Cricket Witness No 5 - Whites on Green

9 Early cricket in Swansea the Bristol Channel, was inundated by a spring tide and for several years the whole area was a muddy morass. By the early 19 th century, the Burrows had drained sufficiently for a racecourse to be laid out to the east of the river mouth, whilst cricket and other ball games were played on the sands and the meadowland on the western bank. Other folk games such as bando and cock-fighting were held in this area and were so successful that local beer-sellers set up tents on the foreshore from which the thirst of the spectators and participants could be amply quenched. The Swansea Cricket Club used the wicket on Crumlin Burrows for their practices with the early activities of the Club being akin to a modern-day golf club, with members challenging each other in single- or double-wicket challenges. By 1831 the club had 70 members according to a newspaper article advertising a match between married and single members. The article went on to claim how cricket: “…. is likely to become the national game with the Welsh as well as the English and the Swansea Club will yield to few in the number and respectability of its members… Many of the fair sex, attracted by curiosity, or other benevolent motives, were interested spectators of “The Bathing House, Swansea”, an engraving by Thomas Rothwell dated 1791 showing the building specially erected for fashionable visitors, as well as the mobile huts which enabled bathing to take place discreetly shielded from public view. West Glamorgan County Hall now stands on the site of the Bathing House.