THE CONTRIBUTION OF GAMES.
OF most out-of-door games played by Englishmen it would probably be true to say that they fit the player for the activities which may be required of him in war. They train the eye and the head to act together, and they exercise the muscles of the body. They encourage initiative and decision ; they develop self-reliance; and they teach the value of com- bination and concentration on the objects of a side. One game, polo, has been specifically commended by Army authorities as a valuable form of training for cavalry officers. But there are two other games, of which the rules are known to all Englishmen, which are played wherever Britons congregate the whole world over, and which may be taken as representing the idea of games in its fullest sense to men of British blood. They are, of course, cricket and football, of which one, at least, has probably been played by every member of his Majesty's Forces, and which to that extent may be said to have made already, and to be still making, a contribution to the strength of our Army in the field. But what is the full extent of the contribution? Is it proportionate to the place of these games in our national life ? We must hope that it will be ; but it is not easy to be assured at once that the debt
has as yet been paid.
Games of cricket and football, besides giving obvious opportunities for bodily exercise, have something in common with engagements on the field of battle. Mr. Henry Newbolt's poem has often been quoted, but Mr. Newbolt is one of those writers who should be read high and clear in such days as these :— "The sand of the desert is sodden rod, Red with the wreck of a square that broke The Gatling's jammed and the Colonel dead, And the regiment blind with dust and smoke,
The river of death has brimmed his banks, And England's far, and Honour a name, But the voice of a schoolboy rallies the ranks : 'Play up ! play up ! and play the game!'" We turn from Mr. Newbolt to the fields on which games are actually being played. County cricket—does that stand where it did ? The football season opens on September the first: will the matches be played as usual ? County cricket, of course, stands in some respects on a plane of its own. It employs a number of professional players, and also provides wages for various dependants, groundsmen, caretakers, and so forth. The professional cricketers get their livelihood from playing matches, many of them are married men with families, and, as the Secretary to the M.C.C. and other cricketers representing county clubs have pointed out, to
cancel the engagements of the season would be to throw many men out of employment. County cricket, then, may be expected to be carried on as usual, up to a certain point; and up to a certain point, too, it would naturally be expected that football would be still played as a game, since it is a fine form of exercise which has often been useful even to troops on active service. But in regard to both games you would expect one permanent condition in their existence during a time of war ; you would suppose that a very large percentage of the younger players would have left the game for the front. Have they done so? Have a very large number of young cricketers and footballers volunteered? If we take up the sporting newspapers, do we find overwhelming evidence that the elevens have been broken into, or that the match cards have been disarranged, owing to the war ? Here and there the items of news are satisfactory enough (they are taken from a paper of August 25th, three weeks after the declaration of war). Of the prospects of the Southern League (Association football), we read that "some of the clubs have been severely hit through players having been called upon to join the colours." As to the Rugby game, we learn that "the majority of Rugby clubs have contributed pretty liberally to the forces of the war, but Birkenhead Park probably claim a record in this respect. At all events, the whole of the premier fifteen are serving in some capacity, as are practically the whole of the reserves, while in addition the ground is being utilized for military purposes." On another page there is a note to the effect that, "owing to so many of their players having joined the forces, Cambridgeshire are unable to get together a team to oppose Lincolnshire, and the fixture arranged has therefore been cancelled." Nothing could read better than these last two paragraphs ; but are they the rule or the exception ? There is only one answer. We have no full statistics, and can refer to no exact figures, but it cannot, we fear, be said to be true that the great games are sending to the front the numbers of men whom they ought to send. How many of the county professional cricketers are under thirty-five and unmarried ? How many young men are there still in the county cricket " nurseries" P How many men between nineteen and thirty-five, with no strong ties at home, will be playing next month in Association League matches ? How many more will pay at the gate for the amusement of looking on ? Do those who will be playing think it sufficient to give exhibition matches in aid of the National Relief Fund ? Can they read of what our British Army has done at Mons, receiving the full brunt of the weapons of modern war, and still be content to be applauded for passing a ball about a field?
Is it possible that they understand ? The newspapers tell a plain story. The list of names from Mons will not be the last. The front of the fight is from the sea to Switzerland. There is not much time left. But there is still time ; there is time to put down the fixture-card and to read instead words which were read, too, before Waterloo, which sound still the immortal clarion for Englishmen at arms :—
"This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, From this clay to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remembered ; We few, we happy few, we band of brothers ;
For he, to-day, that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother ; be he ne'er so vile This day shall gentle his condition : And gentlemen in England, now abed, Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here; And hold their rnanhoods cheap, while any speaks That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."
We cannot all march by those noble roads. Some of us have given hostages to fortune, some see and know the path of duty elsewhere ; some of us are too old, and our eons are too young; we can but wait and work at what we can find or what
may be given us to do. But there are those others, young, unmarried, playing games, cricket, football, while our English Army is wounded under the French sun. They cannot realize -what the need is, and who and how many are needed. When they do realize these things, they will surely go; they will surely play up, they will play the game. Or, if not, then the game as they played it was never worth playing. The best word on the subject has been said by the most famous of all English cricketere, Dr. W. G. Grace. Writing on "Cricketers and the War," he says :—
" I think the time has arrived when the county cricket season should be closed, for it is not fittin,, at a time like the present that able-bodied men should play Flay after day and pleasure- seekers look on. There are so many who are young and able, and yet are hanging back. I should like to see all first-class cricketers of suitable age, &c., set a good example, and come to the help of their country without delay in its hour of need."
This letter appears in small print in Friday's Daily Chronicle. We should like to see it placarded in the largest type in every cricketing pavilion throughout the country.
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