A reflective Tales from the Wood this week. There are very few records of Outwood games before 1956 as scorebooks were (we believe) lost when someone’s car was stolen around the 1960s with the books seemingly secure in the boot! However, there are a small number of records or newspaper cuttings of a few games that occurred before the 1950s, with surely the most poignant a game that occurred on 3rd August 1914.

As war clouds gathered over Europe, Outwood lined up against the Sydenham Tradesmen. Batting first Outwood scored a majestic 251 all out with El Scott (125) and AT Scott (58) sharing an impressive stand for the second wicket. The Tradesmen of Sydenham lost two early wickets, but then a partnership between A George (29) and J Dumuck (63) kept their hopes alive, before the Tradesmen collapsed to 126 all out. No bowling figures were recorded in a 125 run win and the last game to be played at The Wood for nearly five years.
The following day Great Britain declared war on Germany and a tide of enthusiasm swept the country as men enlisted to fight in a war that they expected to be “over by Christmas”. Of course, we know now that the Great War would last over four years and would see approximately 880,000 British men killed.

But what of the 22 men who played that warm and sunny Monday in August 2014?

Well firstly I should point out the limitations of the scorebook for the match which only has names and initials. It is also a typed scorecard clearly copied from somewhere else and has some inaccuracies of spelling of names. The next shortcoming is my own – I’ve spent a few hours researching on the websites that are available (many are behind paywalls), but to trace each of the 22 players meticulously and accurately would take days of research, so everything from this point forward is fairly speculative and potentially tenuous. All mistakes and errors are my own.

What we can say is that about 25% of the UK’s male population fought in the war. So, proportionately, that may mean that possibly around 5 or 6 of these 22 men fought in the war. We know that the centurion that day, E.L. Scott, survived the war as he returned as club captain for the post-war AGM held on 19th April 1919. Of the other Outwood players who played that day, none are amongst the 15 names of the fallen recorded on the memorial at St John the Baptist Church, the village church. However, there are two surnames in common. EL, AT and WH Scott played on 4th August and Percy Scott died in the war; similarly A Wright batted number 10 (and got a duck) and Evan Wright was killed. Given how small the Outwood community is, it seems unlikely that, whilst relatively common surnames, they were not related in some way.

Evan Wright was the only soldier with that name to die in World War One, so it is possible to research what happened to him. Evan was in the third battalion of the Coldstream Guards. He lost his life on 13th April 1918 almost certainly in the battles that were part of the 1918 German spring offensive. His body was not found/was not identified and his name can be found in the Ploegsteert Memorial.

Of the other names it is very difficult to trace them. (Service records are available, though access requires a subscription.) Searching on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site (which is freely available) brings home the magnitude of the numbers of soldiers killed in the war. For example, W Moss was Outwood’s number 11 that day. During the First World War 37 men with the name W Moss were killed. For more common names the numbers are even more staggering. The Sydenham Tradesmen had two “Clarks” playing for them; a search for C Clark gives 64 war dead and 125 men with the initlal A Clark were killed. The next step is to look at the regiment the soldier fought for as most joined local regiments, so, for example, if you lived in Outwood there would have been a likelihood you would have served in the East Surrey Regiment. For many of the war dead there is little further information, but for a small proportion there are details such as parents’ names, wives’ names or addresses.

It is possible that Sydenham’s number 9 batsmen (A Surmans) was killed in the war. In the CWGC site I found an A H Surman (no ‘s’) who was 23 years old when he died on 1st November 1916. He lived with his parents John and Lily Surman at 274 New Cross Road, very close to Sydenham and so may have been playing cricket at The Wood just over two years before. Whilst, from a historical point of view that is far from certain, I think reflecting on our club’s past and the human impact this time must have had on our community is worthwhile.

For Outwood Cricket Club the impact of the First World War was that instead of running two teams, as had been the case pre-1914, between the wars the club could only run one team which must have been replicated across the country. The game as a whole was impacted in many ways. The Imperial War Museum has a dedicated page to Test and First-Class Cricketers who died in Work War One which stretches to over 14 pages with many photos of young men in cricket kit, with others in their uniform. The database names 262 cricketers and included, for example, Colin Blythe who was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year and an England player who played 19 Tests with 9 ‘5fers’ and best figures of 8 for 59.

So, just the one game to report in Tales of The Wood this week. If you get a quiet moment in the field, over tea or in the bar this weekend, maybe spare a thought for the those thousands of young cricketers who played their final match at the same time 111 years ago.

Sources

Find war dead | War graves search | CWGC
1918: Year of victory | National Army Museumhttps://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/1918-victory
Colin Blythe - Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Blythe
Cricketers killed in the First World Warhttps://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/community/3195