Last Match of the Season

Saturday, 27th June, 1914, a cricket match is followed that night by the bizarre murder of a loveable barmaid. At Sarajevo, a hated Archduke is assassinated. One murder ruffles the tranquillity of a Suffolk village, the other destroys world peace. Through July, as diplomats blunder into monstrous carnage, a detective is baffled by the mystery of a motiveless crime. Ignoring the coming horror, Ullford’s men and women play cricket, dine, make adulterous love, scheme and deceive. On Saturday 1st August, they play a tragic last match. Three days later, they clamour to enlist. Last Match of the Season links two pointless murders with war and the folly at the heart of 1914’s class-ridden society.