History of Yorkshire County Cricket Club (1883–1918)

The history of Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1883 to 1918 covers the period from the beginning of Lord Hawke's captaincy until the end of the First World War. The county club had been founded in 1863 by members of the Sheffield Cricket Club whose officials still retained overall control twenty years later, despite the club's stated purpose of representing the whole county of Yorkshire. Complaints from the membership brought about a gradual reorganisation of the committee and, in 1902, the club's offices were relocated from Sheffield to Leeds. While the greatest challenge facing Hawke on his appointment was to unite the club's geographical and social factions, he also had to unite and instil discipline into a team with a reputation for inconsistency and wayward behaviour. Hawke was ultimately successful and, during this period of their history, Yorkshire won the County Championship nine times, the first eight under Hawke's captaincy. These achievements were primarily due to the production of outstanding players who were moulded by Hawke into an efficient, professional unit: they included such great individuals as George Hirst, Wilfred Rhodes and Stanley Jackson.

Hawke's challenges

In an obituary tribute, the editor of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack said that Lord Hawke's "strength of character was tested" when, as a young man on leaving Cambridge, he undertook the responsibility of captaining the Yorkshire side, composed at that time of "elements that were not entirely harmonious". Owing to Hawke's "tact, judgement and integrity", he moulded the Eleven into "the best and probably the most united county cricket team in England".

Yorkshire to 1883 was popularly viewed as a team of gifted players with a drink problem and was sometimes described as "ten drunks and a parson", the odd man out being Louis Hall, a Nonconformist lay preacher who had joined the club in 1873 as an opening batsman and was reputedly the first teetotaller ever to play for it.

Although Hawke's primary task as captain was to eradicate the perceived drink problem and lead the team to fulfilment of its potential, his biggest challenge was to unite the club's geographical and social factions.