Yorkshire were declared County Champions for 1914 with the season abandoned in late August. The title was their seventh and the last for any county before the four-year break for war. The team contained Hirst, Rhodes, Hobbs's friend Major Booth and Roy Kilner — half of whom would not play first-class cricket again.
Yorkshire had won the championship in 1900, 1901, 1902, 1905, 1908, 1912 and now 1914. The county machine of Hirst, Rhodes, Hawke (as president), and the Yorkshire bowlers' guild was the strongest in the country.
By mid-August Yorkshire were comfortably top. The decision to declare the championship complete was taken once the remaining fixtures had been cancelled.
Yorkshire's 1914 side, captained by Sir Archibald White, was the dominant county of the immediate pre-war years. The team included Wilfred Rhodes, George Hirst, David Denton, Major Booth, Roy Kilner and Schofield Haigh. When Grace's letter prompted the abandonment of the season at the end of August, Yorkshire had played 28 matches with 16 wins and only two defeats. The MCC declared them champions on average. Of the championship-winning XI, Major Booth was killed at the Somme in July 1916. Schofield Haigh, who had been ill, died in 1921. Roy Kilner's brother and several Yorkshire colts were also killed. Yorkshire would not win another championship until 1919 itself, in a season played to a hastily redrawn fixture list.
Aug 1914: Yorkshire on top of the County Championship
27 Aug 1914: Grace's letter prompts abandonment
Sep 1914: MCC declares Yorkshire champions
1916: Major Booth, member of the title-winning XI, killed at the Somme
May 1914
Yorkshire begin championship season
Aug 1914
Yorkshire top of the table
Sep 1914
Declared champions on the truncated season
1916
Major Booth killed on the Somme
“A title won and never enjoyed.”
Yorkshire's title-winning side was broken up by the war. Booth was killed; Hirst was nearly 43 by the time first-class cricket resumed. The 1919 Yorkshire side was a partial reconstruction.
Yorkshire's seventh title — and the last County Championship before four years of silence.
The 1914 title is sometimes called Yorkshire's 'lost championship' — earned but never properly celebrated, with the squad scattered to the war within weeks.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.