin wrote of ‘Those long uneven lines/ Standing patiently / As if they were stretched outside / The Oval or Villa Park’, all of them grinning as if it were ‘a Bank Holiday lark’. The Surrey Committee would express regret two days later that the ‘tensions on the Continent’ had ‘quite upset’ plans at The Oval, where several hundred Territorial Army soldiers and their horses were currently billeted at the Vauxhall end.
Hence on 10 August 1914, Surrey crossed the Thames and took on Kent at Lord’s. The attendance was 7000 and the gates a disaster for Hobbs. The total receipts of £657 was below average level, let alone what one had come to expect of the great batsman. Hobbs, a professional with four young children and a widowed mother to support, needed way more.
The Surrey committee agreed that he would be granted another chance the following year, or, failing that, once the war had ended.
Hobbs was out for 16 as Surrey won within two days. He would make £1671 in 1919 and have yet another benefit season in 1926. He was given more chances.
Men like Colin Blythe, Tibby Cotter, Reggie Schwarz and others would not really be given another chance—by life.