Strathmore Cricket Union: the first 90 years a history 1928-2018

47 CHAPTER FOUR CRICKET UNDER AUSTERITY The war in Europe did not finish until May 1945, something that clearly made a full cricket season impossible. Most players were still abroad, and, in any case, the Japanese War did not finish until August. Even by 1946, there was no guarantee that all cricketers would be home in time for the start of the season, for the process of demobilisation was, of necessity, a slow one. Things had changed. The election of a Labour Government by a landslide in July 1945 showed that the people had had enough of depression and unemployment, and were wanting a health service and a welfare state. These things would come to pass, although progress would also be slow in that respect, and in the meantime the right wing press like The Courier and The Sunday Post was giving dire warnings about what would happen to “the country” because “the people” would all emigrate. They even threatened everyone, laughably on some occasions, worryingly on others, with a renewal of hostilities, if the Soviet Union, so recently our allies, got any more uppity. The six years of war had done little to diminish the love of the game of cricket. There may not have been a great deal of organised cricket, but therewas some, and army and naval personnel fromEngland and Australia, if based in the area, were always available to play the odd game, even if it was just a knockabout game with local youngsters with a rubber ball! The 1945 Wisden has a lovely picture of play suspended at Lord’s with some men on the ground fearing a bomb attack, and the great journalist EW Swanton told how his sanity was preserved in an evil Japanese prisoner of war camp by his being allowed access to his 1939 Wisden. Cricket, of course, had by no means escaped unscathed from the conflict, even though the casualty list had been nothing like as bad as in the previous war. Two examples of early deaths of cricketers bring home the grim futility of war. One was the English bowler Captain Hedley Verity of Yorkshire who had, on one occasion, in 1932 taken all 10 wickets for only 10 runs against Essex. He had been killed in Sicily. At a local level there was Pilot Officer Norman Sievwright of Arbroath. He had been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in late 1944, then failed to return from another mission a few days later. He was, of course, the son of the great