A Game Divided: Triumphs and troubles in Yorkshire cricket in the 1920s

By Jeremy Lonsdale

Between 1922 and 1925, Yorkshire won the County Championship four years in a row, making it one of the most successful sides in the history of the English county game. A line-up which included Wilfred Rhodes, Percy Holmes, Herbert Sutcliffe, Roy Kilner, George Macaulay and Maurice Leyland dominated English cricket for much of the decade, taking a highly professional approach to the game. Unsurprisingly, they were heroes to many, but despite this success, the side was at times unpopular and the subject of trenchant criticism.

A Game Divided takes as its starting point the events during the match between Yorkshire and Middlesex at Sheffield in July 1924, which provoked a falling-out between the counties. These events and how they were portrayed shine a light on many of the divisions in English cricket of the time – between north and south, amateur and professional, employer and employee, and between different perspectives on sportsmanship and the style in which the game should be played. The book looks at the triumphs and troubles that shaped Yorkshire cricket in the 1920s and asks just how great was this side of match-winners.

Two further volumes in Jeremy Lonsdale’s Yorkshire series, A Game Emerging, covering the 1750s to the 1840s, and A Game Taken Seriously, are still available in this shop, either separately or in a discounted package; A Game Sustained has now sold out but is one of the ACS titles available as an ebook on Google Play.