"It matters a great deal who is going to win, but not at all who won"
Recollections and reminiscences
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Lord Hawke, London, Williams and Norgate 1924
Martin Hawke played cricket for Yorkshire 1881–1911 and in five tests for England including a tour of Australia 1887-8.
He was at Eton and Cambridge with CT Studd, who is mentioned frequently in the book. Most of the references are to Studd the cricketer but he also refers to Studd’s father being converted by Moody and Sankey and selling all his race horses.
Hawke lived, of course, in a different era as comments like the following make clear: “I am convinced that sport is one of the finest things in the empire and that it is the love of it that makes us different from the rest of the world”.
Hawke was the son of a clergyman and a lot of Reverends appear in his story. He lived in an era in which churchgoing and acceptance of the Christian faith was the norm. Perhaps for that reason he makes little reference to his own faith - which is nonetheless assumed throughout the book. He refers to himself as a regular church-goer. He also writes of a cricket tour to South Africa in 1913 where several games included Sunday play. Hawke described himself as a man “never one for needless amusement on the Sabbath” but accepting Sunday cricket on the principle of when in Rome… He added that some good may have come of it as he invariably got up early on Sunday morning to attend a church service prior to the cricket match and as a result of his example a good proportion of the team came to church with him.