August Bank Holiday attendances at cricket matches
None of the matches I list below would have had ‘live’ media coverage of any sort. The only way to find out what was happening as it happened was to turn up in person.
The August Bank Holiday was a traditional time for high attendances at cricket matches.
Surrey v Nottinghamshire on the August Bank Holiday 1892 at the Oval attracted 30,730 spectators. The same fixture in 1914 just before War broke out saw an unwell Jack Hobbs bat anyway stating ‘do you see those thousands to whom a fine Bank Holiday is rare’.
As recently as the August Bank Holiday in 1964 Glamorgan v Australia saw 25,782 through the gates.
Of course all these games took place when the Bank Holiday was on the first Monday in August. It was changed to the last Monday in 1965. Perhaps the beginning of the month is more ‘peak’ holiday even now than the end, but there may of course be other reasons why the apparent attraction of a tightly contested Test Match is not completely sold out on a fine Bank Holiday Monday.
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Hobbs was a nonpareil achieving the first 100 100s in spite of the interruption of the war. In the words of a newspaper who I can’t remember Bravo Hobbs