In the photograph collection of the Australian War Memorial is a fine photo of Dr C.B. ‘Bertie’ Clarke.  The caption says he is hitting “round …

“I’ll have one more over” Arthur Carr June 1914 saw cricket celebrating its illustrious past rather than contemplating the coming months with any particular trepidation. …

Amongst the many cricketers who lost many of their prime playing years to the Second World War was Essex all-rounder Ray Smith. Aged 26 when …

‘No Hitler can kill the love of cricket which is inherent in the English people … Cricket will flourish as never before in all its …

In the years leading up to the Second World War, Worcestershire CCC had struggled to make much impact on the County Championship table, with consecutive …

In the five seasons leading up to the Second World War, Warwickshire CCC had been low-to-mid table finishers in the county championship, with one 8th …

Sussex CCC had experienced a mercurial run-up to the war, their county championship finishing positions from 1935 being 7th, 14th, 5th, 8th, and 10th. Like …

Somerset’s pre-war playing fortunes had been somewhat of a yo-yo affair, finishing consecutively 14th, 7, 13th, 7th and 14th in the county championship between 1935 …

The 1930s had been a decade of toil for Leicestershire CCC. Only once had they risen into the top 10 in the County Championship (6th …

In the years leading up the war Kent had mostly hovered around the middle of the county championship table, with consecutive finishes of 10th, 8th, …

With no particularly outstanding players in either the batting or bowling departments, Hampshire CCC had performed modestly in the years leading up to the war, …

Gloucestershire had proved to be a force in county cricket in the years leading up to the war, with two 4th placed finishes in 1936 …

1940 – Glamorgan had enjoyed the most recent elevation to first-class status of the seventeen sides which competed in the pre-war county championship. It is …

Derbyshire CCC had been one of the strongest counties in the pre-war years. Consecutive finishing positions of 2nd, 1st, 3rd, 5th and 9th attested to …

From the high point of winning the county championship in 1929, the years leading up to the war had seen Nottinghamshire struggle to compete with …

By 1939, English cricket was facing a polarisation of financial fortunes between the county and international game. Surrey, traditionally one of the strongest counties, was …

Middlesex CCC had had a successful if frustrating run up to the war. In five seasons they had finished 3rd once and 2nd on no …

Essex County Cricket Club had been making steady progress on the playing front during the 1930s. Consecutive pre-war county championship finishing positions of 9th, 9th, …

Yorkshire Country Cricket Club successfully bookended the Second World War, with championship victories in 1939 and 1946. On the surface it would seem that the …

Whilst the war denied the probable peak playing years of cricketers such as Len Hutton and Denis Compton, and took away the test twilights of …

For the ordinary soldier serving in North Africa during the war, their cricketing opportunities were usually restricted to makeshift pitches created on stony ground, with …

Despite the absence of the County Championship between 1940 and 1945, over the course of six English domestic wartime seasons cricket aficionados could still enjoy …

As the domestic game faces the very real prospect of the `season that never was’ of 2020, the previous occasion during which test and first-class …