It was Sunday, and it was ‘terrifically hot’. There had been a church parade earlier that morning, and, in the free afternoon they had enjoyed, he had played some chess, mainly against an old Major:

‘He is an old Colonial and looks something like Lord Roberts – he plays in an unerring method and tactical skill which is bound to absolutely walk over an amateur. At the end of the game he can replace the pieces and play the whole game over again by memory – showing you your errors! He is a sort of Allan Quatermain [A character who originally appeared in H Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines], who has lived months in the wilds by his rifle alone, so another of the instructors tells me.’

At 4:00 o’clock he gave up his chess and moved on to a game of cricket, in which the Sniping School was playing a neighbouring regiment. The ground where they played was very like a Village Green in England he told Pips, although with ‘a kind of sunken road running across the field into a neighbouring field’. Sherriff’s team batted first and he went in at No. 3. But he didn’t stay for long – after scoring a single he was bowled by the second ball he faced. His entire team was out for 43, most of the runs scored by the ball being hit into the sunken road, which was steep enough to make the ball difficult to chase. The highest scorer was an Australian, and the team, as a whole, ‘was an extraordinary mixture of the British Nation’.

Sherriff, seated on ground (left) in the 3rd East Surreys Cricket Team in 1918. By permission of the Surrey History Centre (Ref: ESR/4/2/3/16)

When the Sniping School took the field, their main bowler was a man who had previously played for Vancouver. He bowled at a considerable speed – so much so that Sherriff, who was wicket-keeper, ‘preferred to remain at about Long Stop’. Bowling downhill along the sunken road, he:

‘either just missed their heads or bowled them out – and after having severely hit the opposing regiment’s Sergeant-Major rather a terrific blow on the funny bone, which caused him to throw his bat up in the air and double-up, it was decided that he should bowl uphill – after which he lost his effect a good deal.’

The other regimen t struggled until a sergeant came into bat who had played for Durham before the war. He steadied their scoring, but was eventually run out when they were 20 for 5, after which the game ‘waxed most interesting’. A man who ‘looked like a coal miner’ according to Sheriff, scored a 4 by means of the sunken road, and then proceeded, with a variety of ‘snicks and lucky flukes’ to take their score up to around 40. But once he was out the Sniping School bowlers struck again, to give Sherriff’s team the victory by 1 run.

‘A most interesting game,’ concluded Sherriff.

[Next letter: 21 June]